After a week of mock exams, the Upper Sixth 7's squad travelled to the lovely settings of Winchester House to take part in their 7's tournament. To say that the boys had worked hard for this moment is an understatement! 9 weeks of a mixture of weekend fitness sheets, gruelling practices, and careful dieting (their choice) had led up to this tournament and the boys were excited and ready for battle!
The draw meant that the squad of 14 would be playing 4 matches in a row against four other quality sides: Bromsgrove, St Hugh's, Ashfold and Winchester House. The first game against Bromsgrove was a corker with the boys starting tentatively and going 3-0 down in the blink of an eye! The boys settled into their rhythm showing off their pace and strength and came back to bring the score to 3-3. A wonderful interlude of end-to-end attack then took place with Bromsgrove just sneaking in to win 4-3. Larry W and Rafer S tackled with intensity with Xavier L and Chris E running free to attack the Bromsgrove lines.
The second game was a showcase of the boy's strength as a team and their individual rugby skills. Ethan W-B opened the scoring with some lovely footwork to run through St Hugh's defence. It was a complete performance with Balthazar B and Jake G showing some great work in the midfield. Bruern ran out 6-2 winners culminating in a scintillating solo try from captain Ethan G who picked up from his 5m line and ran the length of the pitch to score in the dying seconds.
The third game saw Bruern face rivals Ashfold and as usual both sides produced a great match. Will S and Anthony C were superb in this game and both sides pushed for victory only for it to end in an exciting 3-3 draw. After three high intensity games the boys were justifiably flagging and there were a few small injuries. When we faced the formidable Winchester House in our final game we never gave up and actually took a shock 1-0 lead. This seemed to galvanise the opposition and they won 7-2. Player of the tournament went to Xavier L.
I would like to say a heartfelt thanks to all the parents for giving up their Saturday and supporting the boys who committed heart and soul to this endeavour. I have had a lot of fun training the boys and truly congratulate them for all their efforts. They really did themselves proud. Diolch!
Squad: Ethan G (Capt.), Larry W, Xavier L, William S, William W, Balthazar B, Jake G, Jake T, Anthony C, Ethan W-B, Christopher E, Rafer S, Charlie O, Charlie R
