Cardinal Langley triumph in inaugural Hornets Sevens!

Middleton based Secondary School Cardinal Langley Sports College took home the spoils in the inaugural Rochdale Hornets Sevens.

The lads got off to a tough start to the afternoon having to play their first two games of the group stage back-to-back. But they overcame St Anne's Academy and then Siddal Moor without conceding a single point.

In the other group Springhill and St Cuthbert's RC got off to flying starts by overcoming strong Matthew Moss High School and Wardle outfits. Springhill and St Cuthberts then went head to head with St Cuthbert's emerging victorious in a tightly fought affair!

After a tough afternoons Rugby all teams then entered the play off stage of the competition! After some highly entertaining and franticly paced seven’s rugby the two finalists were Cardinal Langley and St Cuthbert's RC High.

St Cuthbert's appeared to have the upper hand with good field position in the early stages but the Cardinal Langley defence held firm and then went onto break the deadlock just after the half way stage of the final. St Cuthbert's hit back to set up a nail biting climax to the tournament but Cardinal Langley went on to score another try and take the crown as Rochdale Hornets Sevens champions, overcoming St Cuthbert's with a final score of 10 – 4.

Rochdale Hornets Community Development manager Mathew Gartland was on hand to oversee the afternoon, he said: “This has been a great afternoon's rugby in some terrible conditions. Firstly, I need to thank Hopwood Hall College for allowing us to use their fantastic facilities. May I also congratulate Cardinal Langley on overcoming some really strong teams and winning this competition. The Cardinal Langley lads really dug deep and ran out deserved winners; to only concede two tries in whole afternoon of seven-a-side rugby is an outstanding achievement by any team.”