SAMURAI BARRACUDAS UPSET THE ALL STARS.

The Samurai Barracuda’s 7s team upset all the odds yesterday by beating the Star studded Stash All Stars team in a pulsating final at the Bournemouth 7s by 19 points to 17.

The Samurai International player development team - the Barracuda’s, selected several up and coming young players to give them the opportunity to develop and hone their skills, where they could pit their wits against specialist 7s players and experienced professionals.
Brothers Cider kindly sponsored the Barracuda’s team for the Bournemouth 7s event with the Samurai management team selecting the side where young gun’s like Christian Wade, Mark Odejobi, Jake Abbott, James Tirrell, Liam Perkins and Tristan Roberts were carefully blended with the experience of Ollie Cook in the forwards and Nathan Reid in the backs.

The young team, under the coaching guidance of Mark Hewitt, came together for the very first time on Friday evening and took part in their 1st training session 2 hours before their first game on Saturday morning. The team trained well together and made the most of their limited time together.

In Saturday’s pool games the strange draw meant that the Barracuda’s had to face the Stash All Stars in their first game and what a game it was. The hugely experienced All Stars team which included Delon and Stefan Armitage (that were possibly on their way to the airport to board the plane for Argentina with England) James Bailey, the Tagathakabau brothers and Dominic Shabo to name but a few, got off to a great start and the battle in the contact area between the young Jake Abbot and London Irish’s Steffan Armitage was spectacular to say the least. The All Stars ran out winners 24 – 19 in an excellent game of Sevens Rugby.  The Barracuda’s then disposed of Team Onfire 34 - 7 to go through to the ¼ finals that would take place on Sunday.

The Barracuda’s prepared themselves for a tough ¼ final where they faced Kinsale 7s winners and winners of their pool, the International Marauders. The work ethic and pace of the Barracuda’s team proved too much for Howard Graham’s Marauders team as they ran out comfortable winners by 52 – 7.

Next up the Barracuda’s faced London Church 7s winners the Scorpions in the Semi Final. The Scorpion’s game plan was to out muscle their opposition in a game that was at times a brutal affair but the Barracuda’s players matched them man for man with Jake Abbot proving to be quite a handful himself. The Barracuda’s scored 4 converted tries in a 28 – 7 victory to go through to the final where they would face the red hot tournament favourites and last year’s winners, Stash All Stars.

The final was set to be a fantastic display of rugby sevens and the huge crowd who gathered were not disappointed.   The tournament favourites Stash were put under pressure from the start with youngsters James Tirrell and Christian Wade coming agonizingly close to opening the scoring.  After excellent play from the young Samurai Barracudas team, and the fact that Stash were intent on double marking eighteen year old danger man Christian Wade out of the game, meant that fellow Wasps player Mark Odejobi took advantage of the space to outpace his man and score in the corner.  With the teams trading scores in a ferociously paced first half the Samurai Barracudas youngsters turned around winning 12 points to 7.

After the break Stash came out firing with an early try leveling the scores at 12 a piece.  Great defense, which had been the hallmark of the Samurai Barracudas team throughout the tournament, kept the favorites at bay until another line break by Tagathakabau gave them a 17-12 lead.  With the clock running down experienced captain Ollie Cook and exciting young prospect Jake Abbott forced a turnover deep in the Stash 22 and with repeated infringements at the contact area the referee awarded a penalty to the Samurai Barracudas just five meters short which Mark Odejobi duly took quickly and powered over under the posts to give a 2 point lead with less than a minute remaining.  With the Barracudas team retaining the ball from the restart the youngsters showed great composure keeping possession and shutting the tournament favorites out until the final whistle brought an end to a fantastic game of rugby sevens.