Abingdon Sevens 2012

The strongest squad of all time had been prepared for the Abingdon 7s on the hottest day of the summer, however, some misunderstandings (bloody pull outs, who won’t get asked to play again) meant that several players didn’t turn up! Not to matter, we were left with a fine bunch of jokers who had varying degrees of injuries, fitness levels, hang over’s and ability!

In the first game we played the strongest opposition in the group – Wallingford who had a few fast footed footballers. You could tell none of the Boar had played in a while Wallingford went over for the first swiftly! The boar came back though with some classic blue Boar interplay - the ball touched every players hands 12 times before the resident barman (Harry Copson) went over! After a hard fought first game the Boar lost 26 -14.

In the second game the Boar game out strong against Gosford All Blacks. A break from our overseas pro Jack Avery and a lovely side step from Harry Moore put the Boar in front. More Champagne rugby lifted the mood of the crowd and put the Boar easily ahead. Win 28 – 7.

The third game against Abingdon started off as we left the last. Tries from Greg Palmer, Murray Abel (flop over) and someone else put us 17 – 0 up. An awful collapse meant the Boar lost 19-17. Devastating......however, points difference meant we were in the Plate final (don’t ask how they worked it out!) and we were fighting for a trophy as well as 3rd place. We learnt from our mistakes and by using the width created holes through the opposition’s (Harwell) defence. Well oiled men, women and children on the touch line sided with the Boar who produced some devastating rugby, one moment of outrageous interplay with handling, hand offs and side steps resulting in a try which will stay with me for life! The final ended up a comfortable win and a satisfying end to the day.

The deflated squad all produced some great rugby at times. We grew as the tournament went on and we can be proud of our achievement. In 7s you can’t afford to ease into it, you have to win the first game to win the tournament, so that is what we must do next year.
Thank you to Brian and our support. No lunch, lots of running around in the heat and a few jugs of beer meant there were some very merry men back at the Blue Boar! Well done and thank you to all involved.

Next year the Cup!

Will Sandbach