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Find Rugby Now 7s Festival 2016 Review & Photos

IMG_4293On 6 August 2016 Find Rugby Now 7s Festival celebrated its fifth anniversary at the beautiful Staines Rugby Club in London.

The festival featured over 500 players composing over 40 rugby teams from all over the UK and Europe and offered over £1,500 of prize money across the competitions.

RED Rockets and Moody Cows took home £500 and £300, respectively, in cash prizes for coming top in the men’s and women’s Cup competitions, respectively (full list of winners and finalists provided below).

frn 7sThe event also raised some well needed funds for the official charity, Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, which had a presence on the day with several dogs and volunteers to inform attendees about the charity.

Next year’s Festival will be held in August 2017 in London. Check out the Festival website and the Festival FB Page for more information!

Festival

73 FRN 7s  2016This year’s Festival included a variety of entertainment for both spectators and players alike, with free performances and activities for the whole family, including the FRN Cheerleaders, Caribbean Steele Drum performance, tunes of DJ Brown, face painting and more!

The tournament also featured a “superheroes” fancy dress after-party featuring DJ Charlotte Devaney that played tunes well into the night accompanied by the sexy dancing of The Narni Shakers, which were a big hit at the after-party with their fire dancing.

The weather did not disappoint and it was a perfect day for playing rugby as evidenced by the tans and the shirtless players all around the grounds! Players were thankful for the free boxes of Vita Coco, which kept them hydrated throughout the day.

FRN was pleased to be joined by several VIP guests at the Festival, which included our tournament sponsors and several former English Internationals, including World Cup Winner Claire Purdy.

Find Rugby Now Director and Tournament organiser, Ellaine Gelman, said:

“The standard of rugby was especially high this year and both the men’s and women’s competitions were very entertaining.”

3Spectators and players also benefited from a variety of food and drink options throughout the Festival, which included a Pimms and Lemonade Marquee, Staines Rugby Club bar, Wurstbrothers serving German Bratwurst, classic BBQ and Farriers Refreshments serving coffees/teas and cakes.

Please see below for Festival results, photos and the FRN 7s official video (coming soon!).

We hope to see all of you back next year!

7s Competitions

This year’s 7s tournament featured very competitive men’s and women’s sides across the competitions, which included past FRN 7s Winners including Apache Braves, Samurai Bulldogs and Moody Cows. We were especially thrilled to have such a good turnout from the women’s sides, which allowed us to host a plate and a cup competition.

Men’s Open 7s Results

FRN 7s 2016 Winners-8The winner of the Cup Tournament was RED Rockets, which have come off the back of a very successful season as National Plate Champions in the RFU 24 Sevens Series and winners of the Essex 7s. Their squad dominated the tournament with the help of experienced players like World Cup Winner Rhodri McAtee and gasman Jaid Wiltshire.

2014 Winners Samurai Bulldogs came in as runners-up showing some very impressive play in the final, but ultimately could not match the aggressive attack of the RED Rockets.

FRN 7s 2016 Winners-10The winner of the Open Plate competition was the Stunts (formerly known as the Cunning Stunts), which hail from Birmingham. The team had a successful showing on the day with the help of notable play from Kiwis Dane Edge and Andrew Fluker. Stunts have had a strong 2016 season coming in as finalists in the RFU 24 Sevens Series and becoming back to back Neuchatel Champions in Switzerland.

MK Zulu Warriors coming in as runners-up. This was the team’s fourth year at FRN 7s Festival and this year’s team featured a mixture of local rivals Bletchlet and Milton Keynes.

Men’s Social 7s Results

FRN 7s 2016 Winners-4The winner of the Social Tournament was The Cancer Research Wolves, which are a team endorsed by Cancer Research UK to help raise awareness and money for charity. Although they are a newly established team, they have competed at the highest levels of some major tournaments only just losing in the final stages at Bournemouth 7s.

