Our rugby academy at Barnet and Southgate College run in partnership with Saracens continued with their most successful season for many years as they reached the British College Sport National 7’s Finals in Bath, after winning the Regional event yesterday at Barnes RFC in South London.
The 12 man squad made up of many of London Skolars Junior products travelled south of the river in an optimistic mood as they bidded to reach the National stages for the first time ever. Drawn in a group with strong favourites Richmond College and the unknown of Havering Sixth Form it was going to be a tough task ahead of them.
As with all these types of tournaments in the College sector there were teams that pulled out on the day and it ended up that it would be a three way shootout for a place in the Nationals, with favourites Richmond drawn against Barnet and Southgate first. The boys and coaches knew that victory in this game would put them very much in pole position, however as is the norm with the Barnet and Southgate side they started slowly and the Richmond side raced into a 12-0 lead with two fantastic break-away tries. As the BSC boys began to adjust to the relatively new 7-a-side format of the game, they began to grow in confidence and found some gaps in the Richmond defence. An opportunist try from scrum-half Bence Balogh followed by a fantastic break-away try from Luca Vettori saw the BSC boys claw their way back into the game, and the successful kicks from Alex Mcall were to prove crucial as the game reached its final few minutes. A much tighter second half saw the game reach it’s crescendo with only 5 points separating the sides, with only seconds to play, the referee spotted that Richmond had 8 players on the field of play, rightly he reversed the penalty and this gave Barnet and Southgate one final chance to attack, Richmond’s defence held firm against wave and wave of Barnet attack until after some great rucking by winger Bledar Ramushi, inspirational captain Donovan Noble carried 3 defenders over the line to score the winning try and send the coaches and watching squad members jumping in delight.
After such a fantastic win it was time to re-focus as Havering Sixth Form were up next immediately, however buoyed by their performance in the previous game and against a large Havering pack, the BSC boys were rampant and played some superb 7’s in what was a fantastic way to end the tournament, the highlight being a 70 metre break from half-back Luca Vettori, finished by some excellent support from captain and player of the day Donovan Noble.
The Rugby Academies win kick-started a fantastic day for the college as the boy’s football academy and girls football academy run by Tottenham Hotspur Foundation also won their respective tournaments, meaning Barnet and Southgate College will be represented by 4 academies at the British College Sport National Finals, at Bath University in March.
Here is a picture of the winning squad and coaches before and after their win.
