Finishing on a high!

Before today, in two years we had only previously won one game at National Sevens (that is U14s and U17s combined) - but today we trebled that... and won a trophy as well!

Okay, The Plate rather than the whole thing, but realistically no-one was likely to beat Worcester - well not us anyway!

Still we very nearly made the cup quarter finals - 12-12 with Reading at half-time before losing to them again. They are the only side to beat us all season after we had lead - and they did it twice! But certainly the Berkshire team (and Dorking Sevens champions) did play far better this weekend than last and probably deserved the quarter final place overall.

That game had been a straight "winner takes all" after we had both beaten Dorking (in our case 12-10) and lost to Worcester (who beat us "only" 27-0) in the first two pool games, but it put us in the plate - and straight into the semi-finals as two groups had only three teams following the late withdrawal of Welwyn and Tamworth.

Initially we were told we'd be facing "Jimmies" but then over the loudspeaker we heard that in fact it was Basford - a game which was richly anticipated both because of our win at Rochford, but also because the day had seen a lot of good natured teasing between the two camps (including - at one point - the purloining of Nim's shirt and boots!).

The Rochford game had been close - 5-0 - and this proved just as tight. 12-10 was the final score (I think?) - certainly the lead changed hands several times and it could have gone either way.

So to the final. An unchanged semi-final team now faced... Dorking (wasn't this where we came in?) - except this time it was the red-and-whites who scored first. But that was also the last time they crossed the line as Hayley (despite being marked by at least two players) managed four tries - two in each half - to add to the two she had scored against them in the first game and give the "Legends" a 24-5 win.

Overall I think I am right in saying that Hayley scored eight of our ten tries on the day, Sasha being the only over player to touch down (one against Reading and one against Basford) - but Nim's kicking also proved vital, being the difference between the teams in two of our three wins.

And so the end of the season, the presentations, and then not many dry eyes as both Joe and Nim (plus Pinky and Perky, of course) said their farewells after what had been their last games. There were also not many dry clothes come to that as what was left of 464's water was used in a manner in which it was perhaps not intended (though their bottles make fine water-pistols it seems).

We'll maybe do a more formal review of this and other aspects of the season shortly - though we still have the smaller matter of the regional dinner, Superteams, and the "Presentation" (or is that "party"?) to come yet.. so it isn't quite over yet...