In a year with so many cancellations, rescheduling issues and frustrations, the Senior Sevens team were fortunate to have the opportunity to not only play, but defend their National title at last year's Condor Sevens Tournament held in December.

Pool play saw convincing victories against Whangamata Area School, Scots College, Palmerston North Boys' High School and Kerikeri High School.  This led the team into day two and finals day qualifying alongside six Auckland 1A schools and St Bede's from the South Island. A quarter-final clash against Sacred Heart College ensued and following a rusty start and tight first half, the team pulled away in the second half to win 31 - 7.

Our semi-final saw us play a big and impressive De La Salle College side, who tipped up the tournament hosts King's College in their quarter-final. We started positively and defended stoutly until the end of the game, to win 35 - 0 earning ourselves a spot in the grand final, where Auckland champions and tournament standouts Kelston Boys' High School lay in wait. With the upmost respect for Kelston, a school who put a lot of time and energy into their sevens campaign, and a team who have produced many fantastic athletes and have won six NZSS titles, we knew this would be not only a tough final, but a battle of who had the legs and energy left for one last clash.

The final started with a key defensive steal at the breakdown by Taha Kemara, followed by a heads up attack by Oliver Foote who broke the line to score within the first minute of the game. Kelston then peppered our line, eventually scoring wide to close the half, the score 7 - 5 to us at the break. A serious injury to a Kelston player early in the second half halted their momentum, and after some patient build up, an inside pass from Kemara to Tyron Hilton saw him run 70 metres untouched to score. Kelston bounced back scoring a try to move the score to 14 - 10. With time up on the clock, and the pressure on we took a short kick off, winning a penalty with captain Foote booting the ball into touch to begin the celebrations and secure the National title.

The weekend was topped off by Noah Hotham, Taha Kemara and Cody Nordstrom making the Condors Tournament team, with Cody deservedly being named the Tournament's Most Valuable Player.

Noah Hotham and Cody Nordstrom then went on to represent New Zealand in the World School Boys Sevens competition who were victorious, beating Aki Tuivailala’s Tongan side in a close final. Tyron Hilton, Westyn Cobb and Heath MacEwan were members of the New Zealand Māori side, Luke Ale played in the Samoan Under 18 side for the second year and lastly Trent Campbell completed his second campaign with the Cook Islands side. An amazing representation for our school and due reward for the passion and engagement in the sport of sevens at our school.

Further acknowledgement must go to Tyron Hilton for winning his third consecutive National title in Years 11, 12 and 13, to the school for picking up their sixth consecutive title and eighth overall - both records at the NZSS level. The squad should be commended for their outstanding dedication once the school year was finished, going undefeated through all mens tournaments and developing a great player base, also taking out the Under 21 competition at the club champs with our Development side.

I must thank fellow coaches Mr Hotham and Mr Kirkham for their dedication, experience and expertise, Manager Mrs Barbara Clark for her organisation and dedication, Henry Sun for his physio work and guidance and the Senior Management and other staff for the support at the tournament.

The team:  Luke Ale, Austin Anderson, Trent Campbell, Dean Christensen, Westyn Cobb, Amos Faaola, Oliver Foote (Captain), Tyron Hilton, Noah Hotham, Taha Kemara, Heath MacEwan, Cody Nordstrom, Zack Paterson, and Aki Tuivailala.