GB Royals lift Plate in Moscow

The Great Britain Sevens training squad got their first taste of silverware as GB Royals beat Georgia 15-12 in the Plate final of the Moscow Sevens.
GB Lions claimed third place in the tournament with a 26-5 victory over Germany.
Both sides topped their pools yesterday having won all three games but the Royals were beaten by France 17-14 with the last kick of the game in the Cup quarter-finals.
The Lions progressed to the Cup semi-finals but were undone 17-10 by hosts Russia who went on to win the tournament, overcoming France 24-7 in the final.
With the squad only assembling for the first time last Monday, Head Coach Simon Amor said: “Overall it has been a pleasing weekend.  We have been able to test a number of combinations within the two squads, which was a big goal given the short timeframe we have to select the final 12 for Rio, and there were some excellent individual performances and glimpses of what this group is capable of.
“Unfortunately, as expected when a new squad comes together, there were times when it didn’t quite click and that caused a disappointing result for each team in the knock out stages.
“It was however pleasing to see the players respond positively to both individual and team set backs and demonstrate the Team GB spirit in how they finished the tournament.”
The GB Royals recorded victories over Georgia, Lithuania and Russia yesterday on day one of competition, to top their group, and faced France in their Cup quarter-final.
Tom Bowen had put the Royals in front after scoring a try in the corner but it wasn’t long before France responded with a converted try of their own to take the lead 7-5 at half time.
Two unconverted tries from Ruaridh McConnochie and Alex Gray in the second half weren’t enough to keep France at bay.  Pierre Peres scored to narrow the Royals’ lead to 15-14 and soon after slotted a penalty with the last kick of the game to win 17-14.
GB Royals then competed in the Plate semi-final against Portugal with an early Luke Morgan try setting the tone for a one-sided affair.
Morgan went on to score two more in the first half with the Portugal defence struggling to deal with his speed on the wing.
Trailing 15-0 at half time, Portugal narrowed the gap to 15-5 after a try early in the second half but the Royals soon resumed control.
Joe Simpson evaded several tacklers to score under the posts and then scored a second soon after. Bowen guaranteed the Royals’ place in the Plate final after receiving the ball from Ollie Lindsay-Hague to sprint through and score to make it 34-5.
The Royals were up against Georgia in the final of the Plate having beaten them 17-7 in the group stages the day before.
Despite that result, Georgia came out with plenty of intent scoring a converted try early on.
Luke Treharne soon got the Royals back into the game after kicking through a loose ball for Cory Allen to touch down.
Morgan then brought his day’s try tally up to four with a scintillating try in the corner to put the Royals ahead 10-7
Georgia didn’t give up the fight and with full time approaching managed get hold of a loose ball to score.
McConnochie and Alex Davis then linked up in the dying moments with the latter scoring under the posts to hand the Royals a 15-12 win in the final.
After wins over Portugal, France and Poland on day one, the GB Lions began today with a comfortable win over Georgia in the Cup quarter finals, with two tries from Lee Jones and Mark Bennett as well as scores from Phil Burgess and Dan Norton giving them a 36-0 win.
The Lions then faced hosts Russia in the Cup semi-final and dominated early possession in the match.
A Tom Mitchell break left Russia’s defence split and Norton sprinted over the line from Mitchell’s offload to give GB Lions a 5-0 lead.
Phil Burgess then widened the gap for GB Lions with a rampaging run through Russia’s defence but the hosts were able to score just before half time to make it 10-5.
Russia started the stronger of the two sides in the second half with Eduard Filatov scoring early on and the hosts soon scored again to make it 17-10 at the final whistle.
With Russia progressing to the Cup final, GB Lions faced Germany in the tournament’s third place playoff.
Bennett and Burgess got the match off to a perfect start with two early tries both converted by Mitchell.
Germany then managed to get round the outside of the Lions’ defence to make it 14-5 but weren’t able to get a foothold in the game.
Mark Robertson made a break from his own half to set up Bennett to sprint through and score before Gavin Lowe then dashed over to bring the final score to 25-5.
GB Royals: Cory Allen, Tom Bowen, Alex Davis, Jamie Farndale, Alex Gray, Warwick Lahmert, Ollie Lindsay-Hague, Ruaridh McConnochie, Luke Morgan, Scott Riddell, Joe Simpson, Luke Treharne (c)
GB Lions: Mark Bennett, Dan Bibby, Phil Burgess, Sam Cross, James Davies, Richard de Carpentier, Lee Jones, Gavin Lowe, Tom Mitchell (c), Dan Norton, Mark Robertson, Marcus Watson