Rampaging Bulls put Wasps to flight

There were more gaps in the much-vaunted Premiership squads than among the crowd at Twickenham. Indeed the paying public for these Middlesex Charity Sevens came pretty close to outnumbering the hordes who had turned up for the 'glittering' London leg of the World Series Sevens back in May. And while there might not have been £50,000 for the winners, as had been the case last year, it did not seem to trouble the teams.

The final was a one-sided affair which saw Bradford Bulls rugby league side eclipse the union representatives Wasps 42-14 to become the second club after Wigan (first-round losers yesterday) from the 13-man code to win the tournament. The pity of it was that some of the big names, having been mentioned in pre-tournament dispatches to boost publicity, were notable by their absence.

Time was when, as the climax to the season in May, this tournament used to be a 60,000 sell-out, so considering that the Premiership clubs, in partnership with Middlesex RFU, had been seeking to resuscitate this tournament, their aim, according to the programme, being "to increase the level of attendance..." (and surely simultaneously to increase the income), the non-appearance of certain players rather defeated that object.

In the same address by Middlesex chairman Keith King, he stated: "A key part of the agreement is that Premier Clubs have undertaken to ensure that their squads include at least 50 per cent of players who have first XV experience." And elsewhere in the programme mention was made of "the formal and wholehearted commitment of Premier Rugby." An interesting concept because some teams fulfilled that, others did not.

But the lack of big names did not seem to detract from an entertaining day out, not to judge by the reception the teams received each time they appeared on HQ's turf. So arguments that rugby is a winter sport, that we are in the middle of summer and that yesterday was the hottest day of the year fell on deaf ears.

As far as the 25,000-plus aficionados of the abbreviated game basking in the sunshine were concerned, they want sevens rugby anywhere, anytime and featuring anyone. Yesterday, they got it.

There might have been no Mike Catt, Ollie Barkley or Rob Thirlby for Bath, not a sign of Austin Healey in Leicester colours, or Rob Howley turning out for his new club Wasps, while the Saracens squad was unrecognisable (the ones who counted being over in Japan).

But there were plenty of other exciting players on show, not least a couple of teams from Fiji, under the auspices of the British Army and the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment respectively - "they are all active soldiers," said a hand-out, omitting to mention that they are also hyper-active exponents of rugby sevens.

The former accounted for a promising Saracens side in the opening match of the day and followed that by beating a speedy Bath team in the quarter-finals, after the West Country side had shaded the Princess of Wales Regiment in their first encounter. They fell in the semi-finals, though, well beaten by Bradford.

The Rugby Super League champions had shown serious commitment on their debut in the event, sending a squad bristling with purpose on the 250-mile trip down south; five of their line-up in round one against Leeds Tykes (and seven in their squad) had played in their ill-fated Super League match the evening before when they were hammered by St Helens, losing their two-year unbeaten record.

But having brushed aside Tykes, they gave even shorter shrift to a good-looking Gloucester outfit, a match which pitched the Paul brothers, Robbie and Henry, against each other. Henry came off worse. There was another tale of two brothers in the pre-tournament build-up, an intriguing prospect of seeing Jonny Wilkinson's older brother Mark in action alongside the England fly-half, but an injury to the latter rendered that a no-goer. At least Newcastle had the consolation of winning the Plate competition.

The two out-of-towners, London Wasps and London Irish, sweated their way to a semi-final showdown with some tasty performances, but their eventual confrontation was littered with errors. Wasps scraped through.