BREDON Hill Academy’s year seven team turned on the style to triumph in the annual Sibford 7s tournament in Oxfordshire – a great result for a state school in a private school tournament.
Twenty-two teams from Oxfordshire, Worcestershire, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire and Gloucestershire competed to become the winner of this prestigious tournament, which has been running for 15 years.
In the group stages, Bredon were drawn against Monkton, Akeley Wood, Cotswold School, The Coopers School and Icknield.
In the first game, things did not go to plan for Bredon as, despite being 12-0 up at half-time, they lost 21-12 to Cotswold School. It was a game they should have won but too many errors cost them dearly in the second half.
From this point on, Bredon Hill never looked back, starting with their second game against Icknield. The boys were determined to make up for their slow start and blew the opposition away 49-0.
The third game was against Akeley Wood, previous winners of the competition, and Bredon continued from where they left off and the opposition struggled to keep up with the high tempo they were displaying, resulting in a 42-14 win.
The fourth game was against The Coopers School and Bredon were relentless with their high tempo style of rugby to produce another win, this time 40-0.
Heading into the final group game, three teams were tied on points at the top of the table, meaning Bredon needed to score as many points as they could to ensure they had a better points difference.
They did not disappoint with a 35-0 win over Monkton which meant they topped their group and would face Burford in the quarter finals.
In the first half, Bredon were going up the slope and the opposition started quickly to lead 14-7 after a couple of minutes. However, Bredon Hill regrouped and found their rhythm, getting themselves back on top and eventually winning 47-14.
The semi-final was against Magdalen College School and this was a closer contest but the boys held their nerve and played some excellent rugby to win 28-5.
The final was against a very well organised Cheltenham Prep School who had beaten Bredon Hill in September in a 12-a-side game.
In the first half, Cheltenham Prep had lots of possession but Bredon continually pressurised the opposition into making a few mistakes. Those mistakes resulted in Bredon Hill scoring three tries in the first half and leading 19-0 at half-time.
The second half was much more open as Cheltenham Prep were working hard to reduce the deficit but the next and final try came from Bredon who celebrated a 26-0 victory and superb overall success.
Across their eight games, Bredon Hill scored 279 points and conceded only 54.
The Bredon Hill squad featured Barney Cooper, Finnley Davey, Sam Wilson, Felix Hyett, Jake Foster, Alex Macmillan, Kia Webb, Oliver Ralph, Will Holley, Archie Wright and Ben Ayres.