Apache Rugby Club Official Site

Having improved dramatically in recent years and emerging as a real force on the circuit consistently, Apache were very pleased to receive a late invitation to play in the famous Middlesex 7's at the Home of Rugby. As usual, we had a tough draw, and were on first against the Army. On a big pitch and with a big crowd (well, including the viewers on TV!), both sides looked nervous. Simple handling errors and unusual uncertainty meant we didn't really get into the game in the first half. Despite this, Greeners took the one real opportunity we had with aplomb, after good work on the break from Hawks, levelling the score 5-5 at half time. Unfortunately the Army then controlled the next 3 kick-offs (to us), retaining possession after and scoring as a result of this to win 4 tries to 1. This was a shame, having beaten them at Bournemouth a few weeks before and having had a few close tussles this summer.

We then moved into the Plate where we were due to meet the Wailers team for the first time (despite playing in the same competitions as them 7 times!) since Dubai 2009. Wailers had had a mixed summer, but having won Amsterdam, were certainly expected to be strong. The first half reflected the game as a whole, with Wailers controlling possession and Apache defending for long periods. We had a very quick squad on the day and this was obvious on the one occasion we had some good ball, as Sam Bellhouse broke down the wing and was eventually hauled down but offloaded to Greeners who raced in under the posts, to put us 12-7 down at half-time. Again, despite being in the game at the halfway point, Wailers then had all the possession and eventually this told as Apache tired from endlessly defending and conceded a few tired tries at the end to finish 26-7 losers.

A disappointing outing on the whole, but great to have been invited/included in what might be the last ever Middlesex 7's. With several key forwards missing, possession was hard to come by - this was a shame as with the quality of ball-players/pace we had at our disposal, we could have been a real threat with a bit more ball.

Squad: DC (Capt), Hawks, Tommy B, Busted, Sandy Reid, James Tirrell, Gaz C, Rat, A. Hurst, Sam Bellhouse, Greeners, Strongy

Finally Apache had a relatively friendly draw and the opportunity to make good progress from the off (it was also good to welcome Gaz Collins back into the fold after a serious lack of turnouts over the last 2 seasons!). The first game against West Country Cavaliers started messily, but after a few tries exchanged, the quality side that we have become over the past few seasons woke up and we eventually dispatched them comfortably 6 tries to 2 - Sam Bellhouse looked sharp and Hawks was dangerous on the break as usual. Next up, the group decider against Marauders. Having beaten them in a good game at West Country, this was a closer affair and they up for it - first place in the group was a coveted position as the quarter final would produce an 'easier' draw. Marauders had the elusive and nippy Sam Edgerly (aka Judas for this event!), who scored a fine individual try early on. He made several breaks, but between Sam B, Greeners and Gaz he was caught and well-marshalled on the whole. 2 quick tries by Apache (Sam Bellhouse again looking very sharp), saw us 10-5 (no kicks converted - Hawks??!) up with a minute and a half to go. We were awarded a penalty under the posts and after a bit of yelling from yours truly from the side, Hawks finally slotted one from the penalty spot to put us 2 scores up 13-5. Marauders did reply with a converted score of their own, but all too late as the final whistle went and we were the victors 13-12 and group winners. This set up a quarter final against the unknown Brazil national team - unfortunately we went into this game too complacently and casually and before we knew it we were 2 scores down and chasing the game. Despite a strong comeback and with outstanding pace on the break from Greeners and Sam, Apache went down 29-17 in the quarters.

Once again, we showed our class and confirmed our place as a very strong outfit, but let ourselves down due to a slightly laidback approach. We need to be more ruthless and clinical against ALL teams we face to avoid disappointment. A great weekend as ever down in Cornwall, and this latest performance saw us finish the Series in a satisfying 6th spot - better than last year and securely away from the bottom few, but I'm sure we all feel we could've/should've done so much better - 2 quarters and 1 semi, along with having beaten Samurai (the only team to do so in the Series) and Marauders twice suggests we are capable of better.

