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Just over 1000 schools from South Africa were seen on this year’s 2010 @atlantic Sevens Series.

The series consists of 15 provincial tournaments hosted in each of the traditional rugby provinces and culminated in the national champion’s tournament played out last week.

This year’s champions event was held at the Konka Camps in Rustenburg, and played host to an all-Western Cape encounter between Hoërskool Tygerberg and Excelsior. The game proved to be a close affair with Tygerberg eventually running out 29-17 winners.

In a scintillating finale, where the first half in particular was interspersed with good play and some wild passing from both sides that led to turnovers, Excelsior seemed out of it at 10-0 with Tygerberg clearly on top.

But the lighter Excelsior then came back late in the ten-minute first half to take a 12-10 half-time break. But it was not to be as Tygerberg, with Jody Reynecke outstanding, wrapped up matters to stretch their lead to 27-12. Their ferocious tackling and the way they wrested the ball from opponents in the tight proved too much for the lighter side who relied on stepping and skill but were no match for the hard running Tygerberg.

An Excelsior try two minutes before time prevented a lopsided scoreline that would not have been fair on the losers.

“The quality of sevens throughout the series has been fantastic, especially when you compare it to when we started out,” said Dederick Venter, Marketing Director for @lantic speaking to Rugby 365,  

After a successful stint with the Pumas Currie Cup team, @lantic decided to shift its focus to the development of grassroots rugby in South Africa.

Sevens has traditionally been ignored which is why we felt it was important to set up structures at school boy level so that by the time the players reached the professional ranks they had the skills needed to succeed at the highest level,” added Venter.

Despite losing in this year’s final, Excelsior High proved to be the success story of the series. After progressing through a competitive regional tournament which included schoolboy giants; Paul Roos and Paarl Gym, Excelsior surprised everyone by beating Louis Botha, Merensky, Monument and Waterkloof on their way to the national final.

Venter added: “If it weren't for this series, the chances of any of these Excelsior players being picked up would have been slim to none. Thanks to sevens they have been able to show their skills on a national platform against schools they would never compete against in the 15-man game.”

2010 also saw the start of the @lantic Mini Sevens for players between the ages of five and eight. Venter says that by developing these skills at a young age by the time these players progress to high school, they already have the skills needed to compete at the next level.

Now in its fourth season the @lantic Sevens Series has unearthed a number of top class rugby players including Gerhard van den Heever (Bulls), Guy Cronjé (Sharks), Hoffman Maritz and Branco Du Preez (SA Sevens). Vemter said 2010 had unearthed yet more future stars on from the conveyer belt of talent that is often associated with South African schools rugby.

“This year’s series was a big success with a number of potential rugby stars emerging, including Jody Reynecke and Ruan Mostert (Hoërskool Tygerberg), François Tredoux and Thys Smit (Hoërskool Waterkloof) and Vernon Du Randt (Hoërskool Pionier). All of these guys have big futures in SA rugby.”