Esher Sevens 'Search for a Star' festival 29th April

Group game 1 - Wimbledon 19 - 12 Reeds A
This was a game where we looked the stronger team from the outset, but only just converted that into the victory we deserved. The scoring was opened by a great move between Diogo, Aidan and then Angus who ran over between the posts. Reeds came back strongly to bring it level, but Angus again made a run most of the length of the pitch to score and take us in 12-7 up. The second half began very tight, but Reeds pushed over in the corner to bring it back to 12-12. The deciding try came when Nic broke the Reeds line and ran in between the posts, Max again converting to take us to a 19-12 victory.

Group game 2 - Wimbledon 34 - 0 Esher B
A much more one-sided game, where the time put into Sevens training over the last few weeks really showed. First try to Nic having spotted a gap, then two tries for Angus in quick succession. The first a great move involving Charlie and Dom, and the second Charlie again releasing Angus to score. 19 - 0 up at half time.

The first score after half time was a classic move involving the whole line, pushing Esher first right and then left, opening up an overlap for Dom to score. This was followed by a more individual effort when Aidan kicked through and followed up to score. Sam was then most unhappy to have a try disallowed, but this was followed shortly afterwards by another good example of moving the ball quickly, Max eventually going over.

Group game 3 - Wimbledon 33 - 5 London Irish B
Based on previous results, this should have been an easier game than the previous two; however we made very heavy weather of the first few minutes, not entirely excused by the actual heavy weather or the rather heavy opposition. After some dropped chances, the team eventually remembered that we have a very fast winger - the ball was shipped down the line to Sam who scored under the posts. A great charge-down from Aidan was unfortunately wasted when he didn't get enough support, but repeating the earlier move paid dividends when Sam again scored out on the right. 12 - 0 up at half time.

The second half began with a great run by Alfie, and support from Sam enabled them to interchange well and get the ball back to Alfie for him to score. Charlie then broke through the Irish line for a great individual try, and soon afterwards Sam chased his own kick to outpace the defence and score himself. Max got a difficult conversion, and a mention is due to both Max who slotted all of his kickable conversions today, and also to Cameron whose kicking was equally good, particularly a restart in the Reeds game. A late Irish try was unable to affect the result.

Cup Quarter-final. Wimbledon 12 - 26 High Wycombe
With the side still exhausted from the group game, it was a tough ask when they were told they had to play again in 10 minutes time. The High Wycombe team had managed a huge 46-0 victory in one of their group games, and the reason was apparent when their very strong and quick star player carved through our defence to give them an early 7- 0 lead. Not to be outdone, we responded with an excellent try as Diogo executed a brutal handoff on the right wing and looped round under the posts. The strong running from HW was very hard to hold up, though Angus was doing his best with a string of great tackles. However with good support running by HW and some missed tackles by Wimbledon, we were down another two tries by half-time and at 7 -21.

Starting the second half strongly, we pushed High Wycombe back and one in their half put them under enough pressure for Aidan to kick through and score in the corner. That put us within two scores, and although we had the best of the possession in the second half, it was High Wycombe who scored next, another strong run from their star player.

The team were out on their feet by the end, but had put in a great run of games and were a credit to their club. Roll on next year!
Try scorers:
Angus 4, Sam 3, Nic 2, Aidan 2, Dom, Max, Charlie, Alfie, Diogo