In weather more akin to a family camping trip to Wales than to a sunny sevens tournament, the U14 sevens squad arrived at the annual ISA National tournament held at St James School with excitement and trepidation.

They began their day by comfortably dispatching Cedars School and hosts St James in their first two games both by 30 point margins.

As the torrential rain gave way to gail force winds, the boys eased past the remaining members of the group including a physical ACS Cobham side. The quarter final was against Salesian College who narrowly beat our U16 side in their final a few days earlier. However, the boys had few problems running in five tries before Salesian scored a consolation try at the end.

The semi finalists Ballard School boasted a number of strong athletes and had posed serious problems to other teams in the competition. It appears Claires Court would not have any such problems as they cruised into a 17-0 lead. However fatigue, injury and a little complacency let Ballard back into the game and in no time we were 19-17 down! This kicked the boys into action and order was swiftly restored with three tries in two minutes with Ballard never really gaining possession of the ball let alone any more points.

Strangely the final was against Cedars who’d improved greatly throughout the tournament. Unfortunately for them so had the weather since our first game allowing Claires Court to play the free passing game we’d spent the past six weeks training to play. Claires Court ran out comfortable and deserved winners by 25 points. Well done boys!