National Sevens: Men paint the town Red

Sun, Nov 20, 2016, 6:07 AM
Marty Cambridge
by Marty Cambridge
Anything the Women can do the Men can do to at the National Sevens in Adelaide. Beating the Australian Universities to claim the 2016 trophy.

The Queensland Red men’s team knew the pressure was on when their women’s side took out the final at the National Sevens Championship in Adelaide over the weekend.

But they delivered in spades taking out the national title final in a hard-fought match on Sunday against a more than capable Australian Universities side 31-19.

Queensland Red captain Jack Curtin said it was great that his side was able to parlay the women’s victory.

“The women started it all up and it was great that the men were able to back it up,” Curtin said.

“That’s what we came here to do and we’re pretty happy to go home with two trophies.

 

The 2016 National Men's Sevens Championship winners, @redsrugby. #Aussie7s #Nat7s16

A photo posted by rugby.com.au (@rugbycomau) on


“The boys did well. The Aussie Unis side are a hard outfit and it was great that we all dug deep and got it done.”

One consolation for the Australian Universities side was that one of their stars Ben O’Donnell was named player of the tournament.

The Bowl was won by the Australian Defence Force team while Victoria took out the Plate competition.

Australian Men’s coach Andy Friend came away impressed with the standard of the tournament.

“It’s always a tough ask day two, especially in this heat. Teams came out and threw it all at each other and it was well deserved in the end to Queensland Red,” he said.

“What’s nice to see that there is another crop of players beneath pushing the guys above them, which is really important, you need that competition. It was really good to see that there is talent out there.”

To read the full match report, including interviews and video highlights of the victorious Queensland Reds Women's Sevens team, click here
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