November 12-14, 2009: Atlantis Men at Tahiti Nui Sevens

There were no easy or even mediocre teams here. This tournament was for real.  The comeback 3rd place team against Australia Indigenous was a great result.

Note of 2013: I have nothing written to guide me.  What follows is based on our pictures and my memory. 

The Tahiti Nui Sevens.  It was late, less than a month before the tournament as I recall, that I received an invite to bring Atlantis to Tahiti.  There were a lot of teams coming. I didn't realize at first, however, that there would be two separate tournaments - an Oceania tournament (Oceania FORU Men's Sevens - FORU is Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions), with Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Niue, Cook Islands, Vanuatu and Tahiti - not too shabby but at least a couple of not-so-strong teams; and a second tournament - Tahiti Nui Sevens Guest Tournament - with only elite sides from New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, and the US.  Brutal :(.  But also challenging :).

Note of 2013: Following the tournament I emailed Dave Callon of the Legends and Tom Evans of Australia Indigenous to ask them about their teams.  As of 2013 I've lost their responses, but both are national invitational teams with national and future national players. I remember Tom telling me that the Australia Indigenous team we played had two Australia sevens internationals and several young players projected to play for Australia.  I don't remember if the Legends had any NZ internationals but Dave did mention that among the players they selected were players that Gordon Tietjens was interested in tracking and advancing.  Suva of course is Fiji's strongest province and I'm sure there were several Fiji internationals on that team.  Also playing for Suva was former American international wing Jovesa Naivalu, at prop, now living there.  Great player.

This tournament required the best team we could muster.  Current Eagles were out of the question, as the World Series of Sevens was going on.  But I was able to track down an excellent team with five Eagles; the team was about half Belmont Shore, but with representative players from various parts of the US.

We met in Los Angeles airport Wednesday for an overnight Air Tahiti Nui flight to Papeete, and arrived in the early morning. After checking in to our hotel, we headed to the field for our only real practice, though we had to play a game that evening.  As it turned out Suva, whom we were scheduled to play, was delayed and - if I recall correctly - played our three pool matches on Friday, and our playoff match on Saturday.

Arrival in Tahiti.  We were greeted at the Fa'a'a airport with welcome indications all over the place.








We returned to the hotel, and hours later headed for the field on the same bus as Samoa, who was playing in the Oceania bracket of the tournament.


When we got to the field it was pouring and we also found out that Suva, whom we were to play, was delayed and wouldn't get in till past midnight.  Though we reckoned we'd get a day off, we were asked to play an exhibition match vs. the New Zealand Legends. We weren't crazy about that, as we didn't the wet field conditions, but it turned out to give us good experience playing a team of the level we would see all weekend. (And besides, the rain stopped.)


I've included a few stills from our games in this tournament, although, being from non-HD video, the quality isn't great. I didn't keep score of the exhibition game, though.


Marché Municipal.  Besides rugby-related events on the weekend, we also got to visit the Pape'ete market and spend some really pretty Tahitian (or more properly French Polynesian) money.

As we were in a bracket of only four teams in an 11-team tourney, and the games of our division only occupied a short part of each day, we had lots of time free.  On one of the tournament days, we headed to Marché Municipal, or the Pape'ete Market.  We got to spend some French Polynesian francs. The exchange rate was about 80 francs to the dollar, so the 1000 franc notes weren't worth all that much, but they were pretty!
    


Our second match was against the Australia Indigenous team. This team comprises the results of a national search for the top aboriginal rugby players in the country.  As noted earlier, this team included two Australian 7s internationals as well as several young players designated as potential national team players.  Both teams played excellent defense, but the Aussies did it better.


Visitors.  It's always great when kids come to visit rugby teams as fans, and, though the tournament itself was sparsely attended, there were lots of kids, and they came to visit us for autographs, to get autographed, and just to chat.  It was nice.





As are so many rugby tournaments, this was a great place to renew old acquaintances.  These are just a couple of many.



Banquet.  Following the tournament there was a tournament banquet, with performances by local Tahitian dancers as well as some teams.  Brief videos of some of the dances can be seen by clicking here (thanks to Clint Whittler for these):
    Women dancing (drums)
    Men dancing (drums)
    Women dancing (I would describe as a hula with ukulele background, Tahitian style)
    Men and women dancing (drums)




Beach Party.  Those teams still around on Sunday the 15th joined in a tourney beach party.  As a fan of renowned French rugby coach Pierre Villepreux, who famously wrote of teaching rugby to boys in Tahiti, I particularly enjoyed the tackle game between local boys.



     
Note of 2013: I really have no recollection of whether we stayed around another day or took a red-eye back, whatever.  But my guess is that the rest of the trip and the return was unremarkable.