aA WEAKENED Kelly College squad took part in the Rosslyn Park National Schools Sevens — notable absentees included current Wales Youth captain Ben Rowntree and Devon players Sebastian Roberts, Alex Bradshaw and Tom Pook and England U16 trialist James Myerscough.

But Kelly were still able to field seven Devon players in the squad of ten. Kelly were drawn into a difficult pool, but the players did not shrink from the task.

A 31-19 victory against Ewell Castle in the first match provided the dream start. Outstanding tries were scored by Richard Wood and Paul Lidster.

In the second game, Kelly took an early lead through captain George Ikamba, but Latymer Upper School came back with a vengeance to take a 14-7 lead. However, two fine tries by James Congdon and Brian Venables gave Kelly a 21-14 lead. The second half was more one-sided with Kelly running in four tries for a resounding 43-14 win.

Lord Williams College posed a different challenge in the third match and their direct running and hit and spin from the tackle took Kelly by surprise. At half time the scores were level.

In the second half Kelly adapted their approach and scored three fine tries through Wood, England U16 Squad member Jonathan Bourne and South-West trialist Oliver Pitts.

All was set for the showdown against Eton, who had also won their first three games. Despite having almost five times as many boys to choose from as Kelly, Eton were instantly put on the back foot and Kelly pressured them into errors.

Such was the ferocity of the tackling, that two Eton players were forced to leave the field and the remainder always had an eye off the ball to see where the next tackler was coming from.

Five fine tries, three before half time and two in the second half from England 18 Group trialist Matthew Bourne, sealed a fine 31-5 victory.

A feature of the Kelly play had been the outstanding kicking by outside half Richard Wood. Not only did the Devon 17 Group player kick conversions from every angle, his high steepling restarts gave his chasing forwards a real chance of regaining possession.

Kelly had won their group and earned a place in the last 32 and a match against fancied Whitgift, an independent school of 1,200 boys in Croydon.

In a breathtaking display of sevens, Kelly stormed into an early lead as Paul Lidster scored two fine tries. From the next kick off, Kelly again regained possession and scored through Pitts. Further tries by Matthew Bourne, Jonathan Bourne and two more from Paul Lidster — who scored 11 tries in the five matches on the first day — sealed a 45-5 victory.

It earned Kelly a place in the last 16 for the sixth time in the past eight years and a re-match against last year's champions, Wellington College, who narrowly beat Kelly in the group stages 12 months earlier.

After five minutes, Kelly had been pressurising the Wellington line and had a try disallowed. From the ensuing scrum, Wellington stole the ball and ran the length of the pitch to score through international sprinter Aki Abiola. From the next kick off, the ball bounced backwards off the hard ground into the arms of Abiola, who sprinted through under the posts.

So, for the second year running, from a scrum under the Wellington posts, two tries in less than a minute had sealed Kelly's chances.

Substitutions were made at half-time to afford all the squad the opportunity to play in the final stages and on the famous Rosslyn Park ground.

Wellington went on to be crowned champions, winning the quarter, semi and finals by margins of 55, 31 and 39 points respectively.

However, with eight of the squad still available next year and some notable talent coming through the ranks or joining the college in September, the prospects are bright for next season.