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Quality Cup, VRK 7s
18 apr 2016 1 kommentar
The Men’s representative, Tim Dodd, had the pleasure of speaking with the Uppsala Men’s 7’s Captain, Elliot Piper, after the tremendous display of Uppsala spirit at the Quality Cup, Vänersborg 7s.
Dodd: Well Piper, it was a fantastic result over the weekend. Undefeated on Saturday, what were your thoughts going into the finals on Sunday?
Piper: First thought was, can I field a team of 7 sober blokes here? Vänersborg were hospitable enough to look after our boys post-match Saturday and opened up their bar for a few cocktails on Saturday evening, which the Uppsala boys gratefully accepted with open arms. We fought incredibly hard all day Saturday, 4 very tough matches in quick succession without a full squad of 12. Sunday morning at breakfast there were some sore bodies but after some slick warm ups in the warmth and dry of our dressing room the boys were ready to crack on again Sunday morning with a tough start against the Uddevalla chaps.
Dodd: So you were all a bit dusty going into day 2 but nevertheless triumphed in the first game. How was the team feeling going into the last game? I understand you had few that had never played 7’s and also a couple that were relatively new to rugby? A lot of nerves?
Piper: Yeah we brushed ourselves off pretty quickly on Sunday morning, bit of a baptism of fire for most of the boys new to the 7s circuit but we actually managed to get together a very nice defensive pattern early on in the tournament which was a major contributor to our success in my opinion. Our solid defence gave us the platform to then throw the ball around and then even the newer chaps the game could express themselves going forward. One of the beauties of 7 a side rugby is there really is not time for nerves you’re straight out of one game into the next warm up.
Dodd: As Captain, can you name a few outstanding players from the team?
Piper: Defensively there were some rocks out there; the likes of Ryan Mintz, Daniel Rivas and Robin Backebjörk were smashing opposition all over the park. That opened up the game for some of the other boys to run in plenty of tries, special mention to Peter Berglund who swooped in under the radar with 4 or more scores for the weekend. I think we really hit the balance with forwards/backs ratio it was telling being able to bring on fresh and mobile legs in the second half to spice things up a bit and keep the opposition blowing. I think a few of the boys have got some work to do on the celebration front, there wasn't much being offered there also a bit of fitness work to do especially when those big breaks are made from distance, few occasions we could have used an oxygen tank out there to resuscitate the try scorer.
Dodd: Has the success in this tournament opened a door for URFC in the 7s series this year?
Piper: The way Uppsala shaped up in such a short turnaround with a group of boys who have never played together and almost zero 7s experience, It’s impossible to write us off for bigger things in this upcoming series. With a few fresh faces coming into the squad to bolster what we built in Vänersborg, we will definitely be heading up to Sandviken this weekend absolutely buzzing and confident to get going and see a few more W’s next to our name.
URFC won 5 out of 6 games, going down in a heated battle in the final to Vännersborg Rugby Club (VRK). Thanks once again to VRK for hosting the tournament.
Kommentarer
Henke 18 apr 2016
Awesome!