The future of Bay of Plenty's Sevens looks to be in good hands with both the men's and women's teams putting in strong performances at the Bayleys National Sevens.

Despite falling short at the business end, both teams reached the cup semifinals after impressive results in pool play at the Rotorua International Stadium.

Bay of Plenty's Adam McGarvey looks to skip the tackle of Canterbury's Mark Jackman on day one of the Bayley's National Sevens. Photos: Rick Moran.

The top 16 men's provinces and top 10 women's provinces from across New Zealand compete at the annual tournament.

The men, having come through Pool B unbeaten following wins over Canterbury, Counties Mankuau and South Canterbury, made the perfect start to finals day, accounting for Northland 17-12 in their quarter-final clash.

But their tilt at a maiden national title was severely halted in the semi-finals after a 33-0 drubbing by eventual champions Waikato.

The women, equally impressive on day one, edged past Counties Manukau 14-12 in their quarter-final before falling to tournament winners Auckland 35-10.

In the playoff for third and fourth place, the women then lost 26-21 to Waikato.

Auckland went on to beat two-time defending champions Manawatu 29-14 in the final.

In the men's final Waikato defeated Wellington 38-19, with men's player of the tournament and crowd favourite Luke Masirewa grabbing a double-try along with the attention of All Blacks Sevens Coach Gordon Tietjens.

Masirewa was on fire all weekend, and proved to be the circuit-breaker his team needed as he punched through Wellington's early 12-0 lead seven minutes into the first half.

Bay of Plenty's Morgan Morrow on the charge against Canterbury.

Masirewa thrilled Waikato supporters with a 60-metre runaway try that ignited a scoreless Waikato into life, and he promptly followed that with a second five-pointer, having slipped and stepped out of Wellington's stunned defence.

That kick-started a fantastic Waikato comeback, who were up 14-12 at the break. Wellington scored another two tries in the second half, but the momentum was already lost as Waikato notched up four more tries with Dylan Collier and Declan O'Donnell both nabbing doubles.

In the ultimate grudge match, the women's Final was a repeat of last year, with Auckland facing off against Manawatu.

Auckland came out steaming, making their intentions clear when they crossed four times in the first-half having spent all but the first minute in Manawatu's half.

A shellshocked Manawatu went to the break 24-0 down but they bit back in the second half, working hard to finish for a couple of scoring opportunities that went begging.

Try scoring machine and women's player of the tournament Kayla McAlister notched up the only second-half try for Auckland and despite two late tries to Manawatu, the damage had been done, and Auckland claimed the title honours winning 29-14.

This is the second year in a row the nationals have been held in Rotorua after being handed the hosting rights from Queenstown.