Harlequins, Northampton Saints, Newcastle Falcons, and Sale Sharks all secured their places at the Ricoh Arena next weekend for the Singha Premiership Rugby 7s Finals.
Quins topped Group C at Franklin’s Gardens on Friday evening, with Northampton Saints going through in second place, while over at Kingston Park in Group D Newcastle Falcons qualified top of the pile at home, with Sale Sharks coming through in second.
They join Cardiff Blues and the Ospreys from Group A and Exeter Chiefs and Wasps from Group B at the Ricoh on Sunday 7th August, meaning that all four of the Group hosts, Cardiff, Exeter, Northampton, and Newcastle, have qualified for the finals.
Cardiff Blues will take on Sale Sharks in their quarter final, Sale Sharks had arguably the standout player of the weekend in Paolo Odogwu up in Newcastle as he broke Christian Wade’s Premiership 7s try scoring record, scoring eight tries across the three games.
He was part of an exciting Sale squad that included fellow recent school leavers Ben and Tom Curry, as well as England U20 star George Nott.
Nevertheless they were not quite good enough to prevent a Newcastle Falcons side, who were playing terrific rugby, from finishing at the top of the pile, with Joel Hodgson a particular menace to each and every opposition.
Newcastle will play the Ospreys in their quarter final, the Ospreys having finish second in Group A last week, ahead of Newport Gwent Dragons, the defending champions.
With the finals being played at the Ricoh Arena it is perhaps fitting that Wasps will be there to take to the turf at the home ground. They face a Harlequins side who were truly outstanding as they propelled themselves to the top of Group C on Friday night, ahead of hosts Northampton Saints as well as Gloucester, traditionally one of the strongest 7s sides, and a very youthful Saracens.
Quins had plenty of youth too in the likes of Max Coyle, Gabirel Ibitoye, and Dino Lamb-Cona, but it was another youngster, Cameron Cowell, who really lit things up. The youngster is part of the England 7s set up and showed all of his quality on Friday evening to help his adopted side for the evening through.
Northampton Saints finished up in second place, for which their reward is a quarter finals against Exeter Chiefs. Saints too had a bit of a try scoring machine in former England U20 star Howard Packman, but it was another young winger who really looked like the glue of the team, Tom Collins was an absolute star for them.
| Singha Premiership Rugby 7s – Final Group Standings | ||||
| Pos | Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
| 1 | Cardiff Blues (Q) | Exeter Chiefs (Q) | Harlequins (Q) | Newcastle Falcons (Q) |
| 2 | Ospreys (q) | Wasps (q) | Northampton Saints (q) | Sale Sharks (q) |
| 3 | Newport Gwent Dragons | Bristol | Gloucester | Worcester Warriors |
| 4 | Scarlets | Bath | Saracens | Leicester Tigers |
Finals Day Fixtures (Ricoh Arena – Sunday 7th August)
Cardiff Blues v Sale Sharks
Exeter Chiefs v Northampton Saints
Wasps v Harlequins
Newcastle Falcons v Ospreys
Singha Premiership Rugby 7s Squads – Group C:
| Gloucester | Harlequins | Northampton Saints | Saracens |
| David Halaifonua | Cam Cowell | Tom Collins | Ben Earl |
| Joe Mullis | Gabriel Ibitoye | George Furbank | Jack Nay |
| Will Safe | Max Coyle | Howard Packman | Callum Sirker |
| Tom Hudson | Dino Lamb-Cona | James Grayson | Jason Hill |
| Harry Randall | Robbie Nairn | Sam Olver | Jarrad Haylor |
| Mason Tonks | Oscar Hirskyj-Douglas | Tom Emery | Tom Whiteley (c) |
| Dan Thomas | James Gulliver | Fraser Dingwall | Kevin Barrett |
| Lewis Ludlow | Jonas Mikalcius | Lewis Ludlam | Alex Gliksten |
| Callum Braley (c) | Calum Waters (c) | Sion Bennett (c) | Alistair Crossdale |
| Lloyd Evans | James Lang | Alex Rayment | Dom Morris |
| Mat Protheroe | Sam Aspland-Robinson | James Fish | Rotimi Segun |
| Elliott Creed | Henry Cheeseman | Jasper Dix | Nick Forster |
Singha Premiership Rugby 7s Squads – Group D:
| Leicester Tigers | Newcastle Falcons | Sale Sharks | Worcester Warriors |
| Sam Lewis | Dan Temm (c) | Tom Curry | Tom Dodd |
| Harry Mahoney | Santiago Socino | Ben Curry | Jaike Carter |
| Charlton Kerr | Glen Young | M Postlethwaite | Sam Ripper-Smith |
| Harry Simmons | Max Davies | Andy Hughes | Huw Taylor (c) |
| Ben White (c) | Harrison Orr | George Nott | Ted Hill |
| Sam Yawayawa | Adam Radwan | James Mitchell (c) | Ben Fowles |
| Jordan Olowofela | Dan Marshall | Curtis Langdon | Josh Adams |
| Freddie Tuilagi | Tom Catterick | Sam Bedlow | Tiff Eden |
| Tommy Reffell | Ruaridh Dawson | Paolo Odogwu | Harry Cochrane |
| Tom Hardwick | Joel Hodgson | Nick Scott | Dion King |
| Ollie Russell | Ben Stevenson | Tom Morton | Jordan Ainslie |
| Andy Brown | Tom Ffitch | Charlie Venables | Craig Jackson |