After a Development Men’s team bowed out of the London Floodlit Sevens at Rosslyn Park in the group stages, the Senior Men and Senior Women headed to Bournemouth for one of the world’s biggest sports and music festivals.
The Women finished as runners-up after a pair of days which saw plenty of tries and a nice piece of revenge to reach the final.
With one loss in the group stages to English Universities and wins over Tropics, Wild Dogs Alpha Park, Hammerheads and Bath Women, the red shirts were in a semi-final against the English Universities.
The group match had been lost 15-19, so there was plenty of satisfaction in reversing that result, the Army winning 17-7.
However revenge can go both ways, and in the final it was Hammerheads who came out firing, overturning the Army’s group round win when it mattered, 40-0 the final result.
The Men also had one loss in their group stage, going down to The Voyagers 19-24. But with wins over Wild Dogs Alpha Pack, Nomad 7s and – satisfyingly – RAF Spitfires, the red shirts were safely through to the quarter finals.
A 17-10 win over Wyvern Harlequins put the Army into the semi-finals, and up against a familiar opposition, Speranza 22. Speranza showed why they are always one of the most dangerous sides on the Sevens circuit by winning the contest 12-5.
Then last weekend it was a return to the capital and the Summer Social Sevens at Richmond Athletic Ground.
This time it was the Men who progressed further on the day, despite an opening loss to Nuocco. However they shrugged this off in style with a 33-14 win over Apache, before scoring a trio of trios in the knockout stages, crossing the line three times in the quarter, semi and final.
The Ramblin’ Jesters were seen off 17-5 in the quarters, but there was a mighty scare against the Wild Dogs in the semi-final, 17-15 the final score.
This put the Army in a final against Wyvern Harlequins, who they had faced in Bournemouth the previous weekend. The result was the same, the Army coming out on top 17-5 to lift their first silverware of the season.
The Women also had one loss in the group stages, going down by an agonizing one point to Beavers in their final match of the round robins.
Nevertheless wins over Belsize Park and Thameside – both of which achieved without conceding a point – put the Army into the semi-finals and a clash with Ramblin’ Jesters.
This proved to be a match too far for the team, the Jesters running out 22-15 winners.
Both the Men and Women head north for their next competition, the Edinburgh City Sevens on June 17th.
Words © New Dogs, Old Tricks
All images – Alligin Photography © Cat Goryn and Geraint Ashton-Jones
