Support builds for sevens in capital
BY FRED WOODCOCK AND STACEY WOOD
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Sevens ends in victory
Support is already building for Wellington to remain the venue for the NZI Sevens.
New Zealand coach Gordon Tietjens has joined the chorus of people calling for the capital to stay as the tournament's host city, saying he would be "staggered" if it was to lose the tournament.
Tietjens was one of several leading figures to show his support after the capital missed out on a bid to secure permanent hosting rights for the two-day world series tournament beyond next year.
Instead, the tournament will be put out to tender. There has already been interest from Auckland, though NZRU chief executive Steve Tew said it would be "an incredibly long shot for anyone to outbid Wellington".
Tietjens, speaking after his team lost the semifinal against Samoa, said he would be disappointed if the event went elsewhere.
"They do such a good job, and look at the crowd [35,000] we've got out there, it's magnificent," he said.
"I'd be very, very disappointed if Wellington was to lose it."
IRB tournament operations manager Beth Coalter said the decision on which city would host the sevens was the NZRU's to make, but she made it clear the IRB had long viewed Wellington as one of its flagship tournaments.
"Well, there is a saying that if it ain't broke, why fix it?," Ms Coalter said. "Again, you have to be fair and see if there are other ideas unions can come up with, but you have the perfect setting here, people can walk into town, it's a beautiful harbour, you've got a great stadium and staff who know how everything works.
"That takes a few years to establish. Each tournament is unique but for [Wellington] to sell out within three minutes, you can't say that isn't up there with the best there is."
Fiji coach Iliesa Tanivula, who led his team to a 19-14 win against Samoa in Saturday's final, said his players always looked forward to the Wellington tournament.
"In the last 10 years Wellington has been great to all the overseas teams. We go back home with fond memories, of the rugby and all the costumes."
Wellington's biggest dress-up party was a roaring success for everyone – except the 100 or so who ended up in the cells.
Sevens general manager Steve Walters said he was impressed by the number of people who stayed even after New Zealand got knocked out in the semis.
"Looking around the stadium and at the turnstiles, it wasn't a big exodus, and there was some great chanting for both Fiji and Samoa."
Police said there were no major incidents over the weekend, with the majority of those arrested facing charges for disorderly behaviour, fighting or liquor ban breaches.
Forty-two people were arrested at the event itself over the two days of rugby, from a total pool of 73,000 fans.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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The best thing about having the 7s in Wgtn is that the Cake Tin is so easily accessible by public transport and also it's not in the middle of a residential area like Eden Park!!
Andy you obviously havn't taken any notice of whats been said. Steve Tew had already made his veiw public about a year ago and has also posted a blog on this site. My veiw was based solely on what has been made public already. Also the Irb stated there preference is wgtn. It was the nzru that put this possibility out there. Like I have already stated the irb said that although they prefer the statis quo the nzru can decide which stadium they prefer.
Why not move it around the 4-5 big cities, so every 4 years or so, the local fanboys (a clearly are lot of those who have commented here) can brag about hosting the sevens. And that's fair on every city.
Make it the "NZ" sevens and move it to the south island!
Why not just call it the NZ national costume party and wellington can just keep the boring rugby part of it lol
Yeah keep it in Wellington. But there's no need to denigrate Auckland and Dunedin, just Christchurch. It's a pretty place with the worst one-eyed feral fans.
And those criticising Wellington's weather obviously don't know Wellington's weather patterns. At this time of year, it is ALMOST GUARANTEED great weather. Summer only really hits Wellington after anniversary weekend and lasts til mid March. Rest of the year is not much though.
I wish the stadium was bigger. But this is the only time in the whole year theat the stadium is full, unless the AB's are in town. I havent been to the 7's for the last few years. The cost of tickets, beer and food is ridiculous. But, the 7's wouldnt work anywhere but here in Welly.
If you are in support of keeping the 7's in Wellington, join up to this group "Keep The 7's in Wellington", lets see how much support we can get for the cause and show the NZRFU (currently 3653 people have joined) http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=app_2373072738&gid=289018691902#!/group.php?gid=289018691902
Sam #27 - Well said. clearly some have not yet come off the speights...
Those who think the 7's should be somewhere other than Wellington, are just strange.
The weather was outstanding, the atmosphere was unreal, the costumes were amazing, even the "Skanky ones".
All this negativity towards 7's in wellington is outrageous, these ones clearly missed out on tickets, bugger.
To another epic 7's in Wellington!
It would not be "THE" sevens. There is only one that gets the flavour right and thats welly.
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it should stay in welllington - the stadium is so easy to get to and near everything, everything is in a 10min walking distance at the most from the stadium. Auckland would not pull such a big crowd and they would lose money due to people not drinking as much as people would have to drive out there. KEEP IT IN WELLINGTON!!