You are here: Match Reports / Sevens/Cartha 19th May 2007
Photos from the Cartha 7's available here
Photos from the Cartha 7's available here
| Hills were saddened by the news on the morning of the Cartha sevens that this was to be Campbell Raes last appearance in a Hills jersey .Campbell has spent 3 seasons at Hughenden with the highlight being promotion from Premier 3 with him as captain.In recognition of his excellent service to the club Campbell was made sub in the first game against Sale and Fraser Murray appointed captain for the tournament . Despite the fact Sale only had 2 first team players, 3 England Under 19 and 2 Under 18 internationalists in their squad they made for difficult opponents in the first fixture and it was no surprise that they ran out winners by 5 tries to zero.Despite some fine individual runs from Gavin,Jamie and Campbell Hills could not get points on the board.It was obvious that after this match with Hills eliminated Sale Sharks would be the tournament favourites. Next up for Hills were Hawks and with one game now under their belt for so many new faces the Hughenden side started very brightly and ran out winners 24-19 with tries from the excellent Fraser,Frodo,Nick and a magnificent Jamie Howarth 60 metre sprint finished off with a brilliant hand off.Niall Houston converted twice.Nick Gallagher should have scored a second try but somehow crossed the line dropped the ball dead at his feet and then incredibly failed to get any pressure on it.D.O.T.D a certainty everyone thought but worse was to follow in Hills next fixture.Making a big impression in this tie was Nick MacAulay who came on during the break and managed to make a number of surging runs and crunching tackles whilst players from both sides struggled with not so much the pace of Rugby Sevens but the excesses of the previous evening In the semi final Hills faced West and should have opened the scoring in the first minute when Andy sauntered over the line and instead of placing the ball down for a score he decided to head behind the posts but a West defender refused to give up the chase and managed to get under the Hills man and hold him up much to the relief of the West supporters and Nick Gallagher.The highlight of this match was a fine try by Gallagher.Despite the defeat there were a number of pluses for Hills to take from this superbly organised tournament |