Looking forward to more pleasing results and development in 2012!! Once an Apache always an Apache............

Squad: Hawks (Captain), Lukey, Tommy B, Julianno, Rat, Busted, Sam Bellhouse, Greeners, Gaz Collins

Apache played the Irish Raiders in the first game of the tournament. Before kick-off the heavens had opened and the rain poured down - hardly making for entertaining 7's. This reduced the teams' ability to play much running rugby and created a heavy game as each team tried to make the most of the elements. The Irish Raiders kicked through a number of times to some success and and their heavier forwards proved useful holding the ball up and challenging the contact area. The final score was 15 - 10 to the Irish Raiders.
Luckily, before the next game the rained stopped and the sun broke through. This created a very different game against the Samurai Barracudas that we had to win to avoid going into the Plate. Samurai had some familiar faces from Rugby Rocks and further enhanced their squad with Oriel Ripol the Spanish International. Apache recovered the ball well from kick offs and reverted to their usual style, keeping the ball away from contact and pestering the opposition defence until they created a gap. The side kept the ball well and Samurai struggled to exert their usual dominance over the game. Some great individual breaks by Gavin, Ugi, Hawks and the pace of Sam and Greeners showed the quality of the Apache squad as we ran out winners 5 tries to 2. This created the biggest upset since the start of the Series with the group thrown wide open and points difference deciding the team positions, meaning Samurai, for the first time, found themselves in the Plate. A great effort from the entire Apache squad and a great scalp to add to their collection this season which includes the Army amongst others.

Apache finishing top of the group on points then met the Marauders who finished runners up in their pool. Another exhausting performance and some great breaks kept Apache ahead, including another fine break and score by Ugi. The crowd were treated to some great sevens from both teams as their similar styles created a quick paced running game, Apache coming out on top 4 tries to 2 and progressing to the Semi Final.
In the Semi Apache faced the Olorun Sharks. In a closely fought game the Sharks got an early lead and going a few tries ahead, looked to have run away with the game. But after a few well worked tries and great pressure from Luke Burns at the restarts, Apache came to within a try with a few minutes left. But there would be a cruel conclusion that would help decide the final result with quick footed Gavin hurting his ankle, and with all substitutes used, Apache would have to play with six men. In the final seconds Apache held onto the ball well but couldn’t break through Olorun’s defense. After their best performance to date in the series a tired Apache team were knocked out in the Semis.

The Westcountry sevens has created an interesting climax to the series in Newquay with the Army not making the final after being knocked out by Les Bleus in the Quarters and Samurai finishing in the Plate. It was also good to see the return of Strongy, and debuts from Sam Bellhouse and Jonny Wehbe who all performed well.

For more info, see the UK Super Sevens Series website for League Standings, full results etc

Squad at Westcountry: Dan Connolly (Capt), James Hawken, Luke Burns, Ayoola Erinle, Will Woodward, Tom Huggins, Gavin Dampies, James Strong, Jonny Wehbe, Sam Bellhouse, James Greenwood

Westcountry Open Section

The Open section at this event is arguably the toughest, especially as only the top 1 from each group of 4 could proceed into the Main Competition. We won our first game convincingly, playing some attractive, sometimes over-complicated crowd-pleasing 7's against a physical side! Continuous scissoring, linking (and perhaps a reluctance to run far?!) meant we worked for every try and kept the ball alive well - this is actually good preparation for playing for the top side, as that is pretty much how we try to play......so keep it up! We then met another physical team, the Covenant Brothers, made up of burly Fijians. A tight game ensued, but breaks from Ali and Oscar and good finishing saw us home by a score in the end. The last group game was the decider against Marauders Academy, who have played a lot of 7's together this summer. A close affair ended in a 14-14 draw, with Marauders going through on some dodgy points difference admin. We then had a game against Storm (runner-up in the Open at Rugby Rocks), and another close game with some awful refereeing saw them beat us by a score.

