Northampton Saints' side reached the quarter-final of this year's Bury St Edmunds Sevens yesterday after two convincing pool stage wins but Saints fell out of the competitive tournament in the first knock-out round.
With a group of Saints senior players teaming up with Senior Academy youngsters for the first Sevens competition of the year, Saints stormed to their first victory of the tournament, beating Exiles 40-7 in the first game. Tries from Will Allman, Fraser Strachan and double scores from Tom Collins and Alex Mitchell securing them the win.
Next Saints faced the Marauders and again posted a win. This time racking up a 36-14 win over their opponents in another try fest.
Saints' final pool game of the day saw them take on Young England. The game was a tight one all the way through but Saints found themselves just pipped to the win by England as the national side took the 24-22 victory.
The loss did not matter, however, as Saints had already qualified for the knock-out stages of the competition and progressed through the quarter-final stage.
In that game they faced the Samurai, the side that would make it all the way to the final only to fall to this year's tournament winners the British Army. Saints fought valiantly and got three scores on the board but it was not enough and the Samurai took a 36-21 win to continue in the competition.
SAINTS SQUAD THAT WENT TO BURY 7s
1 Lewis Ludlam
2 Will Allman
3 Ben Nutley
4 Devante Onojaife
5 Fraser Strachan
6 Tom Kessell
7 James Grayson
8 Alex Mitchell
9 Tom Collins
10 Rory Hutchinson
11 Alex Moon
