The JP Morgan Premiership 7’s Finals at the Recreation Ground Bath ended in a fine final between Leicester Tigers and Gloucester which Gloucester won 24-17.
This was a great night of some flashing rugby in front of a very near full house, not bad since the hosts were not playing.
The evening opened with one of the new favourites Worcester Warriors unable to back up their top spot last week going down 12-35 to the exciting young Tigers outfit albeit like many squads made up of a few guest players. The first game in pool B saw Gloucester and Newcastle Falcons in a hum dinger which went to Gloucester 20-0. Pool A and the big one Harlequins versus Tigers thought this would go the way of the Quins, but no Tigers youngsters came back to take it Harlequins 17-19 Leicester Tigers.
We were now beginning to see how the night would pan out and so Saracens Newcastle was a great test as Saracens came through 19-15. This set up a winner takes all for group B between Gloucester and Saracens, whilst Leicester Tigers had booked their place with two wins in Pool A.
Gloucester Saracens was a titanic battle as the smashed pieces out of each other and went nip and tuck to the final whistle a narrow win and top spot to Gloucester 17-14.
So to the final and Gloucester bullied the young speedy Leicester Tigers in the first half running out to 17-0 at the break. However with the big units on the park and ten minutes each way we expected them to slow down and so it was that the Tiger cubs came back at them bringing it to 12-17 with five minutes to go. Some how the big men found some air and Gloucester pretty much sewed it up with a last try on seventeen minutes 24-12. Though it was Leicester Tigers who had the last score on full time, to little to late as they went down 24-17. Champions Gloucester.
This weekend see the Twickenham World Club Sevens on 17/18 August and televised live on BT Sport
Here are the participating teams:
World Club 7s Teams
Gloucester, Harlequins, Northampton Saints England
Kuban Krasnodar, Moscow VVA Moscow Region Russia
Brumbies, Australia
Blues, New Zealand
Vodacom Blue Bulls, DHL Western Province South Africa
Buenos Aires Argentina
San Francisco, New York USA