The JP Morgan 7’s preliminary rounds produced some good and average rugby games, though more good than bad.
Thursday night and proceedings opened at Gloucester Rugby Club’s Kingsholm with Worcester Warriors and Gloucester coming out one and two in group ‘A’ and qualifying for the finals next Friday night at Baths Recreation Ground. Worcester went unbeaten on the night, a big turnaround for a team that was not tipped to progress, so one right and one wrong for us.
Friday night and Group ‘B’ were at Northampton Saints Franklin’s Gardens. We had predicted Leicester Tigers and Newcastle Falcons would go through and so it was, although we did get the order the wrong way round as Falcons claimed top spot and the Tigers second.
The weekend proceedings ended on Saturday evening at Allianz Park, home of Saracens. Here we called one correctly and one wrong as London Irish last seasons champions were knocked out by Harlequins and Saracens and in that order.
So it is we have all the finalists and with Harlequins and Worcester claiming maximum points it should a fascinating contest.
So we will go for Harlequins to claim top spot with Saracens second and Falcons third. Here are all the preliminary results:
Results from the weekend:
GROUP A
Bath 19-29 Gloucester
Exeter Chiefs 17-26 Worcester Warriors
Exeter Chiefs 17-20 Bath
Gloucester 19-31 Worcester Warriors
Bath 14-27 Worcester Warriors
Exeter 19-28 Gloucester
GROUP B
Newcastle Falcons 28-22 Northampton Saints
Leicester Tigers 10-7 Sales Sharks
Leicester Tigers 10-19 Newcastle Falcons
Northampton Saints 22-24 Sale Sharks
Newcastle Falcons 12-5 Sale Sharks
Leicester Tigers 17-5 Northampton Saints
GROUP C
London Irish 12-24 Saracens
Harlequins 26-19 London Wasps
Harlequins 42-19 London Irish
Saracens 21-17 London Wasps
London Irish 31-19 London Wasps
Harlequins 24-21 Saracens
Finals Venue and Teams
Friday 9th August Recreation Ground, Bath 19:00
Worcester Warriors, Gloucester, Newcastle Falcons, Leicester Tigers, Harlequins and Saracens.