Feast of rugby on offer at 7's festival
A feast of rugby is on offer this weekend in Greene King IPA Bury St Edmunds Rugby 7’s Festival.
Saturday’s festival will be made up of one competition containing 12 teams.
Bury St Edmunds will be represented by two teams, the senior men’s side, coached by Ben Penfold, and an under-18s development team.
Wolfpack player Will Affleck will be bringing his charity side, Oxfam Crusaders, to participate once again but there will not be the likes of last year’s reigning champions British Army or any Premiership or international-level teams that have appeared in the past.
“The event is different,” Bury chairman Craig Germeney explained.
“There’s a team from Cambridge, we’ve got Ealing Trailfinders, we’ve got Lambs and Oxfam Crusaders.
“We’ve got a 12 metre-square massive screen to air the England-Australia game and we’ve got live music late afternoon going into the evening.
“And we’ve got two pitches that will have rugby 7s played on it throughout the day as well as obviously beer and food.”
He hopes the introduction of live music, with Ipswich-based James Nunn and recommended touring band The Upsiders playing from around 5.30pm through to 9pm, can be a great new addition to the day.
He said: “Hopefully it will be a success, people will enjoy it and we can build on it for next season with the number of teams we have and take it from strength to strength.”
The club had originally planned to have a women’s competition but had to pull it after one of the four teams dropped out.
It is hoped that can be added next year but the Bury St Edmunds Foxes will still be visible after agreeing to be part of the army of volunteers helping to put on the day.
Tickets will still be available on the gate, which opens at 10 am, as well as online, priced at £15 for over-17s and £5 for 13-16 year olds. Under-13s go free while family tickets (two adults and two children) are available for £30.
The full list of teams competing is: Bury Rugby, Bury 18’s, Apache, Oxfam Crusaders, Lambs 1, Holt, OI’s. Vipers, RAF Honington, Ealing, Rascals and Samurai Renegades, who will be coached by former England international Semesa Rokoduguni.
They will be competing for a share of the £4,200 prize fund with a Plate and Bowl spin-offs enabling knocked out teams to have something to play for. There will also be a player of the tournament award once again.
Germeney said: “The weather is set to be scorching so it should be a good day.”
For more, visit https://www.bserufc.co.uk/calendar/event/bse-rufc-sevens-tournament-2022-526782
