Brighton College showed fantastic teamwork and determination to oust Whitgift in a pulsating Hampton School Founders’ Day 7s final yesterday, winning 21-17.

It was a fantastic day of rugby, with an air of excitement right from the start as finally for players, coaches, and supporters there was some serious school sevens about to get underway following weeks of cancelled tournaments due to the weather.

With that in mind praise must be given to the Hampton ground staff for managing to get this tournament to go ahead in the first place, but also for having pitches that withstood a full day of action and remained perfectly acceptable for that outstanding final at the end of the day.

It was fitting that it was Brighton and Whitgift in the final, they had been the outstanding teams all day, with Brighton winning their five group matches to top Group A and Whitgift doing exactly the same in Group B.

Both had rather similar days overall, with both facing tough opening games, against the host Hampton for Brighton, and St Joseph’s College for Whitgift, before both then went on to post some huge mid-afternoon scores, with Brighton beating KCS Wimbledon 50-0, and Whitgift beating Tiffin 42-0.

The reality is though that it was two games midway through the group stages that were key to both teams progressing to the final.

Cranleigh were Brighton College’s closest challengers in Group A and they faced each other in the penultimate game of the group. It was nip and tuck the whole way but Brighton edged it 19-17, proving their capacity to dig deep in a tight game.

Over in Group B Whitgift faced their old rivals John Fisher in a game that was key to the pool. Walking over to the pitch the consensus was that it should be a tight game, however the outstanding Henry Cheeseman inspired his side to victory, as he had done all day in truth, with Whitgift running out as 15-0 winners.

Going into the final then, Brighton new where the danger lay from Whitgift – the powerful and elusive Cheeseman. Keeping a watchful eye on the star man though left space for the other great talents in the Whitgift sides such as George Taylor and George Jones, and it was Taylor who was able to exploit the space, searing away from his own half to give the 2013 winners the lead.

Brighton’s Elliot Hall continued the fine form that he had shown all day though to score a lovely try for the South Coast side, however it was that man Cheeseman who came charging along a few moments later to give Whitgift the half time lead.

Whitgift had been on top but Brighton could be heard cajoling each other, expressing confidence in their believed likely superiority fitness wise over a big Whitgift side.

The second half was certainly testing from a fitness point of view, with the game being played at an almost frenetic pace, yet still retaining an outstanding level of quality.

Brighton seemed to revel in the increased pace of the game and Charlie Brown soon turned that joy into points with a lovely score. However that man Taylor bagged his second of the game shortly after – further confirming Whitgift’s threat from one to seven.

Whitgift are not the only side with sevens stars though and Brighton’s Charlie Brown was on a one man mission to prove that very point as he went over for his second to give Brighton the crucial lead with hardly any time left on the clock.

Whitgift worked they way up field from the kick off brilliantly and began a series of charges at the Brighton line. Brighton had wanted the end of the game to be a test of fitness but it was now them being tested as they had to make tackle after tackle without ceding any ground.

It was simply phenomenal work, Whitgift had been scoring tries for fun all day but Brighton simply refused to let them through, eventually earning a penalty for their efforts, from which they duly ended the game and lifting the Hampton School Founders’ Day 7s Cup.

Over in the Plate John Fisher had beaten Hampton 26-12 in a somewhat bizarre climax to the day. Fisher reached the Plate as runners up in Group B after St Joseph’s College, who had been in good form despite leaving some very big names at home, lost to Tiffin in the final game of the group.

However it was in Group A that things were particularly confusing, as Cranleigh had finished as runners up. However they could not take their place in the Plate final as they had quite simply run out of players. That meant that the side below them would play so some quick maths was needed to assess which of Hampton, St Benedict’s, and KCS Wimbleon, who all finished the day with 2 wins and 3 losses, had the best points difference.

That meant Hampton went through given their superior points difference, but unfortunately for the hosts there was to be no fairytale trophy at the end of the day, as John Fisher continued their good work to win.

Cup Final – Brighton College 21-17 Whitgift

Plate Final – Hampton 12-26 John Fisher