On Tuesday 22^nd March, the TWBS U18s rugby sevens team took part in the National Sevens tournament at Rosslyn Park. The boys arrived in good spirits and quickly began to turn their focus to their first game against Royal Hospital School. We were met with brutal upfront tackling by the opposition, as well as crisp passing and handling, which resulted in a few early tries to RHS. It seemed the game had turned when Fynn Starkie made a bulldozing run up the centre of the pitch from a tremendous catch straight off a restart, however he was somehow chased down and held up on the try line (questionable decision?). The team did well to hold the ball better in the second half and some incredible last ditch defending by Max Ratcliffe stopped multiple attacking opportunities from resulting in tries. With some big positives to take from their first game, the boys moved into their second game against Shrewsbury College. The match started at a slow tempo for TWBS and we were punished for our mistakes but we managed to go into half time only five points down. After a wake-up call half time talk, the team came out firing, putting in some huge tackles and playing with much more urgency. Herbie Ruse made a blistering run down the right side of the pitch for a great score under the posts but unfortunately it was too little, too late. The boys narrowly missed out on a win with the final score being 7-12. Our final game of the tournament and the final TWBS rugby game for many of the squad was against Perse. The boys gave it their best shot, and nobody could fault the effort put in by everyone on the team. It seemed fatigue had really begun to set in but at no point did the boys give in, even when Fynn managed to dislocate his thumb mid hand-off! Even though we didn’t manage to win any of our games the team left with smiles on their faces and their heads held high. I can only say thank you to Mr Paul and Mr Breen for being there to support us and I hope we can take what we learnt into next year’s tournament. 

 

Tom Coomber