Match action
WASPS will once again go into the new season high on confidence after they defended their Premiership Sevens crown by beating Newcastle in the final at Franklin’s Gardens yesterday.
The Men in Black made the short trip to Northampton for the new format two-day competition as favourites to retain their title given they could count on the likes of Christian Wade, Guy Thompson, Josh Bassett and former England specialist Marcus Watson.
And pulling the strings was scrum-half Dan Robson, who showed the attributes that could make him one of the best Sevens players in the world.
After convincing pool wins over Sale and Leicester on Friday evening, Wasps beat Exeter in the semi-finals before defeating Falcons 31-12 in a one-sided final.
“You could see with the squad we put out that we wanted to win this tournament again and we’ve done that,” said Robson.
“We’ve got four big weeks left of pre-season and hopefully we’ll have learnt from our mistakes towards the end of the last.”
Robson got Wasps on the board early but Newcastle hit back through this weekend’s revelation, Adam Radwan, below, who showed great feet to beat three defenders and score.
Cameron Cowell missed the conversion but he scored by the posts a minute later to put the Falcons 12-7 in front. But it was Wasps who took a 14-12 lead into the interval after Wade touched down and Robson converted.
Bassett extended his side’s lead as soon as the second half resumed before Craig Hampson and Gabbi Lovobalavu put the final nails in the Falcons’ coffin.
“We tried to give it a gig every time we got out on the pitch and we managed to get to the final,” said Newcastle captain Cowell. “Unfortunately we were beaten by a better side as Wasps got together and played really well.”
In the first semi-final between Wasps and Exeter, tries from Tom O’Flaherty and Max Bodilly scored either side of one for Bassett for Wasps to see the Chiefs lead 12-7 at the break.
Bassett got his second early in the second half to edge Wasps in front but O’Flaherty matched him and put Exeter 17-14 up.
It wasn’t to be for the Premiership champions as the reigning Sevens champions unleashed Wade down the right touchline for a 21-17 win.
Newcastle and Harlequins were next up and it was the Falcons who took a 19-7 lead into the break as tries from Simon Uzokwe, Ben Stevenson and Cowell made up for Nathan Thomas’ early Quins’ try.
Uzokwe got his double early in the second half but two quick tries from Calum Water and Niall Saunders had Quins back to 24-19.
Gabriel Ibitoye levelled the score on the last play but Marcus Smith missed the conversion from wide out sending the game into extra-time. It didn’t last long however with Stevenson pinning his ears down to score the golden try only one minute into it and send the Falcons in the
final
The day looked set to start with the shock of the tournament when Aaron Reed scored twice in quick succession to see Sale led Wasps 10-0.
But Thompson and Robson had Wasps level at the break before Robson’s second and one each from Bassett and Watson sealed a 27-10 win.
Up next were Worcester and despite their impressive form in the pool, they were kicked out of the running by Newcastle who claimed a narrow 28-24 success. Falcons were worried when the Warriors scored two quick tries to come back to 21-19 but Will Muir snatched the win despite a late try from Ollie Allsopp.
Gloucester also failed to maintain their unbeaten pool record as they suffer an agonising two-point defeat to Harlequins.
Ollie Thorley for Gloucester and Saunders for Quins both scored two of their sides’ four tries but it was the boot of Smith, who also scored a try, that made the difference with three successful conversions.
In the last quarter-final, Exeter got their revenge on Saracens turning a 26-19 pool defeat into a 26-14 to progress to the last four. It was a tight encounter with Sarries desperately trying to draw level when trailing 19-14 deep into the second half but Sam Morley’s late effort got Exeter home.