Wooden Spoon Marauders Super 7’s series first leg
Wooden Spoon Marauders Super 7’s series first leg at Aldershot 26th June – match review from Coach, Keith Boatman
THE Super 7 Series kicked off with its first leg at the Aldershot Rugby Stadium on Armed Forces day. The Wooden Spoon Marauders fielded two squads of men and women in the elite competition which saw a number of International 7’s players feature in a very high calibre tournament.
The Wooden Spoon Marauders Women’s team kicked off first narrowly losing to Samurai 19-5 but this was followed by a strong performance and a 20-19 win against the Ramblin Jesters.
The Marauders pulled well ahead with a hat-trick of tries from Ellie Boatman. However, following a yellow card the Jesters struck back with two late tries using the extra woman advantage, but the Marauders team survived the yellow card to hold out for a win.
The next game against the Army saw further improvements in play with a 32-17 convincing win to secure a place in the Cup Final. This featured a re-match of the opening round against Samurai.
This time the Wooden Spoon Marauders Women were ready for a tough match which resulted in a close fought encounter with no one side running away with a clear lead. However Samurai did take the spoils and triumphed by one try.
The Wooden Spoon Marauders Men’s team started the day with a tough fixture against the Army and found themselves 3 tries down quite quickly. Nevertheless they rallied in the second half scoring all the points to make a real contest of the game, however it was not quite enough.
The second game saw a really strong performance against Compeed Marlborough Nomads resulting in a convincing win 35-19.
Next up the men played Ealing Trailfinders Academy, where an exciting game resulted in a 19-19 draw. Indeed the Trailfinders were lucky to get away with the draw as the Marauders missed a conversion in front of the posts to win the game.
As a result the men dropped into the plate competition based on points difference where they then earnt a convincing win against Lambs rugby and a semi final against Apache. Unfortunately the Wooden Spoon Marauders again lost the semifinal by a missed conversion and Apache then went on to win the Plate competition.
Nevertheless, lessons were learnt by both teams and the club had a really successful day with smiles all round as we celebrated playing Elite rugby in the UK. The Wooden Spoon Marauders 7s team were back playing again!
Thank you to Wooden Spoon Marauders’ kit provider O’Neills and kit sponsors Irwin Mitchell. The team are playing seven tournaments this year and aim to help build awareness of Wooden Spoon for children and young people with disabilities or facing disadvantage.
If you would like to participate in the men’s or women’s 7s rugby squads, please email rugby@woodenspoon.org.uk. Should you wish to play your part by sponsoring the team in any way please contact rugby@woodenspoon.org.uk.
If you would like to see how you can get your rugby club involved with fundraising activities please visit our fundraise for us page.
