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We meet at Darsham railway station at 0830 hours before proceeding to The Royal Hospital School (R.H.S.) Holbrook, Ipswich for a 1030hrs start to the Suffolk Rugby Sevens Festival 2007. The setting was magnificent with the impressive buildings of R.H.S. situated above the eight rugby pitches; these were spread out on a gentle slope down to the river Stour. The ground and the grass were in perfect condition, the sun was shining and there was a light breeze, these conditions were to last all day except for a little more cloud towards the latter part of the afternoon. The ground was dry and hard, not conducive to throwing yourself onto it and having your knees dragged over its hard abrasive surface. Our squad consisted of: Callum Rollo, Edmund Lock, Bill Bournes, Will Dunning, Ed Everson, Will Everson, Joe Gaffney, Ollie Goodrich, James Heal, Tom Heal, James Heal, Adam Sutton and Coaches Jason Lock and James Cook. The squad was supported by a selection of parents who were thoroughly entertained and fulfilled their role as supporters with vigour and conviction. Up for grabs for the under 13s were a Trophy, a Plate, and a Bowl. There were twelve teams in contention; they were grouped into 3 pools of four teams, we were in Pool Y. We made base camp close to pitches 2 and 3, where we would play all our games. Our first game was against Colchester B, Will Dunning scored the first try which Adam Sutton was unable to convert, and this was followed with tries from Ollie Goodrich, Tom Hill, Bill Bourne, Ed Everson and two from Adam Sutton. Adam Sutton was only able to convert three of those tries and Tom was unsuccessful at converting the second try of the day. Colchester B did not score. Final score Southwold 41 Colchester 0. Southwold earned a bonus point for scoring four tries against their opponents so with 4 points for a win this gave us 5 points. Our second game was against Harwich who scored two tries and converted both, we fought back with tries from Will Dunning and Joe Gaffney unfortunately Adam Sutton only converted one of these. Final score Southwold 12 Harwich 14. Southwold earned a bonus point for finishing within 7 points of their opponents. Our third game of the day was against R.H.S. the hosts. They were a light team with two tall slim members and this paid dividends for them once either of these two lads got the ball they could out pace our boys but we held them to only four tries all of which they converted. Final score Southwold 0 RHS 28. We finished third in our pool of four teams. This put us in contention for the Plate with our first opponents being Hadleigh. We meet Hadleigh twice last season with successful results both times. We opened well with tries from Tom Heal, James Heal, Will Everson, Ollie Goodrich, Will Dunning, Ed Everson, and a second from Ollie Goodrich. Will Everson was successful in converting his try and Adam Sutton converted two of the remaining tries. Hadleigh scored one try but were unable to convert that. Final score Southwold 41 Hadleigh 5. We were through to the final of the Plate and were to play against Woodbridge A, a team we had met on numerous occasions previously. There was some delay to the start of the game as it was getting late and there was now as shortage of referees. Eventually a young man was found to officiate, he had refereed two of our previous matches and we had been impressed with his professionalism and his calm confidence. It was an exciting game with both teams giving their all as the Plate in sight. Their team was lighter and shorter than ours and we remember well their scrum half who has always been skilful and fast on his feet. They scored two tries and converted both. At one point a gentleman accosted the referee; some of our supporters advised him that he should not do this, our players over heard the ref advising said gentleman that he was not allowed to take any notice of interference from the touch line this professionalism impressed our boys greatly. James Heal scored a try but Adam Sutton was unable to convert. Adam Sutton scored a try which he converted. This made it 14 - 12 to Woodbridge and we were in the dying moments of the second half. With the full vocal support of all our supports and the thought that an attempt had been made against the ref, our lads redoubled their efforts. A scrum 5m from the Woodbridge line gave the boys a lift and after the first scrum broke up the ref set another. A huge push from the scrum and a great hook from Edmund Lock secured the ball, Adam Sutton passed the ball out from the scrum down the line to the wing where Will Dunning ran past their lines to score the winning try. I couldn’t remember if it was converted or not as our celebrations occupied all of our attention at that time. We had won the Plate! Following the presentation of the Plate we made our way home to a good meal and a hot bath.  Scorers Colchester B 0 versus Southwold 41 Tries by Will Dunning, Ollie Goodrich, Tom Heal, Bill Bourne, ED Everson, Adam Sutton x2. Conversions by Adam Sutton x3. Harwich 14 versus Southwold 12 Tries by Will Dunning, Joe Gaffney. Conversions Adam Sutton x1. RHS 28 versus Southwold 0 No score. Hadleigh 5 versus Southwold 41 Tom Hill, James Heal, Will Everson, Ollie Goodrich x2, Will Dunning, Ed Everson. Conversions by Adam Sutton x2 and Will Everson x1. Woodbridge A 14 versus Southwold 17 James Heal, Adam Sutton, Will Dunning. Conversions by Adam Sutton x1. I believe these are correct, when there was a mass of bodies after a try I went with the consensus of our supporters to identify the scorer. Philip Everson |
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