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Hilsea Hosts Rugby Nursery for Future England Players

This year’s South Coast Rugby Sevens Tournament, now in its nineteenth year, took place at Hilsea pitches bathed in Spring sunshine on Sunday. A large crowd gathered to witrness an enthralling day of top class rugby under clear skies and excellent ground conditions. Year on year the Tournament, organised by PGS Head of Rugby Simon Baker, gets bigger and bigger and brings togather some of the country’s biggest guns to try their hand at the shortened game. It is therefore no surprise that the Player of the Tournament has gone on to play for England for the past two years. Mr Baker was delighted by the standard of enties this year and that so many prestigious rugby-playing schools consider the event to be one of the premier sporting fictures on the sporting calendar. He said:

“It is a tremendous boost for the Tournament and for youth rugby to have been joined once again this year by Ben Ryan, RFU Englands Sevens Head Coach. We are very grateful to Ben and to Ultimate Schools Rugby for all they have done to raise the profile of the Tournament and help to make it such a showpiece event.”

The visiting teams were clearly impressed with the school’s facilities at Hilsea. Neil Buchanan, Wimbledon College coach, summed up the day perfectly: “Once again PGS have hosted a cracking day of rugby much enjoyed by all the participants and spectators – compliments to all on the magnificent spread!”

The tournament was once again stacked with talent from across the south of England including; Bryanston, Prince Henrys GS, Colstons, Wellington College, Ivybridge, Oundle, Canford, Millfield, Hartpury, Abingdon, Wimbledon College, Filton, Coleg Sir Gar, Bristol GS, Wellington School and the home team Portsmouth GS.

The past 2 seasons has season the player of the tournament go onto national recognition with Miles Mantella (2010) making waves at Harlequins and Jamie Joseph (2009) performing well at London Irish. Mantella has also had some time with the England 7s training squad which comes as no surprise as he was a stand out performer throughout 2010 in his selection for the UR7s All-Stars at the National Schools tournament.

Bringing an end to the recent domination of Millfield, three Advanced Apprenticeships in Sporting Excellence (AASE) schools – Hartpury, Filton and Ivybridge – stood out in the group stages and all comfortably making it through the Cup semi-finals. After some mouth-watering heavyweight clashes during the day, it was Hartpury’s commanding performance in the final that saw them emerge as overall Tournament champions, posting a decisive 31 – 5 victory against a clearly fatugued Ivybridge side.

For the spectators and supporters it was a chance to look out for some future rugby stars in the making. Last year’s winners Milfield went on to triumph at the National Schools Sevens at Rosslyn Park, the world’s largest rugby tournament, beating Filton College 34 -10. Sadly that might not be the case for Hartpury this season as the ASSE semi-finals are due in the same week as National Schools 7s. With Brighton College looking strong in Reigate all will be to pay for as sides try and find form over the coming few weeks.

UR7s schoolboy sevens reporter Freddy Clode will be at Worth 7s this weekend before also covering Surrey and Kent Sevens so keep your eyes peeled for the next Miles Mantella/Ollie Lindsay-Hague who may come from this season.

If you have a team or player that you think UR7s should show special coverage to please email us on press@ur7s.com or contact Freddy on Freddy.clode@ur7s.com