A year on from the Dragons’ magnificent triumph in the cup final against Wasps at the Twickenham Stoop it was the Blues and Ospreys who headed to Coventry to take on the best teams from the Premiership.
The Blues had won the Welsh leg of the qualifying tournament with a late, late try to beat the Dragons at the BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park and the Ospreys joined them for the eight team final round at the home ground of the Wasps.
The Blues, who were missing the services of Wales Under 18 scrum half Dane Blacker who had been their two-try hero in the win over the Dragons, were drawn against Sale Sharks in the quarter finals and went down to a 24-17 defeat. The Ospreys, however, won their opening match with a stunning 28-17 triumph over Newcastle Falcons.
The Falcons made a flying start when Tom Catterick scored the opening try after only 70 seconds, but the young Ospreys side struck back immediately with a side-stepping effort from Morgan Williams from half-way. Joe Scrivens converted to make it 7-7.
Williams added a second, which Scrivens again improved, and that helped to make it 14-12 at the break after Adam Radwan had grabbed another for the Falcons. The next two scores both went to the Ospreys as Tom O’Flaherty and Jonathan Phillips sped away to help build a 28-12 advantage before Tom Fitch scored a consolation try at the death for the Falcons.
That victory set-up a semi-final clash with the much fancied Wasps side that include England and British & Irish Lions flyer Christian Wade. Wade had scored one of his side’s four tries in their 24-19 triumph over Harlequins.
He was also among the four try scorers in the 24-14 semi-final win over the Ospreys, who had two more tries from O’Flaherty converted by Scrivens to hoist them into a 14-7 first-half lead. A try from Frank Halai then allowed the home side to level just before the break before two more tries carried them into the final.
The Blues notched a resounding 40-10 victory over Northampton Saints in their Plate semi-final, scoring six tries, to set up a final clash with Harlequins for the minor silverware. They lost skipper Adam Thomas though injury for the last game, but still hung on to take the Plate in a thrilling final.
A second half double from Jonas Mikalcius appeared to have won the game for the Quins, but a final try from Llandovery wing Aron Wyn Evans, who had come on as a replacement, won the trophy for the Blues.
“We got better as the day went on. We were gutted to lose to Sale Sharks at the start – we started really well but in the second-half we just couldn’t get the ball off them,” said Blues’ Wales 7s star Owen Jenkins.
“We put in a great performance against Northampton Saints and then to beat that Harlequins team, after what they did in the group stages, showed great character and that we were one of the best side’s in the tournament.”
Singha Premiership Sevens Finals
Cup Quarter-Finals
Cardiff Blues 17 (Jenkins 2, Lewis)
Sale Sharks 24 (T Curry, B Curry, Odogwu, Langdon)
Exeter Chiefs 38 (Simmonds, Mason, Jess 3, Landry)
Northampton Saints 12 (Emery, Dix)
Wasps 24 (Wade, Bassett 2, Howe)
Harlequins 19 (Hirskyj-Douglas, Cowell, Mikalcius)
Newcastle Falcons 17 (Catterick, Radwan, Ffitch)
Ospreys 28 (Williams 2, O’Flaherty, Phillips)
Plate Semi-Finals
Cardiff Blues 40 (Jenkins, Davies, Beale, Thomas, Lewis, Tomlinson)
Northampton Saints 10 (Lozias, Kingham)
Harlequins 45 (Mikalcius, Ibitoye 3, Waters 2, Smith)
Newcastle Falcons 21 (Marshall, Radwan 2)
Cup Semi-Finals
Sale Sharks 21 (T Curry, Odogwu, Scott)
Exeter Chiefs 26 (Simmonds 2, Hendrickson, Cully)
Wasps 24 (Thompson, Halai, Howe, Wade)
Ospreys 14 (O’Flaherty 2)
Plate Final
Cardiff Blues 28 (Davies, Beale 2, Jones)
Harlequins 22 (Hirskyj-Douglas, Lamb-Cona, Mikalcius 2)
Cup Final
Exeter Chiefs 28 (Bodilly 3, Simmonds)
Wasps 31 (Thompson, Halai, Howe, Wade, Cruse)
