Matt Gupta's young squad which won the Plate at the Surrey County Sevens and the national Pub Sevens 'Barrel' Trophy in the Summer (now resplendent in the front bar of the Lamb & Flag in Covent Garden) has turned in an exceptional performance playing under the KORFC flag as the 'Move One Rhinos' in the Dubai Sevens International Open competition over three days December 1st to 3rd. The team, jointly sponsored by our main club backers of the last three years, Sterling, and also as a main sponsor by Dubai based logistics business Move One, and by Rhino Rugby, reached the final of the competition which takes place concurrently with the IRB Dubai Sevens, in the face of intense competition from a wide variety of sides from around the world, featuring a large number of pro and semi-pro players (and incidentally our own Jimbo Hunt, who was playing for the Wyvern Harlequins, an invitation side from the UK).
On the opening day we defeated the strong 'Wild Geese' from Dublin 26-19 having trailed 19-5 at half time, showing early on the gutsiness which characterised our performances throughout the tournament, and after a bye on the following day edged out a the Atlantic Seven side from the Pyrenees 12-7 to move through to the quarter final stages. We then beat CMB from Nigeria 24-0 in our only remotely easy game to move through to the semi-final on the Saturday morning where we defeated local UAE side Aqua Marine Services 21-17. This really does represent a remarkable performance from the 9 players (Matt, Joseph Marston, Harrison Scowsill, Guy Ridley, Stuart Cross, Peter Rowe, Richard Coskie, Mark Hayne and Adam Dowsett) who flew out from the UK, and who were augmented up to the standard squad of 12 by Chris Allen and Ken Corriveau from Move One and Neil Orchard from the Arabian Knights side which they sponsor, to all of whom thanks. The final on Saturday afternoon represented a step too far for our tiring squad, however, and pre-tournament favourites 'Reservoir Group Pyrenees 7's' from France ran away to a 29-0 victory.
All involved hope to make this an annual event - this year it was something of a last minute affair, and enormous credit has to go to Matt for an outstanding job in putting a side together, in addition to his management and captaincy during the tournament. Above all however, we couldn't have done it without our sponsors and in particular Move One - thanks especially to Curt Clements, Luanna Bicknell and all the their staff for looking after us and supporting us magnificently.
This was interestingly not as strong or in depth a squad as those with which we contested tournaments in the summer, and the team deserves massive credit for showing immense spirit and guts in winning through to the final of such a prestigious international event.