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The Ontour Under 18 Kent 7s tournament plays homage to some of the biggest names in
schoolboy 7s rugby, and is always a fiercely competitive tournament. The tournament isn’t as big
as other tournaments such as Reigate 7s or Surrey 7s, however what the tournament lacks in size makes up on in the quality of the rugby on display.

The tournament which was staged at Gravesend RFC and Gravesend Grammar School, started
on a very somber note, when the 20 or so Schoolboy representative teams lined up shoulder to
shoulder in front of the Clubhouse and held a minute silence for the recent natural disasters in
Japan and Christchurch New Zealand. After the show of respect to the tragedies, minds were turned back to the rugby and every schools primary aim was to top their group, so that they could progress into the knockout stages of the cup.

After 4 hours of highly competitive Rugby, the group stages seemed to go right down to the last
game to see which team qualified as group winners, with 2nd, 3rd and 4th place going in to their
respective knockout plate competitions. The biggest upset of the group stages was tournament
favourites Skinners School not finishing top of their group and so therefore only going through to the 2nd tier cup. In fact 3 out of the 4 groups all went down to the final game, this added a bit of spice and excitement to the group stages but also once again proved how competitive and closely talented the teams were, as the Kent Rugby Union President said -

‘There’s no such thing as an easy game in 7s’.

After the group stages were finally settled it was on to the knockout rounds  for every team as they were put forward into one of the 4 tiered trophies from – Kent Cup, Kent Plate, Will Hawkins Cup and the Gravesend Presidents Cup. The semi-finals show cased rugby 7s of the highest class with skills being shown by individuals and teams throughout the tournament.

The most exciting game in the semi-finals was that of the game between King’s Canterbury and St Olave’s which saw King’s go down 3 tries in the first half, it looked as if St
Olave’s were flying into the finals when King’s bounced back in the 2nd half with the skipper
scoring long range scores and veteran winger Kola Lawal scoring 3 further tries in the last
4 minutes.

The semi finals also witnessed 3 games which went into extra time, whereby the next
points win and this showcased some spectacular bits of 7s magic, one of the highlights was the fly half from Norton Knatchbull running the full length of the pitch weaving in and out between the opposition showing some extremely impressive footwork.

In the Will Hawkins Cup final, a very impressive Chislehurst and Sidcup side came up against
a high point scoring side in Oakwood Park. Oakwood Park took an early lead through a
wonderful team try, which was sparked, from a great turnover in the ruck, however the game was cut short when Chislehurst and Sidcup’s Frank X suffered a double fracture of his tibia. When
the paramedics had safely moved Frank onto the side of the pitch the game could continue and
the Sidcup boys were inspired by the loss of one of their teammates to step up their game and try and win the match for Frank. They showed some great determination and passion and ended up winning the game 35-14.

In the Plate final Skinners School found themselves in unfamiliar territory after the last 5 years
always competing for the Kent Cup, however they came up against stern opposition in
Dartford Grammar School. The game started with a 2-minute stalemate with both team’s defence
refusing to break, however eventually the exhaustion of 7s kicked in and the try’s started to
appear. Even though Dartford put up a good fight, Skinners’ power, pace and positional awareness was too much for an exhausted Dartford side and Skinners ended up getting some consolidation by winning the plate final; 41-7.

In the final of the Kent Cup, two term Rugby School ‘Judd’ came across a quickly rising and
improving King’s Canterbury 7s team. Both teams had had very close and hard fought semi-finals, and were ready for a very competitive final. Judd started off very well in the final and ran through three very early try’s against a slow starting and somewhat dormant King’s defence. Luckily for King’s they held onto half time only 3 scores down and were able to regroup and rebuild. They came out the second half the much stronger side and scored two very impressive try’s exploiting space down the middle of the park and then getting it out wide to their pace men. However, Judd didn’t give up and played with great will and determination and managed to get two tries back for themselves. In the last play of the game King’s turned over the ball and put together some great positional and attacking rugby and their efforts were repayed with being given the last try of the game, however sadly for King’s it was a little to late and they ended up losing what turned out to be a highly entertaining final 33-19.

Next up on the schools circuit is the Surrey 7s at Richmond, one of final stops before thousands of school children head to Rosslyn Park for the National Schools 7s. With Hartpury, Brighton College and now Judd playing themselves into form, the final warm-up tournament is going to be integral for who will come into Nationals as favorites.

Freddy Clode