Debuts from Rich James and Ali, and a pleasing return to rugby for Sandy were the highlights of the day, and some strong physical performances by Bruno and Julianno were good to see. Dylan, Rat and Ben kept working hard throughout the day as well. With bodies tiring and injuries and the deflating progression to the Plate, it was not a surprise we faded a little in the last game, but some of the 7's played was exactly what I was looking and hoping for - fast paced, keeping the ball alive, and quality handling with the ability to make the right decisions; this is what we need to keep doing at these events in the Open section, and we should be aiming to win tournaments like these in the future.

Apache Braves: Tom McMurdo (Capt), Bruno Doherty, Ben Davies, Julianno Fiori, Sandy Reid, Richard James, Adam Hurst, Alistair Simmie, Oscar Ward, Rat Huggins

In the London Rugby Rocks Open tournament the Apache Braves put in a solid performance, but it was disappointing to fall short of making the final by losing in the semis, to the eventual winners.

We had one team pull out of our group, which meant that after our first game and a pretty easy win we had a long wait until our second group game. It took us a while to shake off the lethargy from sitting around for so long, but in the end some solid pressure in defence as well as Apache's typically good use of the ball in hand meant that we ran out comfortable winners. Annoyingly Dave picked up a knock in this game and so along with Sam having given us a good physical presence in both attack and defence couldn't take part in much more of the tournament.

In the quarter finals we were against Soy Galacticos and though we had a lot of possession in the first half made a few silly handling errors which meant that tries went begging and we were two scores down at the break. In the second half we tightened up well, stayed calm and ran out deserved winners. There was some good finishing by Sam on the wing and Cottsy and Conor were coming into their own as playmakers. Sadly Sam strained his hamstring in the quarter and we missed his pace in the semi.

Koru Kamikaze were a physical outfit, well drilled and pumped up - seeing that the winner of our game would most likely go on to win the final. The first half was very tight with a four minute phase of rugby leaving both sides puffing, sadly during the phase we made handling errors when we could have put them away and so conceded first. Still in it at half time, we needed to keep pressure on them in defence and trust our pace in the second half. Sadly good pressure from them again produced turnovers and we probably didn't play to enough of a pattern to open up their defence. Overall it was disappointing to lose - especially seeing Kamikaze's margin of victory in the final, and we suffered from some of the injuries picked up through the tournament. Hopefully though it was good experience for some of the younger players who showed good promise, and with a little more control on pattern and ball retention we should be winning tournaments like this. Thanks to Rat for subbing in with us in the knockouts, and I thought Chris Breslin played well using his power to open up defences.

Pete N (Capt), Oscar, Dave M. Sammy C. Cottsy, Booker, Dylan, Sam Bellhouse, Perry, Conor, Chris Breslin.

An outstanding weekend down at Bournemouth - the squad all contributed and played some excellent 7's along the way to finish runners-up - losing 28-19 in a close game with the Army in the final. The team played as a unit and the defence was solid and well-organised and we demonstrated how our 'brand' of 7's can be both entertaining AND effective.

The first day saw us drawn with Black Stallion, The Army and Olorun, which looked tough on paper. First up was BS - despite Cottsy trying to make the game interesting by giving them an early score, we cruised past them 35-5, and even took the opportunity to miss pretty much every kick (some right in front of the posts - DC and Hawks get out on that training field!) to show how confident we were! We then faced the Army, who whilst missing a few key players, are still a top team. Ugi and Luke dominated the early kick-offs and we scored 3 quick tries, retaining possession all the while - Gavin's finishing in particular was sharp and credit to him for his well-taken brace. Despite them coming back briefly, we ran out assured 24-10 winners, becoming the first team to beat them at Bournemouth for several years. After another lengthy break and deterioration on the weather front, we met Olorun in a scrappy affair. They were well up for it, and it was a close game, but as the class side we have become, we closed it out with a length of the field run by Busted (I know!) to finish them off 22-12, leaving us top of the group and unbeaten. We went through as top seeds, and were due to meet a strong Templars outfit (finalists the week before at Amsterdam) first thing Sunday.