Roo-Bar-Barbarians were the runners-up in the Social competition. The team was formed earlier this year but have already had some good results on the sevens circuit, including winning the Kabuto Cup (Bowl) at South West 7s. Notable players included Ed Saunders (formerly Leicester Tigers) and American Universities 7s MVP, Tom Hemmings.

Women’s 7s Results

FRN 7s 2016 Winners-6The winner of the Charlotte Lloyd Cup competition was Moody Cows (an experienced invitational side composed of a mixture of premiership and international players) with our very own Find Rugby Now Ladies coming in as runners-up.

Moody Cows were finalists last year, but did one better this year coming in top of the competition and winning the £300 top prize, which is to be donated to MacMillan Cancer Support. To date, the team has been able to donate around £25,000 to the charity with their prize earnings, which is very impressive indeed! The team had good results this season as winners of Ibiza 10s and runners-up at the Beach Touch Wales (Swansea). Notable players included Scotland internationals Louise Dalgliesh and Mhairi Grieve as well as Swedish internationals Emilia Kristiansson (current 7s captain) and Sandra Elfast.

The Find Rugby Now Ladies have also had a very strong season having won Bury St Edmunds 7s and Milton Keynes 7s and having coming in as runners-up at the Charlotte Lloyd Memorial 10s. The team also won the bowl at the RFU 24 Sevens Series, making them the 5th best amateur rugby 7s team in the country.

FRN 7s 2016 Winners-9The winner of the Plate competition was Hampstead Ladies RFC, which were last year’s FRN 7s Social runner’s up. The team was captained by Chloe Atkinson, which demonstrated good leadership and skill throughout the tournament.

The Plate runner’s up were the Scraped Together BaBas, a newly formed barbarians side captained by Chiara de Lucia, for whom this was the first ever 7s tournament as a team. The ladies did remarkably well – especially when considering that two of their players had never played rugby before!

Men’s 10s Competition

FRN 7s 2016 Winners-2This year was the third year that we included rugby 10s into the Festival and it did not disappoint!

The competition included a mixture of rugby club sides and invitational teams, including the Cancer Crusaders, Phantoms, East India Club RFC, Blue Ruskin State and the South London Tropics.

The winner of the competition was the South London Tropics. The South London Tropics were our very last entry to the FRN 7s Festival and we are glad that they decided to do so! Many congratulations to Angus Clogg, who has just gotten married!

The runner-up of the 10s competition was the Phantoms, which we were told were resurrected from the dead especially for this tournament! We were told that “every player is an outstanding athlete at their prime of physical perfection.”

Charity Partners

973 FRN 7s  2016FRN was proud to work with our official Festival Charity, the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.

Spectators and players had the opportunity to visit the charity’s marquee, meet some of the dogs from the charity and learn more about their efforts to rescue lost, abandoned & unwanted animals since 1860.

We hope that the funds and the awareness raised on the day for the charity will help contribute to the support some animals in need.

Special Thanks

FRN would like to extend their gratitude to the following companies/individuals:

Zoti, our tournament partner, for providing fantastic rugby shirts for our staff.
Lusum Rugby for providing the official FRN 7s match balls.
Vita Coco for providing well needed hydration to our players.
Star Medical for taking care of all of our players so well on the day.
The George for sponsoring some tournament prizes.
Bounce Balls for providing much-needed energy and protein to our players.
Charlotte Lloyd Charity for partnering with us on the women’s competitions.
RED Teamware for donating rugby balls and t-shirts for tournament prizes.
Scrumpix for taking amazing photos throughout the tournament.
Supreme Engraving for providing quality trophies time after time.
DJ Charlotte Devaney and The Narni Shakers for fantastic evening entertainment.
Staines Rugby Club for providing us with a great space to host our tournament.
Adele and Bob from Staines Rugby Club for helping us make the tournament possible.

Photos

More photos can be found on our FB page here: https://www.facebook.com/FRN7s


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