Seven-a-side rugby venues

Press, 11 May 1979, Page 23

Seven-a-side rugby venues

The Town elimination rounds in the Canterbury Rugby Union’s centennial seven-a-side tournament will be played at Rugby and Malvern Parks on Sunday afternoon.

The sixteen senior clubs, plus Lyttelton and Otautahi, are expected to field teams, making six pools of three teams. A round-robin series will be played in each section with the six section winners qualifying for the knock-out tournament at Lancaster Park on June 10, which is the final day of the centennial celebrations.

The three Country subunions are also holding eliminations, and collectively they will provide nine teams.

Mr W* A. Russell, the chairman Of the union’s competitions committee, said yesterday that although it might seem unfair that there should be nine country .teams and only six from the town, the tournament was designed to cater for all Canterbury clubs and there were more in the country.

The tournament proper is for 16 teams and the last place will hopefully be filled by a combination from the Queensland side that will be in Christchurch at the time. Queensland will send a large squad of 28 for its game against Canterbury on June 9, and Mr Russell expects no difficulty in securing a club seven-a-side entry.