Both the Otago men's and women's sides made it through pool play on Saturday to qualify for the quarterfinals yesterday but, at that stage, both teams lost to the eventual winners. The men were defeated 24-19 by Wellington and the women went down 10-7 to Manawatu.
With a touch of luck, both teams could have at least made it through the semifinals for they gave as good as they got in the quarterfinals.
The women made it through to the plate final but went down 21-12 to Taranaki.
Otago men's coach Roy Hawker said collectively the side was disappointed to not make it to at least the top four, but individually players had performed well.
''We probably missed a couple of kick-offs and missed some one-on-one tackles and that was the difference in the end,'' Hawker said of the side's loss to Wellington.
''We knew they would try to bully us so we tried to run them round and get them tired out. But we needed possession to do that and probably did not get enough of it.''
Otago was always up against it in terms of size but punched above its weight.
''We had said our point of difference was that we went forward together as seven and then back together as seven. The guys stuck together and hung tough at times.''
In the quarterfinal, as he had all tournament, young winger Gavin Stark was a constant threat and showed his blinding pace.
Stark and Matt Faddes finished with five tries for the tournament, a fine effort from Faddes who had limited training for the tournament as he has been hampered by an ankle injury.
The men lost the plate semifinal 21-19 to Bay of Plenty in the last movement of the game.
Stark, who has only just left school, scored a great 50m try in that match, weaving past and around players to get over the tryline.
Faddes is continuing to grow in the game and made a good fist of his playmaking duties while Tei Walden displayed some nice touches.
The Otago side won its opening game in pool play 20-17 over Waikato on Saturday, overcoming Faddes being sent to the bin. It then lost 19-10 to Manawatu but, in its final game of the day, in perhaps its best performance of the weekend, it smashed a star-studded Hawkes Bay team 29-12.
The women started slowly on Saturday, going down 28-7 to Waikato, but bounced back to beat Southland 24-7. They were then soundly beaten 43-5 by Auckland but came back to win their final game on Saturday, 39-0 over Wellington.
In the quarterfinal against Manawatu, Otago scored the first try after some fine movement down the field resulted in Anika Tiplady eventually crossing.
However, Manawatu speedster Selica Winiata could not be contained and she helped herself to a couple of tries through her pace. Tiplady almost scored near the end but was pushed into touch.
In the men's final, Wellington outmuscled Auckland 26-17 while Manawatu won its second successive women's title, beating Auckland 19-12 in the final.
