Dragons win cup

A last minute long distance try scored by the Ngatangiia/Matavera Dragons danger man Sailosi Nagi was enough for his team to lift up the CITC Constitution Sevens Cup.

The team beat Aitutaki in the finals 15-14 on Friday evening at the BCI Stadium.

Early in the game – Aitutaki shot out to a 14-0 point lead with the Dragons in hot pursuit.

In the early stages of this match the Aitutaki team were looking good with plenty of go-forward created by their ‘human bulldozer’ Mau George resulting in tries to their speedy backs Pi David and Messine Manapori.

However, as the match progressed a visibly tired-looking Aitutaki team appeared to make the mistake of trying to close out the match rather than play their natural brand of open rugby.

The Dragons responded with tries scored by their leading players, the Toa brothers Thomas and Daniel, and then the killer try scored right on fulltime by Nagi.

Nagi was in superb form for the Dragons throughout this tournament, scoring a total of nine tries, deservedly being named most valuable player of the tournament.

The Takuvaine Reds placed third overall followed by the Bulls, Panthers, Eels, Pirae team from Tahiti and Atiu.

This was a very tough tournament with the emergence of teams like the Dragons, Reds, Panthers and Bulls – all finishing ahead of the previous week’s CITC club champions the Avatiu Eels! This will ensure some very interesting club sevens rugby games when it resumes again in October.