We caught up with Royal Wootton Bassett’s Reuben Rebello about his experience representing EggChaser 7s at the prestigious Global Youth 7s tournament in Auckland, New Zealand this past December.
"I had the fantastic opportunity to represent EggChaser 7s at the Global Youth 7s in Auckland, New Zealand in December.
As a squad selected from all around England, we only had three training days together in New Zealand before the tournament began. We benefitted from top quality coaching from Rocky Khan (ex-New Zealand 7s player and current China assistant coach) & Ryan Setefano (current Hurricane 7s Head Coach).
The night before the tournament kicked off, in Olympic style, there was an opening Māori ceremonial welcome, parade of teams and cultural performances from the participating teams at the home of New Zealand Rugby, Eden Park.
Day 1 kicked off for the EggChasers with 2 pool games. The first was against Fijian side Nukuvuto Blues. I caught the opening kick-off and was given a big Fijian welcome through a high tackle! A physical contest with some early Fijian yellow cards, allowed EggChasers to take an early lead, which we held to win in a tight contest.
The 2nd game was against the New Zealand side Bucks, whose extremely tight defence and super rapid wingers saw them finish comfortable winners.
Day 2 saw the EggChasers take on the Polynesian island side Niue Nukututaha in a game that would decide who came second in the pool. In a tight game, the EggChasers were victorious which put us into the top half of the draw for the knockout stages and would see us take on the Australian National side next.
The Australian side (which included potential future star Angus Grover) were ruthlessly effective in their play, capitalising on every error and hesitation, impressively strong in the ruck and gave the EggChasers a thumping. Australia would go on to comfortably win the tournament beating the New Zealand National side on the way
Day 3 saw the EggChasers play 3 further seeding games. The first was defeat with an error strewn performance against a very strong Asian Dragons side followed by a further defeat to the Aussie side RSA Babarians. This placed the EggChasers in a playoff for 15th place against the USA national team which included Raylon Murray (the No.1 ranked high school rugby player in the USA).
In a tight physical game, where the lead kept changing hands, we probably put in our best performance of the tournament and fell just short to finish a creditable 16th out of 32 teams at the tournament.
My favourite teams of the tournament were the Australian National Boys team, as they were so ruthlessly good, and the Japanese National Girls team, who were probably the smallest team there but played with amazing pace and skill to win the Girls’ tournament, beating the New Zealand and Australia National teams on the way.
Overall, it was a fantastic experience to play in every game at a tournament against top quality players. One moment I won’t forget - my step and 90m run for a try against the USA National team.
Thank you again to the RWBRFC Old Dogs Walking Rugby Team for providing player sponsorship to help me attend the tournament!
Next stop with EggChasers – a trip to the Winter 7s in the South of France at the end of January."
