An early start and 7am departure saw the senior 7s rugby team depart Luxembourg and venture into the unknown. It was dark when we left, but the sun smiled on us over the course of the day.

Despite a slight confusion as to our destination we arrived in good time, but not early enough for the planned blowout before we played.

The first match of a 7s tournament always hits you like a train, Saturday was no different - our opening match saw us all tied up at 17 a piece against defending Champions, International School of The Hague. Tries from Michael WJ, Francesco S and Mathew S saw us nearly take the spoils. Only a missed conversion towards the death saw us fall at the final hurdle.

In the second game we strolled past International School of Brussels 26-0. A hat trick from Francesco topped up with skipper Ivan K crashing over and wafting his way through would-be tacklers like King Theoden charging into the Uruk Hai at Helms Deep.

In game three we were pitted against the favourites British School of Brussels. Well drilled with decent skills and well structured in attack, they look looked like they had a plan. But as Mike Tyson once famously said “everyone has a plan, until you get punched in the face”. We brought chaos to their structure. Michael, Francesco, Mathew and Ivan were on the score sheet in the 26-5 victory, but all contributed.

I’d like to say it was plain sailing from there, but complacency crept in as we lined up against the weakest school of the day, the American School of Paris. On the verge of being humbled, Matteo M threw a glorius long ball to Michael, who showed a clean pair of heels and squeezed over in the corner on borrowed time. A 15-12 victory did leave a sour taste, as we ultimately lost out on point difference and finished second to International School of The Hague. Francesco and Tithawat were our other try scorers in game four.

Squad: Arran S, Diego L, Francesco S, Fredrik DF, Gabriel B, Ivan K, Jago M, Matteo M, Mathew S, Michael WJ, Thithawat S and Tommy VB.