Crescent Head Rugby Sevens tournament

Hundreds of players from all over the State descended on Crescent Head for the two-day tournament which saw the men’s division with 23 teams, while there were eight sides registered in the women’s competition and five sides in the under-17s on Sunday. 

“The day was successful, in terms of the quality of rugby played and the event running smoothly, Cannonballs secretary Brad Taylor said. 

“All teams enjoyed the games with some very spirited support for our local teams.”

After a bit of a shaky start to the week which saw two teams pull out and the women’s and Under-17s competitions moved, the club was flat out ensuring the event would still go ahead as planned. 

“Two teams pulled out at the last minute but the Tuesday before the carnival, the club spread the word and managed to put together two extra sides on top of the two teams already entered into the sevens,” Mr Taylor said. 

“We did scale this back to just three teams to make the draw work for the day.”

“Due to a real lack of rain and other weather conditions, our main field was not up to the safety standard that our club was comfortable with; we decided to cancel the women’s and junior division from the Saturday and run with it on Sunday. 

Overall the local teams performed extremely well, and the Cannonballs Indigenous side nearly took out the big win against a strong Nelsons Bay team. 

“Our teams did extremely well on the day; our Cannons Orange team went down narrowly in the Bowl semi-final. Sunday saw our Women's side the Cannonbelles take on Waratah for a three-game competition along with two junior teams from Port Pirates and Kempsey,” Taylor said.

“The big success of the weekend came from the Kempsey Indigenous team who placed runners up in the Plate final. The team narrowly went down to Nelsons Bay who was competitive in the top tier competition during the early games of the day.” 

The pool structured tournament ensured each team played at least three matches, with the top team from each pool advancing to contest for the top prize.

“We'd like to thank all those who helped put the day together, our teams, supporters and referees, that came out from the surrounding areas as well as Sydney and Newcastle to make the day enjoyable,” Taylor said. 

“We are always on the lookout for people to help when we are planning these events and should anyone be interested in joining our club in a volunteer capacity please get in contact.”  

To check out the gallery's from the day, click on the links below: 

Saturday

Sunday

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