{"id":233118,"date":"2025-10-22T18:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T18:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/233118\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T18:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T18:40:10","slug":"rugbys-fastest-man-set-to-light-up-sevens-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/233118\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby’s fastest man set to light up sevens fields"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Michael Manson in full flight for the Southland Stags. Photo: DEBBIE FAHEY\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Southland speedster Michael Manson is set to be unleashed on the global sevens fields.<\/p>\n

The Southland Stags outside back has confirmed he has linked with the All Blacks Sevens squad ahead of World Rugby\u2019s HSBC SVNS Series.<\/p>\n

The series will start in Dubai on November 28-29, and the following week will head to Cape Town in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Further rounds will be held in Singapore, Australia, Vancouver, USA, Hong Kong, Valladolid, before wrapping up in Bordeaux from June 5 to 7 next year.<\/p>\n

Manson will inject some pace into the New Zealand sevens lineup, and there will be intrigue as to how that is utilised in the shortened format with the added space on offer compared to the 15-a-side game.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Manson excelled as a schoolboy sprinter before turning his sights on rugby.<\/p>\n

He is regarded by many as New Zealand rugby\u2019s fastest man.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old spent a season with Otago in 2021 before joining Southland in 2022, where he has remained since, in terms of his provincial rugby.<\/p>\n

He picked up his first contract with the Highlanders this year, where he played three games.<\/p>\n

However, he was not sighted again after a 29-20 loss to the Force in Perth, with a defensive lapse appearing to put him out of favour at the Highlanders.<\/p>\n

Manson returned to the NPC with the Stags for the 2025 NPC season, where he again showed his worth in attack through his sheer speed.<\/p>\n

It included banking a hat-trick of second-half tries against Tasman.<\/p>\n

After that game, he told The Tribune he was excited to announce his next move, but at that point wasn\u2019t able to publicly confirm it.<\/p>\n

Although he is now able to reveal his sevens opportunity with him now in the thick of training as part of the New Zealand sevens programme.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Michael Manson in action for the Southland Stags. Photo: DEBBIE FAHEY<\/p>\n

While his pace will be an obvious asset in attack in sevens, there is a feeling the shortened game will also be good for his development on the other side of the ball.<\/p>\n

Sevens players are asked to do a lot in defence, given the limited players on the field, and they also are required to work hard at the breakdown, where the contest is often one-on-one or one-on-two.<\/p>\n

With the World Rugby sevens circuit wrapping up in June, Manson will be able to return to the Stags next year to add to his 27 appearances in maroon and 18 tries.<\/p>\n

Given his speed provides a unique asset, it would make Manson a sought-after player at the provincial level, although he has indicated Southland is very much where he wants to be playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t be pulling on any other jersey; this is my home province. I love playing for this team, win, lose, or draw, so I\u2019ll always be back,\u201d Manson told The Tribune.<\/p>\n

World Rugby\u2019s HSBC SVNS Series has just got a whole lot more interesting for Southland rugby followers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the third national selection in a short space of time for Southland rugby, with Ethan de Groot heading on the end-of-the-year tour with the All Blacks, Sean Withy and Jack Taylor named in the All Blacks XV squad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Manson in full flight for the Southland Stags. Photo: DEBBIE FAHEY Southland speedster Michael Manson is set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-233118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}