Inaugural Super Sevens Series event at London Rugby Rocks tournament in Richmond (4th June)

A scorching hot, sunny day saw some fiery rugby action in the Inaugural Super Sevens Series event at the Rugby Rocks Tournament in Richmond.

The Marauders, with an excellent squad on paper, started very slowly but managed to catch up enough to win their group and then move into the quarters finals where we were beaten by a very well drilled Gilbert Pups side.

The final was contested by Samurai Barracudas and the Army, with Samurai running out winners by 33 points to 24, which sounds a bit similar to last year’s overall series outcome.

As you might imagine the White Hart Marauders are keen to break up these two teams at the top of the table, so a bit of a disappointing day for the Marauders but Howard and Barrie are working hard to get the boys in shape for the West Country Sevens on the 18th June where they will be looking to be sharper right from the start!

Having reached the quarter finals we are currently sitting joint 4th in the series table (see here) so it is important to have a top two result to get back into the reckoning at West Country. The Richmond Marauders squad photo can be seen above when you click on the picture.

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Eversley Wild Boar 7s, 29th May 2011

Whilst the party animals headed to Bournemouth, the 7s purists gathered in Eversley, Hampshire for the second staging of the Wild Boar 7s and were treated to an exceptionally high standard of rugby that exceeded the quality of the inaugural event last August.

With all games played on one pitch in the wonderful setting of the Eversley Sports Association ground, supporters, players and their families enjoyed 8 hours of exciting rugby without having to leave their seats, bar or food concessions.

12 teams competed for three trophies and a total of £1,500 in prize money with defending Champions Samurai Sharks hoping to do the double, but there were a few dark horses in the field that threw up one or two surprises. See the full description of the event here....

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Amsterdam 2011 Marauders Vets 10's

We are proud to announce that The Marauder Vets continued their winning ways in the 2011 Vets 10s Tournament in Amsterdam, having won the previous year against the formidable Pacific Islanders.

This year they beat the Wooden Spoons in a one sided final. Captain Warren (Lofty) Milne said they are starting to get back to the form they had in 2006 when they won three tournaments, and had their best ever year.

To top this, one of the Marauders players, Brad Hepi, was awarded player of the Vets Tournament, a great honour for Brad and the team given the standard of the Amsterdam Tournament.

The Marauders Vet brushed aside all of the competition to win this year’s event where their points result must be an Amsterdam record. Their final tally was a score of 154 points for, and zero against, a very impressive performance. Well played to Lofty and the lads!

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Amsterdam Sevens 2011

WHM made their annual pilgrimage to the Amsterdam Sevens this weekend of 21st May for the 29th time for what was the 40th anniversary of the tournament. Click on the picture to see the team.

Amsterdam is one of the largest 7s events in Europe and its is run over two days. Day one sees all the teams mixed together in varying standards and the day one results sets the seeding for the Silver Pier event on the Sunday.

With our Senior players Howard Graham and James Reilly in the squad the average age was 21 but the whole squad played some mature and exciting 7s rugby to rack up 27 tries on the Saturday and a further 16 on the Sunday morning which put us into a quarter final slot against our long term rivals HFC Wailers.

Matches between our two sides are always nail biting and this one was no different. Playing end to end rugby and entering the last play of the game we found ourselves 19 - 17 down when the ref awarded a penalty to us and no time to kick to the corner.

Howard Graham stepped up to the plate to kick the penalty which could win us the match and a semi final place. In blustery conditions the ball went agonizingly wide of the posts.

Game over. HFC Wailers went on to win the tournament.

Another day for what might have been!

The Veterans 10s final was between reigning champions Marauders Vets and long tem adversaries and three times winners Wooden Spoon.

Marauders were by far the stronger side and ran out 22-0 winners.

Super Sevens Series 2011

The Super Sevens Series is launched in 2011 to give Sevens rugby a platform for development and to establish a strong programme for Elite Non-Professional Sevens Clubs to perform at an ‘Elite’ level. See their website here....

The Core Clubs involved are: White Hart Marauders, Samurai Barracudas, HFW Wailers, Apache, British Army, Ronin Impact, Olorun ID, Gilbert Pups and Koru Kamikaze.

The nine specialist invitational teams will compete for the Super Sevens Series crown over three exciting tournaments at three great venues:

Rugby Rocks Sevens, London 4th June 2011 West Country Sevens, Bath, 18th June 2011 Surf Sevens, Newquay, 2nd July 2011

Marauders Academy U19 lads shine at the National County Sevens Championship

Surrey U19’s won the National County Sevens Championship at the weekend with four of the new Marauders Academy squad members * picking up 19 of the team’s total tries scored, and 14 of the 19 conversions. See the Facebook page for more here....

Ryan Jeffrey was the side’s top try scorer with 9 touch downs and 12 conversions, and Alex O’Meara third in line with 5.

The Surrey squad were supported by two of the Marauders Academy Development coaches, ex-Marauder Keith Boatman, and Ron Campbell.

Keith and Ron have both been involved in the coaching and management of Surrey in the past and are keen to see some of these lads making the grade in the Marauders Academy and beyond.

We are all looking forward to seeing Ryan Jeffrey, Alex O’Meara, Charlie Rooke, and Steven Boatman break through the Marauders Academy ranks this year. Good luck boys!

National county sevens results below:

WHM returned to Bury St Edmunds on Sunday (8th) for what is fast becoming one of the highest standard tournaments of the season. As well as the usual invitational teams the full England side were entered along with Saracens, Northampton Saints and the Spanish national side playing under the Samurai Barracuda banner.

With our regular mix of youth and experience Marauders dispatched Southend and the RAF before falling to Saracens mainly due to not looking after ball at the breakdown. Player coach Howard Graham sustained a nasty head injury which right at the end of the game preventing him starting the next game as runners up in the pool and a meeting with Samurai (Spain) in the quarter final.

Unfortunately loose ball was again our downfall against an extremely well drilled side that went onto beat HFW Wailers in the semi before dispatching England in the final 21 - 19. It is worth pointing out that this was the full England 7s squad.

Team: Howard Graham, Ledua Jope, Sikeli, Adam Bishop, Jake Henry, Greg Illingworth, Sam Randell, Sam Miller, Jordan Burns, Ali Bone

Having been asked with only a weeks’ notice to play in the Rosslyn Park Sevens on Thursday 5th May, and unable to select any of our squad who will be playing in the ULR Premier Sevens at Bury St Edmunds on Sunday, we pulled together a scratch side of relative newcomers.

We beat a strong Wasps side, and as the plate final was about to start the commentator who obviously didn’t know too much about the Marauders said, “Introducing the White Hart Marauders who I believe come from a pub in Hampshire. You better get ready Marauders because you are playing The Wasps here tonight”.

So after we beat “The Wasps” by four tries to one Barrie Torbett went into the commentator box and bollocked the commentator for not knowing about the Marauders pedigree. Barrie’s parting comment was “Thanks for doing my motivational talk at the start of the match”.

A good result with only nine players in our squad. Two of the newcomers to Marauders colours were Greg Illingworth and Gabe Hill who attended the successful Marauders Academy Trials on 17th April. Both look as though they have the ability to make the grade to achieve full Marauders honours.