Morrow makes Sevens cut

Bay of Plenty rugby player Morgan Morrow's summer schedule is jam-packed after she made the cut for both the Bay and New Zealand Sevens squads.

On the back of a season with the Bay Women's Volcanix in the Women's Provincial Championship, the 25-year-old has been named in both squads in the space of 24 hours.


Morgan Morrow with fellow New Zealand Sevens member Keisha Grant. Photo: Supplied.

Morrow is part of head coach Sean Horan's 16-strong New Zealand Sevens squad to attend a final selection camp ahead of the opening tournament of the IRB Women's Sevens World Series in Dubai next month.

The camp attendees were selected after the second and final weekend of the new Women's Sevens Series competition held in Taupo.

Today she was also named in the Bay of Plenty Women's Sevens squad tasked with qualifying for the national tournament in Rotorua early next year.

The Bay side progressed through to the knockout stages of this year's national event before losing 29-5 to Waikato.

The Bay fullback is one of three new names for the national camp alongside Hamilton Girls High School student Tenika Willison, 16, and Kiwi Fern Charlotte Scanlan, 26.

'Charlotte and Morgan are both experienced players in league and touch respectively,” says Horan.

'Both players were on our long list of identified talent, but they played so well during this series, they forced us to take a closer look at them, which is why we're taking them into camp next week.

'Tenika is a dynamite talent, and at 16 she's still too young to play for us, but we definitely see her as good enough to start introducing her to our high performance environment.”

Five regional sevens teams, based geographically on Super Rugby regions, competed in a two-weekend series at Owen Delany Park in Taupo.

The new competition was introduced to boost playing opportunities for players who are otherwise limited to 15-a-side at club and Women's Provincial Championship fixtures, and the Provincial Union-based National Sevens and qualifying tournaments.

Horan adds: 'This new Women's Sevens Series has been an excellent opportunity to look at a lot of players in a compacted tournament environment, and many of the girls took their opportunity to really press for a place at this camp.”

The players will assemble in Mount Maungaui this Sunday with the travelling squad to be announced on Tuesday.

0 comments

Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.