National Sevens Competition, Rosslyn Park

Oswestry U16s 7s team arrived at Rosslyn Park with optimism, the sun was shining and it was going to be a hard, warm day. The first game was against Hereford Blue Coats, we couldn’t have asked for a harder game as they were to go on and win the group. Oswestry fought bravely but lost comprehensively to a good Hereford Blue Coats side 54-7 with Daniel Harriman scoring following a kick and chase.

After a break and a team talk we went into the next game against Eastbourne College with a little more organisation in defence. This was a frustrating game as we played well but forced errors meant we lost 26-5, with Kostya Zolotaryov scoring our only try.

Oswestry then had an extended break for our third game, as we rested the other teams in our group played with Eastbourne College and lost to our next opponents Queen Elizabeth. We went into the game with high hopes; if we could cancel out the errors we would have a chance of winning. The first half proved to be the best display of attacking rugby I had seen all day.

Oswestry ended the first half leading 28–0. The scores were Daniel Harriman two tries, Callum Lloyd-Jones, Leon Parkes, Christian Blount-Powell all scoring a try each. The team were excited and Queen Elizabeth’s team continued arguing with the referee. As long as we could hold our defence strong for four minutes we could win. Nerves were getting to the team and Queen Elizabeth got closer and closer to our lead. The final score was Oswestry 28 – 26 Queen Elizabeth. An extremely exciting and tense finish to the game!

The final game was against Dartford College last year’s semi-finalists. We started the game brightly with Nathan Nottingham scoring within 30 seconds. However, Dartford began to build patiently and became too strong the final score being Dartford 24 – 14 Oswestry. Tri scores Nathan Nottingham and Jake Hunt.

I was very proud of the team’s performance and only disappointed for the boys that we couldn’t get the big win against Eastbourne or Dartford College.

Special mention goes to all the team C. Blount-Powell, J. Hunt, N. Nottingham, K. Zolotaryov, L. Parkes, D. Harriman, M. Mahoney, C. Lloyd-Jones and S. Potter. I would also like to thank Patrick Evans from EvaStore for sponsoring the kit and also Mason Owen for the shirt printing.

Kevin Evans