A largely Penrith-based squad of players was pulled together by Nigel Beaty to take part in the rugby 7s competition held at Tynedale over the weekend.
Beaty’s employers Halbro sponsored the side by providing the kit and there were two separate competitions on the day.
Eight sides competed in a social event and the Penrith-based side took part along with five other sides in the elite competition which was run on a league basis with every side playing each other with the league leader winning the day.
First up were a Newcastle School Old Boys team who had clearly played sevens before whereas the Cumbrian side clearly had little 7s experience. All the same it was a close game with the Halbro 7s side losing out 17-12 at the death scoring tries through Ben Dixon and a good individual effort by Nick Dudson.
Next up were the eventual winners of the competition from the home club who dished out a bit of a sevens lesson. Being both much more experienced in this form of the game and a more powerful side they ran out winners scoring 36 unanswered points.
The afternoon then improved for the Cumbrian side, as next they came up against a Novocastrian side and looked to be getting the hang of this format of the game, playing some nice rugby to win 27-5. Tries came from Matty Boustead, Euan Forlow, Arran Cavaghan, Brad Taylor and Darren Lee.
The conversions in these events take the form of a drop goal and the highlight of this game could well have been Boustead’s touchline drop goal conversion.
Next up was an army team, First Fusiliers, that included Penrithian Brad Quail. This was the fourth game of the day and the army lads looked to be tiring and they went down 43-12 to the Halbro 7s side.
In an open game Boustead scored again as did Lee and Dixon, Adrigh Cole and James Reynolds added tries and Richard Addison, the only player with any real 7’s pedigree scored a brace.
The final game was against what was effectively Tynedale’s second string, who were enjoying their afternoon playing in fancy dress although taking the game seriously.
A win was needed to secure joint second place and as the game came to a climax they led 19-17 with tries from Boustead, Dudson and Lee. Fraser Nicolson then confirmed the win as he just managed to off the final defender on a long run to the line.
Coaches Ed Swale and Scott Rattray would be pleased with their afternoon’s work with many positives, the two main ones being the form of teenager Cavaghan and the return to rugby of speedster Lee who has clearly lost none of his pace
