Condor Sevens 2026: the road to Blake Park, and who has qualified so far

The Condor Sevens is the national schools' sevens championship, and in December it goes to Blake Park in Mount Maunganui for four days of rugby. The Year 9 and 10 Carnival for girls and boys runs on Thursday 3 and Friday 4 December, and the Open championship for girls and boys follows on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 December. The regional qualifiers that decide who gets there have already started.

How it works

The tournament is run by Condor 7s, which began life as the Condor Rugby Football Club in 1983 and now describes its event as the largest secondary schools' sevens tournament in the country. It is sanctioned by School Sport NZ and backed by NZ Rugby, which this year has taken a bigger role as part of its national pathway programme. The Open championship is entered by qualification: day one is a round robin, and day two is the Cup, Plate and Bowl knockouts. The Year 9 and 10 event is a Carnival, which the organisers describe as non-competitive, so there is no official national Under-15 champion, however hard the schools play.

Regions qualify their teams through their own tournaments. The 2026 regulations say the process is set by the Condors, and that if a provincial union sends too few entries, other unions may be invited to fill the places.

Who has qualified so far

• Wellington: St Patrick's College Silverstream and Wellington College (Open Boys) after their 22-21 final at Naenae College on Labour Day, and St Mary's College (Open Girls) after beating the NZ Performance Academy 31-19. Wellington's girls' allocation dropped from two places to one this year; the second place is reserved for the best team at the Hurricanes Schools Sevens on 14 November that has not already qualified.
• Manawatū: Palmerston North Boys' High School and Feilding High School (Open Boys) from a three-team series on 23 October, with Whanganui Collegiate missing out. The girls' qualifier between Manukura and Feilding High School was played on 21 October; the result had not been published when this was written.

The other regions, including Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay, Canterbury and Otago, run their qualifiers through late October and November, with most of last year's played between 21 October and 8 November. We will add the qualifiers as they are decided.

Last year's champions

The 2025 Open Boys title went to Whangārei Boys' High School, who beat Tauranga Boys' College 15-14 in the final after beating Hamilton Boys' High School 19-14 in the semifinal, a result the NZ Herald called the unlikely champions nobody saw coming. Hamilton finished third, Kelston Boys' High fourth and Palmerston North Boys' High fifth. Christchurch Boys' High (sixth) and Marlborough Boys' College (eighth) were the best of the South Island; Aranui High School in 2003 remains the only South Island school to win the boys' title. Club Rugby named Tim Rangihuna the tournament MVP.

Manukura won the 2025 Open Girls title, beating Howick College 27-17 in the final after a 29-10 semifinal win over St Mary's College. Howick had beaten Christchurch Girls' High School 20-7 in the other semifinal. Manukura, from Palmerston North, had won 23 of their last 24 Condor games by the end of that weekend and have done the national Top 4 and Condor double three times in four seasons.

In 2024 Tauranga Boys' College beat Sacred Heart College 36-7 for their first boys' title in a 28-team field, and Howick beat Hamilton Girls' High School 29-24 in golden point to win the girls' crown for the third time since 2018.

Why it matters

The Condors have long been where New Zealand's sevens talent is first seen on a national stage. Jorja Miller, now an Olympic champion with the Black Ferns Sevens, played for the Condor girls' side at the World School Sevens in 2019 at 15, a clip the Global Youth Sevens organisers still show. For most of the schools, though, it is simply the biggest weekend of their year: two days by the beach, a round robin against schools they never otherwise meet, and the chance to take home a cup.

We will publish the full qualifier list when it is complete, preview the draw when it is released, and report both weekends from Blake Park.

Sources: Condor 7s (condorsevens.com), tournament information and 2026 regulations; Club Rugby (clubrugby.nz), 25 and 26 October 2026 and 1 December 2025; NZ Herald, December 2024 and 2025; Global Youth Sevens (globalyouthsevens.rugby).