Overall a very pleasing 2 days, especially as we head into the Super 7's Series this coming weekend. The squad all played well, and finalists at a tournament of this calibre is no mean feat - we need to set our standards this high every time we take to the field. DC led by example, Ugi was outstanding at kick off, Greeners finished well (and managed to get over a slight swelling of the knee - apparently medically it's called 'Fag's knee) and from what I saw and have heard since, Gavin was the outstanding player of the tournament in defence and attack. Everyone contributed throughout the squad. Well done to all.

DC (Captain), Hawks, Lukey, Busted, Ugi, Dave Massey, Cottsy, Gavin, Greeners, Alex Neilson, Oscar, Perry

Winners!!
Great to see Ayoola back in Apache kit for the first time in 9 years - by far the longest exile but good to have him back after horsing around with average sides like Wasps and Biarritz.

We're now heading into the serious part of the season, and selection will be done on merit. We still have 7 comps left and 8 teams being put out at the least between now and the end of August, so still a lot of 7's to be played. Well done to all involved so far, and welcome to the Apache club those who've made debuts/returned from absences - we play in more comps now than any other team as far as I'm aware, and I hope you're all enjoying the experience so far this summer............
Well done, onwards and upwards, Chief

DC (Capt), Busted, Ugi, Karim, Billy, Sean, Cottsy, Aaron, Dave Massey, Ali J, Dylan

Quarters
This was a poorly run and poorly managed tournament that reminded of how 7's used to be about 10 years ago. Ridiculously mixed levels of teams and some stupid gaps between games (2.5 hours was my favourite!) made it a bit of an annoying and frustrating day - plus the fact it blustery and cold for most of the day.
In short, we smashed the 2 local sides in our group at a stroll, and squeezed past the one good side in our group to qualify as first in our group. We met the Princess of Wales regiment in the quarters (who won last year and are usually good........but weren't this time!), and looked off the pace and lacklustre - poor handling and decision-making meant we eventually lost 4 tries to 2 in a poor game of 7's. We should be winning these sort of tournaments every time, but lacked cohesion, quality and nouse which let us down on the day.

Quarters
A tough tournament and our first 'proper' outing of the summer. First 2 group games went well, as we cruised past West Country Cavaliers and Ronin - we made it harder than it needed to be at times, but still beat both sides fairly easily- both aiming/claiming to compete at the top level this year and beyond. We then met a strong, full Spain side (who went on to beat a full strength England team in the final); it was a very even game and we made more breaks than them, but the game was decided on fitness and conditioning - they always cut us down after breaks and snubbed out the threat, where as they took their chances well when they got them. We coughed up possession a little too easily at times. As a result, we qualified as second in the group and met Saracens in the quarters. As with the previous weekend, kick-offs let us down as we gifted them 3 early scores which we could not claw back. We played some better 7's (after the first 3 minutes) and looked dangerous in possession, but we'd effectively written ourselves off with the poor start - we eventually lost 24-17, which was disappointing as we were the better side. However, it was a good day and we played some excellent 7's at times, especially in light of the fact that we lost all 3 gas men early in the comp. Gavin's defence was solid as ever, Hawks made countless breaks and was always a threat, and the forwards Julianno, Tom S and Mungo all worked hard.

Hawks (Capt), Me, Mungo, Tom S, Julianno, Briggsy, Millhouse, Gav, Jonesy, Alex J, Rat

Windsor Sevens

The Braves side arrived with a full 10 minutes till our first game - standard - and lost to an appalling, chubby Fijian team. We woke up, and went on to win our remaining 3 group games, playing some solid 7's - Oscar ran tries in freely and James Mc-G aka Mungo also showed good strength and aggression. Pete Nicholas led from the front and was a rock in defence, getting several turnovers. The quarters was relatively straightforward, but we then played a much stronger mixed Fijian side in the Semis (they had merged with the best of the other Fijian teams there) - losing 4 out of 4 kick offs which resulted in them scoring 4 quick tries, meant we were always going to struggle. The second half saw us play some better 7's, but the overall score of 6-3 on tries was inevitable after such a poor start.

