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The Norton Rose Reigate Charity 7s staged its debut under 18s tournament on Sunday 6th March, at Reigate Grammar School.

The tournament was formally known as the Sussex 7s, however the location had been moved and more schools were invited to enter this year; therefore these factors had contributed to it being rechristened ‘The Reigate 7s’.

With other 7s tournaments also taking place on this date some schools failed to make the tournament, however the tournament still boasted the biggest names in School boy rugby in; Brighton College, Epsom College and Millfield School.

The most competitive group both on paper and on the pitch turned out to be that of Group A, which included Epsom College, Tonbridge, London Oratory and the King’s School Canterbury, the group finished up with Epsom as group winners and Tonbridge finishing runners up.

As with many schools 7s tournaments no matter where you finished in the group stages, every team would go forth into a knockout competition competing for; Cup, Plate, Shield and Bowl.

One of the highlights of the Cup competition was the semi-final between Epsom College and St Josephs college which Epsom won in a close encounter 21-17.

In the plate final the Saracens Academy College ‘Oaklands College’, beat last years Rosslyn Park National champions Tonbridge 19-10 in a fast flowing and hard fought final.

In the shield final another team from group A in London Oratory beat St Olaves 21-19 in a very exciting final, with London Oratory’s pace proving too much for a tired and exhausted St Olaves side.

In the Bowl final an injury prone King’s Canterbury team took on a strong Wisbech school who had clocked up points in both the quarter and semi finals. King’s scored two tries very early on, however Wisbech came back with a wonderful bit of 7s magic from their fly half who scored a try from his own 22. However, King’s fought hard and wing Louis Guitton scored 4 tries in the final to help King’s win the Bowl final 25-5.

Congratulations to Brighton College who lifted the Norton Rose Cup for the very first time by beating a strong Epsom College team (21-14) in a highly competitive final.

For Brighton, their star player and Captain JJ Fletcher went on to be awarded the highly prized “Kukri Player of the Tournament”.

The competition proved once again to be a major success and also successfully showcased the massive amount of talent on show at schoolboy level, with no less then 17 International Players representing their schools.

The 7s on show at Reigate proved that for the remainder of the season building up to the National School 7s, there are plenty of teams out there who have the passion, drive and ability to take the crown at Rosslyn Park in late March, but on the evidence on show in Reigate, the early front runners are Brighton College as the team to beat.