Sevens qualify for Hong Kong

Sunday afternoon at the North Sydney Oval in Australia saw a lot of tears from a gallant Cook Islands Seven’s team who went so close to achieving something incredible.

The squad lost 19-17 to Tonga to finish fourth in the Oceania qualifying tournament which had a lot riding on it.

After finishing pool play on the Saturday the Cooks knew their first hurdle was to beat American Samoa in the morning quarter final.

American Samoa had beaten Tonga the day before so they were never going to be easy beats.

The Cooks beat them 19-0 and qualified for the Hong Kong leg of the HSBC sevens circuit next year which was an amazing feat.

Next up was Samoa in the semis, knowing a win against Samoa or Tonga would get the Cooks to Wellington and the Gold Coast sevens tournament and also the World Cup next year in Russia.

After getting down early the Cooks looked to save themselves for the third and fourth playoff. Unfortunately gun and veteran sevens player Koiatu Koiatu was concussed in this game which meant he wasn’t available for the Tongan game.

Going into the biggest game in Cook Islands Rugby in recent years, the team included three locally based players in the crucial match including Kairan Mahia of the Panthers and Sailosi Nagi and Thomas Toa of the Dragons.

Up 10-0 at halftime Nagi was carted off the field with a popped shoulder after scoring a try but the Cooks couldn’t hold on and lost 19-17 to Tonga.

So where to from here for the Cook Islands – they have qualified for Hong Kong next year.

This will be our biggest tournament in recent history for Cook Islands Rugby.

A top 15 finish in a 24 team competition will put the Cook Islands on the World Sevens Circuit for the following year.

This would be a huge achievement and almost turn the players into full-time athletes.

Cook Islands Rugby Union president Chris McKinley says that the job now is to knit together the best 12 players ahead of the Hong Kong sevens next year.

”Our number one goal is Rio in four years – we know we can beat anybody on our day,“ says McKinley.

”Well done, boys, and great news for the young up and coming players of the Cook islands.“