17th April 2011

The CRY Crusaders are a group of young rugby players, deeply affected by a friend’s sudden death. They will be playing and representing CRY at a number of Rugby 7s tournaments throughout the country.

Contact the CRY Crusaders: crycrusaders@gmail.com

The CRY Crusaders had an excellent showing in their first tournament of the year at Wanstead, reaching the final of the main competition.

Group Stages
The group that CRY Crusaders was picked in was a tough one, including Kamikaze – a renowned team on the sevens circuit – and Wanstead, the host club.

Crusaders’ first game was against Kamikaze. The Crusaders started well and it took a while for Kamikaze to find their form. The Crusaders showed excellent defensive and attacking structure, with Dante Mama and Mike Salmon scoring two tries apiece.

The next game against Wanstead was a physical encounter as expected, however the Crusaders managed to pull through, with Chris and Chas Penn scoring a try apiece, as well as Pete Daly scoring one and Dante Mama bagging another two. Wanstead came back with a try.

In the final group game Crusaders cruised through, with Chas Penn and Mike Salmon scoring two tries each, and Joe Mcmanus, Ben Rubio, Rich Irving and Dante Mama scoring one each.

Semi Final
The Semi Final was between the CRY Crusaders and the Thundercats. The Thundercats had progressed well from their group and were looking to be a serious threat to the Crusaders’ day. Both teams played well in this physical encounter, however Crusaders came out on top 4 tries to 1, with Dante Mama getting two and Mike Salmon and Pete Daly getting 1 apiece.

Final
The final saw the two winners of the pool stages meet – the CRY Crusaders and the Midwives. The match started well for the Crusaders with Toby Comley scoring two early tries. However, the Crusaders lost their structure slightly and the Midwives capitalised scoring four tries to take the win.

All-in-all it was an excellent start to the season, just a shame we couldn’t start with a tournament win.