Sumo Sevens – Big hits at pre-season match

By CALEB HARRIS

Front rowers are more used to hard graft than they are to glory – but today they even got to show Benji Marshall the way to the try line.

In a seven-a-side curtain-raiser to this afternoon’s Super 15 pre-season match between the Hurricanes and Blues in Masterton, which marked the return of former league star Benji Marshall to rugby, only players weighing more than 105kg were picked for two invitational “Sumo Sevens” sides.

“I thought there’d be a bit of touch footy going on but they got serious, there were some big hits going in,” said Wairarapa-Bush coach Mark Rutene, who managed the mostly locally based Bush Bulldozers side, led by legendary former Hurricanes and Fiji test star Bill Cavubati.

Cavubati, who lives in Masterton, said during a spell on the sideline he was struggling with the pace, having not pulled his boots on for about five years.

“We’re sumos, we aren’t supposed to run around.”

He said his defensive tactic were simple: “These days you just wait for them to run at you. They didn’t seem to want to though.”

On attack the big prop, famous in his playing days for combining surprising pace with terrifying bulk, showed a couple of shimmies and a nice offload.

Mostly though, play was a lot more direct.

The mainly Wellington-based KooGa Kannonballs ran out behind Wairarapa-Bush prop Finnbarr Kerr-Newell. Kannonballs player Jon Fuimaono scored a try and said he simply adapted certain key front-row skills to the abbreviated form of the game:

“It was just being a casual prop hanging out on the wing, looking for space.”

“There were some pretty graceful, skilful big boys out there, representing the game of sevens how it should be,” said Bulldozers player Tim Roberts, who usually plays No. 8 for the Turangi club.

Wairarapa-Bush assistant coach Paddy Gough was in charge of the Kannonballs and said he hoped the plus-size format had a future. “The big boys get a bit type-cast into roles in 15s, and think sevens doesn’t really fit their body type, so they got a chance today they don’t normally get.”

A sell-out crowd of more than 5,900 had filled Masterton’s Memorial Park soon after the curtain-raiser finished in anticipation for the clash of the Super 15 sides. Among them were the Scots, Spanish, Portuguese, Australian and Kenyan international sevens teams, presumably looking for some tips on how to get more physical presence into their games.

“This is the way they should be going – with the big fellas,” said Bulldozers player and Masterton policeman Nathan “Chopper” Couch.

For the record the game finished 26-21 to the Bulldozers but the appreciative crowd seemed in no doubt that the real winner was dynamic rugby played by very large men.