On Saturday May 14th the RFUW National Sevens competition was held at Lichfield RFC. Welwyn-Saints U18 Girls team played some excellent rugby against the top teams in the country and emerged having won all their 5 games to take the honours at this prestigious tournament.
Welwyn found themselves in a tough group with Exeter –Saracens and Lichfield at the start of the tournament. In the first game, Exeter started strongly and scored first in the opening minutes. This rallied the Welwyn girls who eventually ran in convincing winners 24-5. The next game was against Lichfield and based on the earlier encounters in the East-Midlands League, Welwyn knew that the opposition would be a physically strong team. This certainly proved to be the case and the flowing rugby that we saw in the previous game was now being disrupted. Lichfield dominated the contact areas and were deservedly ahead 12-7 with only a minute to play. Welwyn were pinned down well inside their own 22 and it looked like the game was lost. Suddenly though, Welwyn broke through the solid defence and released their backs into space. A few timely passes later and Welwyn had scored to draw level at 12-12. A difficult conversion was to be the last play of the game. Courtney Arberry stepped forward to strike a perfect drop kick. Welwyn took the game 14-12 and proceeded into the top –tier cup competition. Lichfield were rewarded for their excellent play by going on to win the Plate competition.
The Cup was to be played as a round robin style competition involving 3 other teams: London Irish, Worcester and Paviours, alongside Welwyn. The first Welwyn game was against London Irish, possibly the strongest outfit in the country. Bob Dawson, the Welwyn coach seemed unfazed by the Lichfield affair and planned the tactics for the forthcoming game while most of the supporters and the team managers went for a lie down!
From the kick off, Welwyn’s strategy of keeping the ball alive and maintaining constant support for the ball carrier seemed to mesmerise the opposition. London Irish struggled to get their hands on the ball and, when they did, Welwyn forced errors by early pressure. Welwyn ran in comfortable winners 24-0. The London Irish girls showed great sportsmanship throughout; a game played in great spirit.
In the next game, Welwyn took to the pitch and put in a gritty performance to beat Paviours 17-0 and with Worcester winning all their games, a final showdown was set up between Welwyn and Worcester for the Cup. This game was a contrast to the earlier flowing London Irish game. It was a close, tough physical encounter. Both teams showed great tackling and defensive qualities. In the end Welwyn’s determination paid off and they ran in winners by 17-5. The celebrations started and Welwyn-Saints took home the RFUW National Sevens trophy.
