Congratulations To National Series Winners - ULR Samurai International

Samurai have been crowned inaugural National Sevens Series champions despite suffering a shock defeat at the semi-final stage of Newquay Surf 7s.

Reaching the cup final would guarantee a series win and having a number of regular players unavailable for selection, the Samurai team would have to gel quickly to achieve their goal. The group stage provided a good opportunity to do this with Samurai brushing aside the Kamikaze followed by the Ronin with ease, only conceding one try in the process. One disappointment from the group stages came in the loss of Dom Shaboo to a hamstring injury that would rule him out of the rest of the tournament.

The Akuma Smurfs were confirmed as Samurai's quarter-final opponents. They would be looking for revenge following their loss in the group stages of the Manchester leg of the series.
A bright start by the Samurai saw the score stand at 17-0 at half time, primed to push home for the win in the second period. However, in typical Smurfs style, the Welshmen hit back and took the lead with only time for one last play. A superb take by Samurai captain Mark Bright from the restart was the catalyst for some patient play that led to a fantastic Errie Claassens break, finished off by Josh Drauniniu. The referee blew the final whistle and Samurai proceeded to a semi-final against fierce rivals White Hart Marauders by the skin of their teeth.

Knowing that a semi-final victory would confirm Samurai as National Series champions, the pressure was on to deliver against the Marauders and the favourites got off to the worst possible start with the lively Paul Jarvis catching Samurai asleep and darting over after a quick tap penalty. In an arm-wrestle of a match with few chances, it looked like it would be a tense, low-scoring affair and it certainly proved so. With Samurai struggling to find any fluency or rhythm to their play, Jarvis claimed a second score to leave the Samurai facing an uphill battle at 12-0 down on the half-time whistle. With time running out Errie Claassens showed great strength to score under the posts and reduce the deficit to 12-7 as Samurai looked to complete a miracle escape for the second game in a row. A frustrating final 3 minutes failed to produce another score and the Samurai were architects of their own downfall, providing the shock of the tournament and failing to reach the final for the first time in the National Series.

All eyes were now on the final in which the British Army (equal on Series points) would have to beat the Marauders by 47 points to claim the Series title. With the Marauders looking tired following their surprise win against the Samurai, the Army raced to a 24-0 half time lead with Apo Satala pulling the strings for the military men. Things were looking ominous for the nervous Samurai who could only watch as their fate was in the hands of others.
The second half saw the Marauders up their game. A number of penalties against the Army meant that time was beginning to run out for them. The Marauders clawed a score back which meant the Army had it all to do and despite a late score, the Marauders had done enough to restrict the Army to a 29-7 victory prompting wild celebrations from the Samurai, winning the overall National Sevens Series title on points difference by 25 points.

Fantastic victories at RugbyRocks and the West Country 7s provided the platform for Samurai's victory, with a great effort just falling short at Manchester. Keeping three or four quality core players throughout the series benefited the Samurai as they provided a bit of selection continuity which helped to play some fantastic sevens. The Army had the luxury of calling on an almost identical squad at every tournament and training a number of times a week as a team which makes the magnitude of this achievement even more impressive. Credit must go to all the players involved as they bought in to the Samurai ethos and bonded very quickly each event to develop a huge amount of camaraderie and team ethic that, under normal circumstances would take a considerable time to develop. A below par performance at Newquay made for a nail-biting finish but ultimately Samurai deserved their title as inaugural National Sevens Series Champions.

The Samurai team for final leg of the National Series at the Newquay Surf 7s.

Mark Bright (Capt)
Rhys Jones
Gareth Davies
Martin Purdy
Rob Lewis
Lee Beach
Josh Drananui
Dominic Shaboo
Errie Claasens
Michael Fedo
Gav Dacey
Tom Wiley