Day 9 - Glenwood House 7s Tournament

Sevens tournament at Glenwood House school. Started with a presentation by the hosts followed by team prep and physio for those that needed it.

Match Report by Mr Beckett:

There were a few nerves on show in the warm up before the start of Shiplake’s first ever 7s match in South Africa. The Shiplake 1^st VII (Ostriches) were pitted against the host team, Glenwood House 1^st VII. The day started off well with attacking rugby from kick off, and some excellent link play between Thomas and Davis, setting the latter up for the first try of the day. Glenwood kept up to the pace of the game well, however, tries from Davis (2), Chen (2), Madden and new recruit Waldron ensured victory. The 1^st VII missed out on a 7 try bonus point, something they were sorely disappointed in.

Final score 1^st VII 46-0 Glenwood 1^st VII.

Next up were joint favourites P. W. Botha College, famed for playing crowd pleasing rugby, and winning some of the best tournaments in South Africa. The boys went into the game a little star struck and let in 2 early tries. With leadership coming from scrum half, James Riley, the 1^st VII stepped up their game attempting to play a game of ‘keep ball’. The opposition had different ideas, and turned every mistake or half chance into a try.

Final score P.W. Botha 36-0 1^st VII.

Last match of the group stages pitted Shiplake 1^st VII v Shiplake 2^nd VII. With the 2^nd VII consisting mostly of front row forwards, a decision was made to mix up the teams to make the match competitive. Beckett’s Bandits played Cane-Hardy’s Cannons in a thrilling encounter. Tries from Pearce (2) and Glover for the Bandits left the score at 17-0. Cane-Hardy’s Cannons came back and when Jardine trusted his pace and gave Green the outside, Green scored what was arguably the try of the tournament in a 60m sprint to score under the posts.

With Shiplake finishing 2^nd on points in the group stages, this pitted them against P.W. Botha College once again, and the boys knew a tough task was ahead. A slight change in attacking organisation changed the match significantly, with Wright, Hewins, Chen, Corke, Pearce and plenty more boys playing P.W at their own game, asking questions of their defense. Shiplake will probably not come up against a better school boy 7s side again (certainly not in the UK) so a 21-0 full time score line was admirable.

James Riley can be quoted in saying “We played with confidence and took the game to them. Our 7s ethos of ‘attack, attack, attack – create chaos’ really came through and I am proud of the determination the boys showed out there. It is a very promising start to 7s rugby at Shiplake”.

The 2^nd VII were always underdogs going into this 7s tournament. They decided to play to their strengths, and use their physicality to dominate teams. First up for the forward dominated Shiplake 2^nd VII was Glenwood House 2^nd VII and trys from Z. Jones, T. Jones and Arbuckle gave the visitors a commanding 17-0 lead. Glenwood house fought back valiantly, scoring 2 trys in the process with the final score 17-10 to Shiplake. Next to face the Shiplake Rhinos (self named) were P. W. Botha 2^nd VII. Shiplake knew they had a tough challenge ahead. P.W. Botha spent most of the match under the Shiplake posts, scoring 8 tries in the process. Final score 40-0.

Overall, a hugely rewarding day for the boys, and a promising start to the 7s rugby calendar at Shiplake which will resume in January 2012.