On Sunday 2nd March, the Cranleigh Sevens team competed in our first tournament of the season, the Sussex Schools Sevens, a prestigious and popular tournament that attracts some of the South’s strongest sides, including Bryanston, Dulwich, Epsom, Tonbridge, and Whitgift, amongst others.

 

Cranleigh were placed in a group with St John’s Leatherhead, Worth and Gresham’s School. We first took on a strong St John’s side, whom we had narrowly beaten in the XVs season. Two early tries perhaps let us lose concentration and allowed St John’s back into the game, but a late try by our ‘speedster’ Sam Dormon sealed the victory. Up next was Worth: their defence appeared strong, but it was left relatively helpless against our elusive runners, leaving Cranleigh with a 27 – 0 victory. Gresham’s was our final group match which we needed to win in order to progress to the main cup competition of the tournament. By this stage of the tournament we had nearly reached full flow and cruised to a 32 – 5 victory.      

These wins left us seeded third overall, and after a long lunch break, we played a very physical academy side, Filton College; but our tackling was firm and our superior backs led us to a 28 – 7 win. The sidelines seemed particularly impressed with this victory as we really reached sixth gear and our defence stopped Filton in their tracks. The semi-final against Tonbridge was a very toughly-fought contest but again we came out on top; special mention must again go to Sam Dormon, who scored a hat-trick in this game.  

 

We came up against Epsom in the final and our tired legs going up the hill in the first half were a hindrance, however, after going 19 – 0 down at the half, the team found a second burst of energy as we were now going down the slope. Going into the final play we found ourselves leading 24 – 19, but Epsom levelled and the game went into extra time. We gave it 100% but a tired defence led to a hole near the middle of the park and Epsom exploited it and took victory. A very promising start to the Sevens season and the side look forward to the chance of playing Epsom again. 

 

Henry Mounsey