Rosslyn Park Diaries (Day 1), 20 March

Welcome to Day 1 of our daily report from the Rosslyn Park National Schools 7s tournament. Normally when the event comes around it means that spring has truly sprung. This year however those players and refs knocking the extra kgs of mud off their boots following a day of rain would probably disagree, especially those amongst the 1000 teams who hail from sunnier shores: the tournament this year welcomes teams from Dubai, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and referees from the USA, Canada, Spain, Malaysia and Singapore (and the West Midlands of course…)

Nowhere else in the world will you see such a wide variety of girls’ and boys’ teams in one place: there will always be schools that you’ve never heard of, and it’s always some of those that provide the surprises and upsets, as well as the highest standards of schools rugby you’ll ever see. So stick with us as we bring you the highlights in words and pictures!

Today’s competitions

U18 Boys Vase (the second tier schools competition) 216 teams in the first round

U16 Girls Cup 32 teams

Matches refereed

Julian:

Plymouth College vs Coleg Cymoedd, Scarisbrook Hall vs Tiffin School, Oakham vs Uppingham, Gower College vs RGS Guildford, Eltham v Caterham, Oakham vs RGS Newcastle

Theo:

Cardinal Newman vs London Oratory, Stonyhurst vs Kings Sch Canterbury, The Leys vs Farnborough College, Radley College vs Windsor School

Highlights

A tryline-to-tryline score by Oakham in their last group game, just shaded by a 14 player brawl right in front of the referee tent between two rival teams…!

What we learned today

Teenagers are BIG! Both of us were dwarfed by many of the teams, but despite their size they can really shift, so also teenagers are QUICK!

High profile players/referees spotted

None today: we were stuck out on some far pitches for the day, so watch this space for ‘players spotted’ later in the week.

Livestream

Two of the pitches are being live-streamed throughout the tournament, you can view them by clicking below

Pitch RE1 (the main show pitch featuring nearly all the finals)

Pitch RE2 (next door, and with some equally exciting talent on show)