Even the skies were weeping for the fancied British Army team as they were outgunned 38 points to 19 by a polished Emerging Boks SARU side in the championship final of the second Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens in Port Elizabeth today.

The Boks ran in six tries and four conversions to the visitors’ three tries and two conversions. The Army side largely consisted of Fijian sevens internationals.

Even the skies were weeping for the fancied British Army team as they were outgunned 38 points to 19 by a polished Emerging Boks SARU side in the championship final of the second Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens in Port Elizabeth today.

The Boks ran in six tries and four conversions to the visitors’ three tries and two conversions. The Army side largely consisted of Fijian sevens internationals.

Vuyo Zangqa of the Emerging Boks High Performance team was name Player of the Tournament.

After a sunny first two days the final was played under heavy skies and a light drizzle with the heavens opening soon after the final whistle.

National Sevens coach Paul Treu, who was among the spectators yesterday, applauded the initiative to establish a sevens event of the magnitude of the Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens. “It is something we really need in South Africa because we don’t really have a culture of sevens rugby.

“That makes it very difficult for our players to play in the International Rugby Board’s (IRB) sevens series because they don’t know what to expect. A tournament like this is ideal because it gives them the exposure they need against international teams and therefore to be able to make the step up to international sevens,” says Treu.

“We will embrace the Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens and give it our full support in future. I look forward to coming back next year.”

The British Army narrowly beat the British Samurai by 21 points to 19 in the first semi-final, while the Emerging Sevens SARU team scored seven points without any reply from the local NMMU university side in the second semi.

In the Bowl final, the Grey Invitation team had too much firepower for the CUT Absa Rugby Club from the Free State, beating them by 52 points to 31. Grey scored eight tries and six conversions, with the Free Staters answering with five tries and three conversions.

The Plate final saw the Eastern Province Indlovus going down 19 points to 26 against another local team, the Trojans.

Yesterday, the Emerging Springboks A side scored five tries to one in beating the Emerging Springboks B team in the final of the women’s tournament. The A-team outscored their second-stringers by 25 points to 7 in an action-packed encounter.

Saloma Booysen of the A-side was named the women’s Player of the Tournament.

In the under 19 championship final a spirited Grey High team went down 12 to 19 against the Welsh URDD. The Welsh team is the current Dubai Sevens champions.

Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens director of rugby Jacques Steyn says this year’s event was a huge success. “It was great to give our local teams the benefit and experience of playing against top international sevens teams,” he says.

“We’ve had positive feedback from participating teams and we now have the infrastructure in place to take this event forward and grow it in the coming years. The Grey School campus is a superb venue that allows us to present a professional tournament of international standards.”

Steyn says the weather played along nicely for most of the weekend and the crowd support was definitely up from last year.

Besides the sevens rugby, this year’s event also included touchies, football, action netball and hockey. Retail areas and kids and adventure zones provided fun-filled entertainment for the whole family.

The organisers of the Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens say this event is the first step in attaining their ultimate vision of bringing the IRB Sevens World Series to Nelson Mandela Bay.