Capital Sevens, 20/4/08

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Squad

Our 'Stewart's Melville Select' squad for the Capital Sevens at Meggetland on Sunday is:

Our first tie, against hosts Boroughmuir, is at 1.30 pm.

Borth's Bulletin

On Sunday, we competed in the second Capital Sevens. We were relieved to even field a team, as we had pulled out of Edinburgh Northern the previous day. Unfortunately, the tournaments clashed with the Ma Bells Sevens on Saturday, and the majority of players decided they would rather compete there than for Stew Mel (and would be in no state to return to Edinburgh the next day to play!)

Thankfully, Jed and Gav decided they would make the journey back and Shaun agreed to play at the last minute. We were helped by the return of Ross Samson and Scott Riddell, who made the trip up having played for Tynedale on the Saturday. Riddell was good enough to bring three mates from Northumbria Uni - Richard Ellis, Drew Locke and Robin Holroyd. The team was completed by myself and Jimmy, team manager Ek and our physio Jo.

We were drawn against Boroughmuir in the first round and had a disastrous start, conceding a score from the kick off. Another try for 'Muir followed shortly after, but we soon gained our composure, with Riddell in particular looking a class act, showing the kind of form that made him a winner in the Middlesex Sevens at Twickenham in previous years. We fought back with scores of our own before half time. Shaun crossed the line under the posts, leaving Jimmy with an easy conversion. Despite the kick clearly going through the posts, the touch judge did not award it. Everyone in the ground saw it go over, including the Boroughmuir players, and the referee even admitted that 'it looked like it went over'! As the game went into injury time, 'Muir grabbed a late try, slotting the conversion over to win by 2 points. Despite their good fortune, credit should go to the hosts, who later won the tournament by comfortably beating a strong Edinburgh Gunners squad in the final.

Though disappointed, we felt we had a very good chance to defend the Ronnie Tait Plate that we won last year. Our next tie was against Preston Lodge and this saw our biggest win of the day. Shaun's physicality proved very useful, Ross Samson and Jimmy kept directing our play at half back, while Jed and Gav's pace helped make inroads. Our new recruits from Northumbria were also significantly contributing, with Drew Locke looking fast and physical in the backs and Richard Ellis and Robin Holroyd working hard in the forwards.

We were now into the semis and felt confident of beating Forrester, but we made it hard for ourselves, too often taking contact and allowing them to slow our game down. We were trailing for much of the game but always felt we were capable of scoring - and so it proved, with Richard Ellis making several surging breaks which helped us ease home in the end.

So, for a second year running, we were into the final, and this year we were up against the Bruce Hay Chiefs. Though they were a physical side, we knew we had far more pace, and our game plan was to stretch them as much as possible. We started well, scoring two tries, and always looked dangerous in possession. In defence we managed to contain them, though their more powerful runners did cause us to scramble back on several occasions. We went into half time in the lead, but soon after conceded a try which reduced our lead to 9 points. We continued to use the ball effectively, however, and it was fitting that captain Riddell scored our final try after an impressive afternoon. Shortly afterwards he went up to receive the trophy and keep it in our possession for another year.

In each of the two years the competition has been running, we have lost our opening tie to the eventual winners and gone on to win the Plate. Hopefully next year we can progress further in the main tournament, which is proving to be one of the most enjoyable events on the sevens circuit. So, after scrambling all week to get a team together, we started our sevens campaign with some silverware.

Thanks should to go to Riddell and Sammy for coming up for the tournament, and to the guys who came up with them- all five putting in quality performances. Ek also did a great job as team manager, making sure all the small details were taken care of, and, more importantly, making the right tactical substitutions (although Jed did sub himself off in the first tie after a 50 meter run in!)

We now have Earlston on 3rd May and Jed on the 10th. There will be training for those who would like to take part.

Borth

Results

A fine performance from our Seven saw us retain the Ronnie Tait Plate at Meggetland on Sunday.

It's also worth mentioning that our players have decided to donate the £250 prize money that went with the Plate trophy to the Maggie's Centre appeal - a superb gesture, and one that I'm sure all at Meggetland will applaud.

Bill

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