Summer is arguably the best
season (temperature wise) of the year and if you are a rugby fan then it is the time when your
attention is naturally drawn to the beautiful art of Sevens. This year the
Sevens Season just got that little bit bigger as Allianz Park, the home of Saracens
Rugby, will open its gates for the first ever Sevens and The City Festival.
Naturally being a fan of
sunshine, Sevens and a spot of off the field entertainment I was keen to hear
all about this new Sevens extravaganza and who better to speak to than one of
the organisers... you may know him fairly well; Saracens, England and
Sevens legend Mr David Strettle. The first and most obvious question was where
did the idea of Sevens and The City come from?
“Sevens and The City started when we had a few discussions with Edward
Griffiths (Saracens CEO) and
posed the idea of opening our beautiful stadium for a summer tournament. We are
extremely lucky to have such great facilities at Allianz Park and thought that
it would be the perfect venue to host a large scale Sevens event.”
David has
experience of developing tournaments before having organised Sevens in La
Manga, Spain, for a number of years and thankfully Edward
gave the idea the green light. After that it was all systems go for
David and his organisation partner aka work husband of choice Mr Matt Stevens!
So what is happening exactly!? Well
on 12th July, in the blissful sunshine (predicted not guaranteed) there
will be 4 rugby competitions, 2 netball competitions and a huge athletic competition;
4 Fittest. From a Sevens perspective we
are going to be absolutely spoilt rotten as the top invitational teams will
fight it out against each other to progress forward to take part in the Elite
Finals against the English, Welsh, Kenyan and Scottish National Sevens Squads that are warming up for the Commonwealth Games. BT Sport will be filming the whole competition and there is no doubt that the
standard of rugby will be World Class. As with every great Sevens
tournament there are opportunities for all to compete with a strong
Social Competition, a Women’s Competition and a Vets 10s. Finally Netball wise there
will be two tournaments, one very social one and one where winning is a little
more important and as for 4 Fittest well that deserves its own paragraph!
What is 4 Fittest I hear you
say!?! If you are old enough to remember it think Superstars’ Gym Tests, add in
a little more complexity and you are there. 4 Fittest is a Mixed Team Performance Competition where athletic ability is everything and over a number of hotly
contested rounds teams of 3 men and 1 woman will fight it out to be crowned “The
Fittest in the City”.
You may ask why I’m so excited by
this particular tournament; well the fact of the matter is that it is combining
a number of my favourite things in life, all in one place; rugby, netball and a
spot of off the field fun. The 'entertainment' includes Battle of The Rugby Star DJ’s, a Champagne Tent and so much
more and before you ask I have already requested a number of bottles of
Bollinger to be reserved under my name!!!
Speaking to David you cannot help
but swept up in his enthusiasm for the tournament, it is clear that Sevens and
The City will be one of the events of the Summer and I’m really excited to be
part of it. Personally I was extremely impressed by the attention to detail,
organisation and professionalism that both David and Matt are putting into this
tournament; they have long term plans for Sevens and The City and are committed
to making it an absolutely outstanding event. So I suggest that if you are a
team you add it to your calendar right now, or if you prefer to spectate then you
secure your ground pass ASAP to be a part of the day. Out On The Full will be
bringing you all of the action from Sevens and The City, as you can tell I am really very excited by this and I
hope that you are too!!
All of the important information and links are here: Website and Tickets and of course Team Entry
