The Tupapa Panthers may have won the week four sevens grand finals 12-7 against the Eels – but it was the Eels that were crowned the CITC Rarotonga Club Sevens competition on Saturday.

The club sevens format was always about consistency after taking out week one and two of the competition and snapping up second place in week three behind the Panthers.

And the final match between the Eels and Panthers had all the ingredients of a great grand finals match with the days competition played in grey and wet conditions.

With the scores at 7-all at fulltime the game went into golden point extra time.

The Panthers hero was prop and national sevens representative Teina Savage who sprinted 40m to score the final try to give his team victory.

In the first half the Panthers struck first through Turori Matutu with the Eels replying in the second half through their speedster Duane Gukisuva.

Both teams had opportunities to score but were held out by scrambling last-ditch defence. Third place went to the Arorangi Cowboys who defeated the Bulls 14-0.

The 4th and 5th place playoff match between the Dragons and the Reds was a highly entertaining match.

The Reds started on fire and looked to have the match sewn up until a late strong Dragons second half finish which included two tries by danger man Sailosi Niagi.

The tries gave the dragons the win 17-12. The final overall placing of the circuit – 1st Eels, 2nd Panthers, 3rd Cowboys, 4th Dragons, 5th Reds and 6th Bulls.

The Cowboys Sema Robati and Panthers Conrad Piri were the circuits prolific try scorers with 11 tries each to take out the top try scorers awards.

Piri was also the highest point’s scorer with 95 points and named the player of the tournament.

Thank you to our hosts – to the hard-working Titikaveka Rugby club committee for dressing the field and all the teams and spectators who supported the event for the past 4 weeks.

This new concept of playing Saturday matches with teams expected to play minimum 3x games each weekend, is proving popular and definitely a great way to improve local 7’s quality.

Meitaki maata especially to our major sponsor CITC for your continued support which best-prepares our local athletes for our major event the Cook Islands International 7’s Tournament to be held on November 4, 5 and 6 at the BCI Stadium.

It will be our biggest field ever with a total of 25 teams made up by 16 men’s and 9 women’s squads. Gap it to the sevens next month. - MW/CIRU

Final sevens results : Panthers 31 v Bulls 0; Eels 17 v Cowboys 7 ; Panthers12 v Dragons 7 ; Eels31 v Reds 0 ; Bulls7 v Dragons 5; Cowboys19 v Reds 7;

Women’s CI Squad 29 v Raro Selection 0; 5th & 6th: Dragons 17 v Reds 12; 3rd & 4th: Cowboys 14 v Bulls 0; 1st & 2nd: Panthers 12 v Eels 7.

Final hit-out for 7s side, page 9. More photos, page 10.