This Sunday Portsmouth Grammar School host their annual South Coast 7s tournament, one of the biggest early season 7s tournaments of all.

With tournaments at Norwich School, Pangbourne College, and Shiplake College as well this Sunday, it really does mark the big starting point in the 7s season.

There are some huge names involved at the South Coast 7s, with 16 teams in total attending. They are divided into four groups of four teams each, with the top two from each group qualifying for the Cup quarter finals and the bottom two heading to the Shield quarter finals.

Winning quarter finalists progress to the semi finals of those respective competitions, while the losing quarter finalists head to the semi finals of the Plate and the Bowl respectively.

Welshmen Whitchurch High School are the reigning champions, the South Coast 7s was one of the few tournaments able to go ahead before the outbreak of Covid 19 back in spring 2020 and Whitchurch secured a 17-12 victory over Epsom College in the final in that competition.

They are drawn in Group 4 alongside Epsom College this time around, and it is a brutal group. Not only are those two in it, but they are joined by Bishop Wordsworth’s, Bowl winners at Sunday’s Seaford 10s. They are drawn alongside the school with perhaps the greatest 7s reputation of all, Millfield, who are unbeaten in fifteen-a-side this season and got their 7s campaign off to a good start by winning the Mount Kelly 7s last week. Millfield could be stretched though, they have a 2^nd VII drawn in Group 1, and they are also running another side at Sunday’s Shiplake 7s.

Their 2^nd VII are alongside Winchester College, hosts Portsmouth Grammar, and PGS’ local rivals KES Southampton in a group from which all four will be eager to qualify and will believe they can.

Group 2 is also looking wide open, Gordon’s will be keen to impress ahead of their own 7s tournament later in the season, while RGS Guildford had an excellent fifteen-a-side season and will be eager for that to translate to 7s. Wimbledon College are a side that always compete hard on the 7s field, and rounding off the group are Bryanston, who won the Bowl back in 2020 by defeating the hosts in the final.

Group 3 pits two of 2020’s silverware holders against each other, Canford won the Plate, while Brighton College won the Shield, having won the main title back in 2018. They will arrive feeling good after a strong showing in getting to the Plate final at the Seaford 10s over the weekend, and joining them in the group are Seaford College, who won the Vase at their own tournament on Sunday. Completing the group are Royal Hospital School, who could be dark horses after an unbeaten fifteen-a-side season.

Overall it’s an incredibly strong sixteen-team field and should produce some outstanding 7s to truly kick off what promises to be a brilliant school 7s season after such a long absence.

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South Coast 7s Draw: