Samurai International rewrote the record books at the 2007 Heineken Amsterdam Sevens when they won the title for the sixth time in the 36 year history of the tournament and became the first team since the Musketeers in the late 1970's to win the tournament three years in a row. However, they had to dig deep. In the final they were pushed all of the way by 2004 winners Corso Marauders who matched them in the try scoring stakes with three tries apiece with Samurai taking the Silver Pier Trophy by kicking all three conversions whilst Corso Marauders missed two, giving a 21-17 final score.
Samurai International narrowly scraped through their semi-final against perenniel semi-finalists Backstabbers who have lost in the semi-final every year since 2002. Backstabbers looked as if they would break their semi-final hoodoo when they took a 14-12 lead with a couple of minutes to go. The turning point came when the referee showed a yellow card to a Backstabbers player, sending him to the sin bin for 2 minutes. This led to a strong reaction from the large crowd as the reason for the yellow card was not obvious (I heard later it was a result of a conversation the player was having with the referee) and with the crowds sympathy now clearly with the Backstabbers there was further reaction when the Samurai took advantage of the extra man to run in a last minute try to win their way through to the final.
Corso Marauders also had a close semi-final with a narrow 24-19 win over last years losing finalists Kooga Wailers with their strong Newcastle Falcons connections.
The losing quarter finalists were a mix of teams who regularly get to the later stages of the tournament, first time visitors and regulars who made it to the quarter final for the first time. The teams who regularly make the quarter finals were Susies Exiles, who lost 29-14 to Backstabbers and Millfield Old Boys, 14-7 losers to Kooga Wailers. The Heineken Amsterdam Sevens virgins were Irish DHL Exiles who lost 33-14 to Corso Marauders. Finally, a special mention for the Scufflers who, after narrowly missing out on the quarter finals for the last few years, finally made it into the quarter finals only to run up against Samurai International and go out 38-7.
The Heineken Boot competition final was an all Dutch affair with Ascrum from Amsterdam winning a very close final 31-24. The semi-finalists were Rugby Club d'Annemasse from the Haute Savoi region of France and URC from Rome.
The Integer Plate competition final saw local Dutch team Waterland win 12-0 against Illesheim Black 'n Blue, a team of German based US military. The losing semi-finalists were Jeddah RFC from Saudi Arabia and Cologne Crusaders from Germany.
The Veterans 10s Tournament was a great success both in terms of the quality of the rugby and the increase in bar takings. Wooden Spoon proved too strong for last years winners Marauders in the final, winning 28-5. The advantage Marauders should have enjoyed because of their previous experience as winners was mitigated by the fact that Wooden Spoon had a number of the Marauders players from last year. Other teams included St Mary's College from Dublin, Bahrain Vagabonds, 77 Exiles who were Sevens regulars but have graduated to Vets 10s and Luzern who had been told by their organiser to turn up for a stag weekend with their Rugby kit and finished up playing in the Heineken Amsterdam Vets 10s and, at least on Saturday, winning games.
The Heineken Amsterdam Ladies Sevens Silver Pier final resulted in a 27-7 victory for invitation side Wooden Spoon over English club side Richmond. The Canadian national side had the misfortune to run up against Wooden Spoon in the semi-final, losing 40-0 and Welsh side Red Dragons lost out 33-0 to Richmond in their semi-final.
The international FIRA Tournament was won by Italy.
As usual, the tournament ran like clockwork and the person who arranged the weather should be congratulated with the bright sunshine until the last minute of the Final when the heavens opened. The rain did not dampen the atmosphere as the large crowd warmed down with a beer or ten and, with the help of some washing up liquid, enabled some table diving with gentlemen players, lady players and even a referee, in various stages of undress, risking serious damage to their dangly bits by launching themselves on a slide along six long tables. The prize for the most outrageous kit went to Dirty Sanchez from Scotland who wore a figure hugging, sleeveless crew necked creation in sky blue and turned on the champagne style in their game against Kooga Wailers where they took an early lead and out-did the Wailers in the tricks department before eventually succumbing to the more serious Wailers. Mel's Exiles were at the Heineken Amsterdam Sevens for the 25th time but were unable to repeat the success of their glory days in the 1990s when they won the tournament four times or the final appearance in 2005. They went out in the round before the quarter finals to Kooga Wailers.
A couple of statistics for the anoraks among you. There were 93 teams and 230 matches on 8 pitches.
As usual, the talent scouts were out in force. Tom Tombleson, the Backstabbers and Oxford University winger was asked to be on standby for the England team at the forthcoming IRB 7s at Twickenham and Edinburgh. In previous years Tim Visser was spotted by Newcastle Falcons and a Millfield Old Boys player was drafted onto an England under 19 tour to South Africa. So, if you want to see the stars of the future, come along to the Heineken Amsterdam Sevens.