Mixed emotions once again at the Suffolk Sevens

Southwold 5 - 17 Ipswich YM
(Try: Luke)

Southwold 40 - 0 Bury B
(Tries: Billy 3, Luke 2, Jack FS - Conversions: Ben F 2, Billy 2, Jack FS)

Southwold 24 - 0 Clacton
(Tries: James 2, Joe, Christian - Conversions: Ben F 2)

Southwold 26 - 24 Hadleigh
(Tries: Josh 2, Billy , Evan - Conversions: Ben F 2, Billy)

Plate Semi-Final:
Southwold 40 - 12 Colchester B
(Tries: Evan 3, Josh, James, Joe - Conversions Ben F 4, Jon)

Plate Final:
Southwold 19 - 26 Hadleigh
(Tries: Evan 2, Josh - Conversions: Ben F 2)

We are notoriously slow starters at tournaments so drawing the favourites in our first match was a disaster. However, as the match unfolded it became clear that if it wasn't for a litany of handling errors and two clear overlaps we could have actually beaten them. Luke easily out-paced his mark for his try and Billy clearly had the speed to do likewise - but not the hands! Despite the result, this was an encouraging start.

Bury B was a walk in the park by comparison. Billy's early nerves calmed and his grip improved allowing him to run in a hat-trick of tries whilst Luke was also living up to his billing. Unfortunately a cynical late tackle after he scored his second try seriously injured his knee, not only causing him to sit out the rest of the tournament, but also the next few fixtures. We wish him a speedy recovery.

We had started to play Sevens rather than 15s against Bury, but our next match was against a big Clacton team, so we put the big guns on. Evan, Joe, Jon and Christian matched Clacton's physicality rewarding Joe and Christian with tries. It wasn't all pretty, but it worked. However we also started to run a few angles and spot the overlaps which helped to put James over for two tries.

We confidently bounded on to the pitch for the next match, against Hadleigh, who we dominate in the 15s game. Over confidently as it turned out. We were several tries down at half time and looking very vulnerable when events took a turn for the worse when Christian heroicly dived on the ball only to receive a very nasty boot to the elbow. He was carted off to A&E where fortunately they confirmed that it wasn't fractured. Billy and Evan ran in two tries to get us within reach of Hadleigh. But it was Josh, who was yet again firing on all cylinders in both defence and attack, who evened-up the score with his two beautifully taken tries. The narrow two point win was down to Ben F's extra conversion. A great game played with great spirit on both sides.

As both Colchester A and Ipswich YM A were in our group (who curiously didn't play each other), we came 3rd and so went through to the Plate finals. Our first match was against Colchester B. Without our two speed merchants, Luke and now Billy, who also sustained a knee injury, we were concerned that we were going to lack the pace to beat the better teams. But up stepped Evan. A hat-trick of tries, all out pacing Colchester's fastest and all from the halfway line, helped to secure an emphatic win. We were finally playing Sevens.

We were through to the Plate final for the second year running but, unfortunately, we were now running on fumes. Despite the win against Hadleigh in the group stages, we knew that the re-match was going to be a real tester especially with Luke and Billy on the bench. Once again Hadleigh went ahead and once again we fought back. Evan still had just enough gas to run in two more tries and josh had just enough tenacity to run one in, but on this occasion we couldn't get the fourth. Another great contest but this time Hadleigh took the spoils.

Mixed emotions because there were some fantastic individual and team performances but these were marred by the injuries sustained by Luke, Christian and Billy. Mixed emotions because, though there were glimpses of classic sevens rugby but there was too much taking the ball in to contact. Finally, mixed emotions because we truly believed the team this year was good enough to get into the Trophy finals but the draw was against us. So we all left thinking, what if.....?

In closing, there was no doubt that every single member of the squad put in 100% and they all deserve a huge pat on the back for their outstanding effort. I ached from top to toe on Monday and I didn't even play!