Tournament Report

Heineken Amsterdam Sevens 2009.

The 38th Heineken Amsterdam Sevens ended much like the 37th, ( and the 36th, 35th and 34th come to that) with Samurai International ruling the roost in the Men's Sevens and the Ladies Sevens and Wooden Spoon winning the Veterans 10s. However, in all three tournaments the outcome could have been very different with games being won by the narrowest of margins.

In last year's Men's Sevens Samurai International brought over South African coach Paul Treu and most of his squad as part of their preparations for the IRB Sevens tournaments at Twickenham and Murrayfield in the following weeks. Although they won the 2008 Amsterdam Sevens, word on the grapevine was that the Bokke felt that the Amsterdam Sevens was a little too tough as a warm up, so Samurai supremo Terry Sands had to look a little closer to home for his team this year and was far from confident of winning.

The vagaries of the seeding for the Sunday morning pools pitched Samurai International against the Ukraine national side and Guernsey Salty Sea Dogs which they negotiated safely. As in previous years there was one game where they needed a little luck and a few decisions going their way. This year it was the quarter final against Mel's Exiles. The crowd was strongly behind Mel's Exiles, mainly because Sevens Legend Waisale Serevi was playing for them and everyone wanted to see him progress. In a “game of two halves” Samurai ran in two tries in the first half to lead 14-0 while Mel's Exiles ran in two tries in the second half but missed one of the conversions, losing the game 14-12. Serevi and the team received a standing ovation from the crowd as they left the field in front of a packed main stand. In the other quarter finals both flavours of Marauders went out. The Original Marauders (a.k.a. Corso Marauders) lost out to the surprise package of the tournament, Yug from Russia 14-10 - missed conversions making the difference. The International Marauders also lost out by kicking fewer conversions than opponents Gilbert Stoned Pups, the final score being 12-10. In the other quarter final Millfield Old Boys lost out HFW Kooga Wailers 33-5, no need to count the conversions there.

In their semi-final Samurai International had less trouble with the men in pink, the much fancied Gilbert Stoned Pups, winning 26-0. In the other semi HFW Kooga Wailers ended the run of Yug, the Russian champions containing many of the Russian national squad who were the surprise package of the tournament, with a 19-5 victory. The final was a chance for HFW Kooga Wailers to gain revenge for the very narrow 12-7 defeat in the 2008 quarter final when a last minute try spared the blushes of a Samurai side including most of the South African squad. In a close game Samurai International prevailed 19-15, again the difference being the conversions kicked.

So Samurai International continue their dominance of the Heineken Amsterdam Sevens with their fifth victory in a row and their eighth in total. The lessons are clear for anyone who wants to beat them. Firstly you will need an excellent team. Secondly, you will need a little luck and for decisions to go your way. And finally, you will need to kick your conversions.

The Ladies Sevens was also won by Samurai International with a team containing many of the current England team. Top seeds Samurai and Wooden Spoon, the Rugby Charity team who raise money for disadvantaged children, justified their seeding getting through to the final. On the way Samurai beat AAC 48-0 and Corsolettes 45-0 and Wooden Spoon beat the Czech Republic national team 48-0 and the German National team 59-0. In the final Samurai quickly established their dominance and a spirited fight back by Wooden Spoon saw respectability restored to the scoreline, 22-10.

In the Veterans 10s it was Wooden Spoon against Corso Marauders Vets for the third year in a row in the final. For the third year in a row it was Wooden Spoon who walked off with the silverware but it is getting closer every year. On a heavy pitch the old guys failed to score in normal time even though one Corso Marauders player decided not to fall over the line with the ball and score but to go for another phase of play. On such decisions are games won and lost. In extra time Wooden Spoon won when they scored a try, the “golden score” that ended the game. Cheering loudest were the organizers as they were worried the teams would still be playing at midnight if the extra time had finished scoreless and the winners would have had to be decided by a “Drop Kick Shoot Out”. Just like last year the losing semi-finalists were Millfield Old Boys Legends and Dutch Rugby Veterans. Both lost 24-0 in their semi-finals.

