30th April 2011
The CRY Crusaders are a group of young rugby players, deeply affected by a friend’s sudden death. They will be playing and representing CRY at a number of Rugby 7s tournaments throughout the country.
Contact the CRY Crusaders: [email protected]
The CRY Crusaders survived a long day at Farnham RFC remaining unbeaten throughout the day to pick up the Main Winners trophy.
Group Stages
The group stages started for the Crusaders at 11am. The side started in a commanding manner, dispatching a poor Aldershot & Fleet side 57 – 0. Next up was Perins’ Old Boys who started quickly catching the Crusaders cold, and going into a 5 – 0 lead which they held until half time. Select words were used at half time and the Crusaders came out strong ending Perins’ resistance to run out comfortable winners in the end, 29 – 5.
The penultimate group game was against a Farnham side that contained a tight five orientated side, with a couple of backs to lessen the average weight. A few of the Crusaders play their club rugby at Farnham so there was a great atmosphere in this game. A few personal scores were settled on the pitch and some classy tries were added in a resounding 49 – 0 victory for the Crusaders.
The final group game was against Godalming Gods – a group of students that showed plenty of ambition and who we would do battle with again later on in the day. Both teams went into the final group game unbeaten, both fighting it out for top spot. The Crusaders played their best game of the day to out-muscle their younger counterparts 36 – 0, featuring Gabe Hills’ reverse pass inside two defenders straight to Toby Comley, who beat the last defender to score the try of the tournament.
Semi Final
The Semi Final brought together the two favourites for the tournament, the CRY Crusaders and Tsunami Castaways. This game would live up to all expectations and not disappoint in the slightest.
The Crusaders got off to a terrible start and quickly went down 14 – 0 to a powerful Castaways side. For the second time in the day, inspired words were spoken at half time. The poor first half was quickly erased with a superb fight back in which the Crusaders ran in 21 unanswered points.
A dubious penalty was given to the Castaways with time on the clock out. A quick tap and a great line by one of their big forwards resulted in a try under the posts with the conversion added to tie the game 21 – 21.
Extra time was restarted by the Crusaders, with a deep kick and a good chase putting the Castaways under pressure in their 22. One of the attackers was isolated and possession was turned over, the ball was moved in field to Mike Salmon who beat a couple of defenders to score under the posts to allow the Crusaders to move into the final.
Final
At 7pm the final took place between the Crusaders and Godalming Gods. The long day and energy used to overcome the Tsunami Castaways in the Semi Final looked as if it would halt the Crusaders in their efforts to win the Farnham 7s title. A few uncharacteristic mistakes in the first couple of minutes, alongside a few flashes of brilliance in attack, left a half time score of 14 – 12 to the Crusaders.
The message at half time was to slow things down, be patient and keep possession. This was taken on board by the players and a couple more converted tries were added in the second half. The final score was 28 – 12 to the Crusaders.
A great day for the team both on and off the pitch. Many people visited our stand and purchased merchandise and were made aware of Cardiac Risk in the Young.
