ROSSLYN PARK, 18th March 2016: Cranleigh’s 1st VII scooped an historic victory as they lifted the Rosslyn Park Sevens Cup, beating off the top rugby playing schools from Scotland, Wales and England over two days in the world’s largest rugby tournament.
Having won the Festival Plate (now called the Vase) in last year’s event, the team was invited to enter the Cup competition, playing against some of the top school teams in the country.
After winning all four of their games on the Thursday, they had five more matches on the second day beating the likes of Wellington and Millfield before a convincing finish against Harrow earned them the National title for the first time in our hundred year rugby history.
Cranleigh’s Director of Rugby, Andy Houston, said: “We’re all delighted for the boys as they’ve worked really hard for this. We’re a small numbered school compared to some of the competition and we only get to play rugby for one term, most of the boys play hockey or football after Christmas and they’re all doing other things too, one of our key players had to rush back to star in the school musical after the final whistle. “We only train once a week but we’ve revamped our programme over the last few years and it’s certainly paying off now. I couldn’t be more pleased with their performance in this competition.”
While fellow pupils watched the action on live streamed TV, in the quarter finals, Cranleigh beat last year’s champions Wellington 22-15, moving to a resounding 32-0 victory over 2014 champions Millfield in the semis. They finished with a win against Harrow (27-19). The tournament’s organisers wrote that Cranleigh were “Ruthless in attack. Brutal in defence. Sharp in mind”, adding that “all the plaudits go to Cranleigh”.
The team will also replay the final at Twickenham in front of 60,000 people at the IRB London Marriott 7s in May to showcase the best of British school boy rugby.