In addition to the main tournaments for the top teams from the Saturday Pool games, there are also tournaments for teams finishing lower in the pools.

In the Men's Tournament the teams finishing in third place in the Saturday pools play for the Heineken Boot. 617 Squadron from England won in a very close final 17-10 against the Belgian national side. The losing semi-finalists were Gegen 7s, a French side from Gennevilliers, near Paris who lost narrowly to Belgium 21-17, missed conversions being the difference, and Moldova Technical University who lost out to 617 Squadron 22-14.

The teams finishing in fourth place in the Men's Tournament Saturday pools play for the Integer Plate. De Hypotheker Hounds from Sassenheim club The Bassets with strong foreign reinforcements, won the final 35-0 against VGA St Maur from France. The losing semi-finalists were hosts AAC and Delft Students.

In the Ladies Tournament the Ladies Plate was won by last minute entrants Bassets Ladies from Sassenheim who beat the Czech national side in the final 40-0. The semi-finalists were AAC Ladies who lost 28-0 to The Bassets and Susies Valkyries who lost 14-12 to the Czech Republic, a missed conversion again being decisive.

The Ladies Wooden Spoon was won by the Norwegian Raiderettes who beat English side Pink Ba-bas 15-5 in the final. The losing semi-finalists were Sabbie Mobilie of Italy and Moody Cows from England.

For the second year running Haarlem Ibuprofen Veterans won the Veterans Heineken Boot, this year beating Die Bosbokken from Hilversum 14-5. In the Veterans Wooden Spoon final Dwingold beat Krasse Knarren 12-7.

What were the other highlights of the weekend? The biggest surprise was the brilliant performance of Yug, the Russian champions, who beat Wooden Spoon AAs Blues and German side Scorpion in the Sunday morning pools and The Original Marauders (Corso Marauders) in the quarter finals before running into HFW Kooga Wailers in the semi-finals. CSR-Nanok from Copenhagen who most years lose all of their games on Saturday continued their improvement in the last couple of years by not only qualifying for the top competition, the Silver Pier, but also winning one of their Sunday morning pool games against Beaverton Barbarians. Wiss the Mama from Madrid in Spain, when they played against Mel's Exiles, did a “Spanish Haka” in tribute to Serevi and his teammates that bore a remarkable resemblance to the Macarena. Plume of feathers from Carmarthen in Wales went out in the Sunday morning pools to Mel's Vanua Exiles, a team of Fijians serving with the British Army in Germany but enlivened the afternoon with a mass streak. We knew it was them because their faces were covered in coal. It was great to see Gegen 7s from France there and reaching the semi-finals of the Men's Heineken Boot. They will do better next year if they come back - first time visitors often struggle to cope with the Amsterdam experience - it is a marathon, not a sprint. Scorpion from Germany did well in reaching the Silver Pier. Tatra Smichov, the Czech Republic champions, and Catalunya ran out of steam on Sunday Morning. Germany Ladies did well to reach the semi-finals. It was great to see Lars Bjerrehave of Susies Saloon at the tournament and behind the bar at Susies Saloon after his recent illness and best wishes to Susie who has also been very ill and is recovering in Denmark. And of course, having Serevi at the tournament was a great highlight for everyone. Every team he played against wanted their photograph taken with him. The support for him and his team mates when they were knocked out in the quarter finals was amazing. Just being able to see the master at work was a highlight. One of his tries on Saturday against Grande Milano for Chicken from Italy was Serevi at his best.

If you want to see the scores for all of the games, these are available under the tab “Fixtures & Results”. Just select the year (2008 and 2009 results are there), select the day and the tournament you are interested in and click on “Create List” to see the results and the pool tables.

For the statisticians, we had 60 Men's teams, 12 Ladies teams and 10 Veterans teams, 258 games on 9 pitches with 32 referees. We were lucky with the weather, despite being cloudy the heavy rain fell overnight and almost all games were played in the dry. Many thanks to all of the teams who came and to the spectators. We will do it all again in 2010.