The Academy played very well as a team, and won all their group games easily, beating several upstart sides who rate themselves along the way - good work. Their work rate and commitment, epitomised by Bobby and Alex J, put them in good stead and saw them do the better of the 2 sides on the day. Their quarter final was a straightforward affair, and they then beat a fancied Marlow side to reach the final, where they met the same Fijian team we had just lost to in the other Semi. Millhouse showed some good feet and pace for his score, and again, the team were combative, but the Academy eventually went down 4 tries to 2.

Both sides showed glimpses of quality 7's, and the spirit and attitude were great to see from both teams - however, if we are to win these types of tournament, we need to show greater composure, play with more depth, and command the kick off and breakdown areas where we were weak at times, particularly against a bigger and heavier team. If we can do this, then I am sure we will continue to have a very successful summer.

Well done to all those involved- it was a lovely day, and ultimately, a Semi and a Final place are not to be sniffed at!

Squads:
Apache Braves: Pete Nicholas (Captain), Adam Hurst, James McWilliams-Gray, Ali Johnston, Dave Massey, Tom Burns, Sean Flatman, Gavin Dampies, Oscar Ward, Ben Davies
Apache Academy: Tom Booker (Captain), Alex Johnstone, Dylan Teasdale, Kris Cottenden, Chris (Booker's mate), Bruno Doherty, Tom Waterhouse, Bobby Lawrenson

A fine first weekend of the season saw Apache with 2 teams in the Sunshine 7's on a hot day, with rock hard pitches - nice.

The Academy side featured 6 current school boys (with a little age and experience thrown in by yours truly and Mr Leadbetter), but performed admirably. We won our first 2 group games with relative ease, Cottsy and James 'the bear' Mc-G scoring freely, but came up against a strong Esher 1st VII in our final group game - their press defence was a shock to the system and was what was ultimately our undoing (it also saw them win the tournament even though they came up against some better 7's teams), and it was a good learning experience for some of the younger players as we needed to adapt our game and hit some hard lines and set up offside lines etc if we were to have had any chance. We did progress to the Cup quarters as 2nd place in the group, where we encountered an experienced Kamikaze side. We gave them an early lead, as again we were quiet and a little overwhelmed by their aggressive D - something to work on! However, we came back well and played some excellent 7's as we had all day, and lost narrowly 29-24. Hugo played well all day and Alex J's work rate was excellent, and the whole squad gave their best - all positive going forward. Thanks and well played.

The senior side, the Braves, had a tough early game against the steroid-ridden hosts, but emerged unscathed and won their second game easily. The 3rd game would prove the toughest against an experienced Wooden Spoon side featuring several ex-Apaches. A see-saw game saw the quality of the Apache side emerge through some excellent defensive organisation and structure, and we moved through to the quarters, where we met the Esher Academy team. Again, the side were really into their stride by this time and absolutely spanked an inexperienced and slightly over-awed Esher team. In the Semis, we met last year's winners, Marauders Academy, who had some very strong young 7's players, and plenty of pace. It was arguably the best game of the day (as several supporters and connoisseurs of the game told me afterwards), and was certainly entertaining. Despite a slow start, the team clicked into gear and played some excellent 7's in the second half, but early lapses in organisation meant the lead was too great to overcome and we went down by 5 points, 24-19. Again, some notable performances by Chris E, Sean F and Oscar on debut, as well as the usual quality from Gavin and Hawks (who I thought was the standout player on the day). Once again, a good day, and bodes well for the next few months.

Apache Braves: James Hawken (Captain), Will Woodward, Chris Elder, Sean Flatman, Ben Davies, Charlie Hobart, Gavin Dampies, Perry Jansen, Will Jones, Oscar Ward, Dan Collier

Apache Academy: Conor Keogh (Captain), Adam Hurst, Ali Johnston, Alex Johnstone, Ben Henderson, James McWilliams-Gray, Tom McMurdo, Dave Massey, Kris Cottenden, Hugo Jafari