Highlands 7's Wrap

On Saturday the 4th October Southern Districts entered 2 colts teams into the Colts division of the Highland 7's at Bowral. This was our 2nd year of participating in this 7's Tournament and after the last minute defeat in the final last season redemption was the focus of the day. The conditions were hot and the fields were hard and fast and the teams started in cracking form with the A's having a big win over Bowral and the B's beating Canberra Royals 17 to 12 after being down 12 nil at halftime and storming back to score 17 unanswered points in one of the performances of the day. Next game was the grudge match A's v B's. Some good heart banter at the start soon turned serious when Jake Labrano scored a great try for the B's. The A's started to click into gear with Albert Hemopo giving some great momentum and a number of good tries were scored of some good go forward but the B's scored the try of the day with 6 players involved in a great team try to end an entertaining game with the A's finishing with bragging rights 31 to 17 win. Next game was the A's v Cooma who put in a strong 1st half to have the A's under some pressure but a more determined 2nd half had the As winning 41 to 7. The B's were next up against Bowral and had a hard fought match to win 15 nil and some poor goal kicking was bit of a worry. The big match between the A's and Canberra Royals was eagerly awaited but a lack lustre performance by the A's resulted in a 26 to 12 win to the the Royals who looked very good and completely out played the A's. Last up was the B's v Cooma resulting in a very strong performance by the B's to beat Cooma and now the wait to see how the final positions ended up with the A's and B's and the Royals all with 1 loss each. After some confusion and rechecking of scores the Finals were the A's v Royals in the final and B's v Bowral in the Bowl final. The B's defeated Bowral in a tight match but the B's ran away in the end so 1 down and 1 to go. The attitude in the warm up by the A's certainly showed the players had there game heads on and in a blistering start and then not slackening off resulted in a 48 to 10 victory to the A's and the end of a tough but enjoyable and successful day. 2 Trophies for the days effort was a good reward and Matt Teki winning the player of the final had smiles all round and the boys chaffing at the bit too sing the club song to the big crowd but sanity prevailed and the feinting of some women was prevented. Special thanks to Lance Taylor coming to Bowral and helping with the strapping and also to Kim Johnson with the massaging of the players and also to Sonny Bill Williams for his video to the boys offering encouragement through the Colts Facebook page. Also a big thanks to Mr and Mrs Raru for coming to Bowral and doing a BBQ and feeding the players. Lastly to the players for the way they played and conducted themselves and looking forward to playing in next years Highland 7's.