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The crowds at Windsor Rugby Club were treated to a sporting spectacle last weekend as The Oratory School (Reading) demolished last year’s cup winners RGS, High Wycombe 47-7 in the final of the 61st Windsor School Sevens.

Following on from their tremendous unbeaten XV'S season, Oratory looked like the best Sevens outfit on the day, the secret to Oratory’s success was their scintillating attack mixed in with their vice like defence which led them to scoring a total of 285 points and conceding just 51.

Eton College took the honours in the Plate competition, beating St Benedict’s School with a comprehensive score of 55-0.

Pool A: RGS High Wycombe,Pangbourne College, St Benedicts School, Latymer Upper School, Merchant Taylor’s School

RGS and Pangbourne went through into cup, Benedicts were looking as though they were going to join them, until Pangbourne sneaked a victory off them to see them into the Plate competition.
 

Pool B: The Oratory School, Hampton School, Berkhamsted Collegiate School, Magdalen College School, Henley College 1

Oratory went through comfortably smashing everyone in their group and looking very good, alongside Hampton who looked like a decent 7s outfit. Berkamstead and Henley 1 went through into the plate competition.
 

Pool C: Radley College, Wellington College, Haileybury College, Windsor Boys School, Henley College 2

Haileybury were the third seeds in this pool behind Radley and Wellington, but clinched top spot with a physical performance against a Wellington 2nd VII, who also went through into the cup competition. Radley were unlucky to end up in the plate competition, they were joined by Henley College’s 2nd team.

Pool D: Eton College, Rugby School, St Edward’s School, Queen Elizabeth Boy’s School

Rugby school went through as top of their group and were joined quite remarkably by St Edwards in the cup competition. Eton looked set to cruise into the cup with a great opening win but two very close defeats saw them enter the plate alongside Queen Elizabeth’s.

Plate

Semi-finals:
Benedicts 31-7 Radley
Berkhamstead 5-38 Eton

Radley began strongly with the opening try of their semi, but Benedicts proved too strong. Eton dominated their semi against Berkhamstead and won comfortably.

Final:
St Benedicts 0-55 Eton
Eton racked up 55 points despite having two tries disallowed for knock-ons in the process of scoring, and made up for their losses in the pool stages. A well deserved victory which hopefully St Benedicts can use as a platform for Rosslyn Park

Cup

Semi-finals:
RGS 26-17 Haileybury
Oratory 32-5 Rugby

RGS amassed 4 tries before halftime in their semi, but Haileybury got one back just after the break and a late flurry nearly saw RGS throw their lead away. An entertaining game played at a high tempo with Haileybury players Rodney Dawes, Toby Saysell and Matthew Harking (England U16 player last year) all standing out for the losing semi-finalists. Oratory 32-5 Rugby

Oratory got off to a perfect start with 3 tries in quick succession but Rugby managed to score just before half-time to give themselves a chance. However, Oratory came out strongly and finished the game off to set up a final between the top two seeds of the tournament.

Final:
RGS 7 – 47 Oratory

What promised to be a close final ended up in a resounding victory for Oratory, who seemed to score tries at will despite a brave performance from RGS captain Joe Kelleher, who showed great pace to grab a consolation try after a break. Ben Mitchell was in flying form using his impressive turn of pace coupled with his eye for the line earned him the top try scorer of the tournament.

This kind of form has seen Ben training in Spain with the England South-West team with a view to selection for the full U18 England side. One person who really caught the eye of the spectators was Christian Whittaker, constantly cutting lines through the opposition defence on a regular basis winning the tournament's MVP. 

www.ultimateschoolsrugby.com