Rugeley Rugby Club’s fou 
rth annual 7s competition took place on 8th June, with 12 teams and over 200 players taking part.

The eventual winners Barton under Needwood defeated Burntwood in the final to take the trophy away from Cannock for the first time in two years.

Photo: Barton under Needwood celebrate their victory

It was the players of Birmingham City College who took the crowd’s attention early on, topping their group with some impressive ball skills and hard running.  Barton breezed through their group whereas Rugeley, Burntwood and Trentham each defeated each other in the “Group of Death” with all three teams finishing on identical points. 

Rugeley’s A team went on to win the plate com
petition with narrow victories against Telford Stingers and Trentham along the way.  Eccleshall defeated Cannock B in the final of the Beer Cup.As is traditional in a 7s tournament, the group placings were used to split the competition into three tiers.  The shock of the day came in the first semi-final of the cup, when Burntwood kept it tight against Birmingham College until the last 2 minutes before defeating the students with an attacking scrum and good support play.  This set up a final against Barton under Needwood who put Cannock to the sword.  Burntwood looked as if they had left their best game in the semi-final and Barton ran out comfortable winners.

Solicitor Adam Penn was on hand from sponsors Ansons Solicitors to hand over the trophies to the winning captains.

Adam said” It is great for Ansons to be involved in what has become a major event in the Staffordshire sporting calendar”.

Carl Johnson, Chairman of
 Rugeley also hailed the event a success: “It was definitely our best yet both in attendance of players and spectators together with the quality of rugby. I

 would like to congratulate Barton on their victory”.

Photo: Barton Skipper Daniel Carlin collects the trophy from Adam Penn of Ansons Solicitors.

Barton skipper Daniel Carlin was delighted with his team’s victory “It was a great day! Thanks to everyone involved on behalf of Barton under Needwood rugby Club”.

The Rugeley 7s is the first event in the Staffordshire Rugby 7s Series.  The second event takes place at Trentham on 22nd June.