One of the weekend’s key 7s tournament’s is the Canford School 7s, which this year looks like one of the toughest on the calendar.

There are seventeen sides drawn in total, split across three groups with two groups of six and a group of five. Each group looks brutally tough, with quality sides bursting from it.

Like so many tournaments, last year’s edition had to be cancelled due to the weather. That makes the 2017 champions, Wellington College, the holders. However they are not in the draw this year, nor the runners up, Marlborough College, whose Schools Cup semi final is the day before.

The reigning Colts champions are though, Beechen Cliff. That tournament also last went ahead in 2017, meaning that that group are now in U6th and will be among the big contenders in the senior competition this year. There is again a Colts tournament on the same day, with 13 sides in attendance.

Beechen Cliff are drawn in a fiendish Group B alongside the 2016 U18 Cup champions, Bishop Wordsworth’s. Joining them are a very strong Bristol Grammar School side as well as King’s Bruton, Cathedral School Llandaff, and schools rugby legends, Sherborne.

The hosts, Canford, won the tournament back in 2015 and are the reigning Plate champions. As hosts they are in Group A, where Seaford College will certainly be among the big contenders. The big games in that group will keep on coming though, with Bryanston, Eton College, and Portsmouth Grammar all major challengers as well.

Group C, meanwhile, may have one fewer team in it but that does not make it any easier. A group with Downside, Monmouth, and Reed’s in it looks tough enough to begin with, but throw in two sides with the quality of Clifton College and Millfield and you start to have a group that will take a monumental effort from whichever side gets out of it.

Without doubt, the Canford 7s looks like being one of the key tournament of the 7s season to date.

Canford 7s Draw: