Rugby Sevens
(1971-72)

The Sevens season started as usual for us with the Buckinghamshire Schools Tournament in which we lost our first match to Aylesbury by 4 points to 12 and won the second against R. G.S. High Wycombe 28-0. This win improved the confidence of the team and showed that they could produce some excellent play.

We won in our group in the Middlesex Schools Competition, beating Downer G.S. 36-0 and Feltham School 42-0, very good scores in only 14 minutes of play. We found Isleworth harder nuts to crack and narrowly won 10-6. In the quarter finals we were convincingly beaten by Windsor G.S. 0-16.

The first match in which we were involved at Oxford was an U. 16 game against Humphrey Davey School, who defeated us after a hard first half battle by 20 points. This turned out to be no disgrace as they were runners-up in the final.

In the senior section at Oxford we narrowly lost to Wolverstone Hall by one converted try to nil. We all thought ours was a poor performance but perhaps we underestimated our opponents, as they went on to win the final quite handsomely by 32-0.

The Public Schools Tournament concluded our Sevens programme for the year and as usual we played well in this competition, which attracts the best Rugby Schools in Great Britain. We won our first game against King Edward VI School, Nuneaton, 20-0, knowing that if we won we should be playing Emanuel School the following morning. They had won the match preceding ours and had looked very robust indeed. As it happened, the match was very exciting and cleanly fought. They scored two tries, both converted, to lead 12-0 and the match seemed lost for us. Plowman opened our account with a score under the posts after a fine dummy and break and we were back in the match. The scores were soon level at 12-12 and the whistle was due the next time the ball went dead. Emanuel were awarded a penalty in our 25 just to the right of the posts, and again we seemed to be on our way out of the competition. The ball, however, rebounded off the posts to Hughes, who quickly fed to the wing and we had scored, to win 16-12.

The next round was equally exciting and the final whistle blew with the scores at 10 points each, and extra time had to be played. Our opponents scored first, however, and our Rugby season was over. To reach the last 32 in this competition was a very creditable performance and was a just reward for all the effort put in throughout.

P. Gibson