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MIDDLESEX SEVENS: AS IT HAPPENED

London Irish took their first ever and the 84th Middlesex Sevens title, after an exhilarating final against a Samurai International side consisting of several Sevens internationals.

The 26-19 victory means that a Guinness Premiership side has now won Middlesex Sevens for the fifth year running – since the British Army won it in 2004.

Delon Armitage got the score board ticking over as he burst through the Samurai defence, and the Premiership team, filled with their own international stars showed they could compete with the well-known Samurai International.

Before the break Marcus Watson and captain Paul Hodgson made the score 19-0 and soon after the restart Salosi Tagicakibau almost ensured the victory for the Exiles. The try-scorer was then sent to the bin as Samurai had a small riposte through Collins Injera's and when an exiting finale was set up when Willy Bishop crossed in the same corner.

However, with less than one minute remaining, Samurai only had the chance to score once more through Peceli Nacamavuto and it was the Premiership team who were outright winners 26-19.

The victory was exactly what London Irish deserved who clearly felt, more so than some of the other Premiership sides, that the Middlesex Sevens was worth winning.

Captain Paul Hodgson said: “We said at the beginning of the day how great it would be to get some silverware and look what's happened. People like Delon and Steffon (Armitage) could have turned up today and seen it as a bit of fun but the club has come so far in the last few years.

“Four matches of Sevens - there is no better way of getting match fitness than that and it is a great decision from Toby Booth to put our boys forward. We have come through injury free and we were outstanding, I am so proud of the boys, they should be really chuffed with themselves.

“I said to the boys that they are a squad of 12 international Seven players, from Simon Amor to the Kenyan lads. I just said we have to front up, we are the professional players and even though they have played more Sevens than us we were confident in our skill set.”

In the first semi-final London Irish dispatched Saracens 22-12 thanks to England internationals Steffon Armitage and Nick Kennedy. The second-row was the master of the re-starts, and Armitage, playing with his two brothers Delon and Guy, showed outstanding speed as he crossed for Irish’s first try.

Tries from Hodgson, Peter Richards and Tagicakibau ensured London Irish went through to their first ever Middlesex Sevens final.

In the second semi-final Samurai came up against Newcastle who were captained by England Sevens player Rob Vickerman. Collins Injera was the man of the moment however, as he played a part in all four of the invitational sides tries, scoring two of them.

England U20 Rob Miller had given the Premiership team the lead but as soon as the Kenyan got into his stride there was no going back.

Samurai had previously beaten Leeds in the quarter-final 33-17 and Northampton Saints in the first match of the day 17-12 with London Irish recording wins over the British Army and Gloucester.

Elsewhere Sale Sharks won the Plate final after beating last year’s Cup winners Harlequins 12-24. Ryan Clifton, who was impressive all afternoon got the Northern team off to a flyer with a quick-fire brace. Harlequins’ very own superstar Ollie Lindsay-Hague scored his seventh try of the afternoon but it was not enough as Sale ran out eventual 24-12 winners.

There was also an exhibition match that took place before the Plate final, between the Marshwood Dolphins and Old Millfield Boys who won the 10th Middlesex Club 7s at Richmond earlier in the year.

The Marshwood Dolphins are England Sevens international Isoa Damudamu's Army regiment and they were recent quarter-finalists at the Cape Fear 7s, losing out to Old Blue 19-14. The Dolphins had also reached the final in 2008 where they lost out to NOVA at the same tournament.

The match ended 12-12 in front of an excited Twickenham crowd, although the Millfield side were missing Tom Powell and John Brake who were playing for Help for Heroes and Northampton Saints respectively.