When TR7 started, the honest plan was: enter a few tournaments, get some mates together, play some sevens. That is how most invitational sides begin, and it is how most of them stay.
Something different has happened. Across three tournaments this summer, nineteen different players pulled on a TR7 shirt. Six of them played in all three.
One rule that shapes everything
We take a small squad — no more than fourteen — and everyone who travels plays. We do not carry passengers, we do not name a squad and then run the same seven into the ground, and nobody drives two hours to stand on the touchline holding the water.
It sounds like a small operational detail. It is actually the thing that determines what kind of side this is.
If everyone who travels plays, then selection is a promise rather than a lottery — and you start picking very differently. You stop chasing the best available seven and start building a squad that can genuinely all contribute. It is a bit harder on the legs across five games in a day. It is worth it.
Where everyone comes from
The core is local — players from Newbold on Avon, Rugby St Andrews and Rugby Lions. From there it spreads: Bournville and Kenilworth in the surrounding area, and out as far as Bury St Edmunds and Sudbury RFC.
The playing level ranges from National League 1 (level 3) all the way down to level 8. Two brothers from Rugby, a lot of friends, and lads who came to us through the UR7s U23 route at Hertford and stayed.
On paper that mix should not work. In sevens it absolutely does. The format flattens a lot of the gap between levels — work rate, fitness and decision-making count for far more than the badge on your fifteens shirt. A level 8 player who reads the game well is worth more on a wide pitch than a level 3 player who does not fancy chasing back.
The decision
Somewhere between Hertford in June and Hamplified in July, this stopped being a turn-up-and-play side and started being something we had to make a decision about.
The decision: we are building a club, not an invitational.
The difference is not the rugby. It is everything around it. An invitational side is a few days a year of good rugby with people you mostly do not know. A club has a culture — people who actually want to be there, who look after the younger lads, who travel to watch when they are not playing, who make a tournament a day out rather than a fixture.
What we are picking for
- Attitude over reputation. Sevens punishes anyone who does not want to work. We would rather have a willing level 8 player than a reluctant level 3 one.
- People who add to the day. The rugby is a few hours. The rest of it is why people come back.
- Room for young players. Fraser Wilson and Seb Stacey came through the UR7s U23 competition at Hertford and went on to play every tournament of the season. Give people real minutes and they stay.
Want in?
There is still space. We are not running trials in any formal sense — tell us your position, your rugby background and where you are based, and we will go from there.
Call or text +44 7944 297249, or email hello@therugby7s.co.uk.
If you travel, you play. Come and find out.