UNITED WORLD GAMES RUGBY 7S – THE STORY CONTINUES!
Last week we published an article about three Richmond School students being selected to play for the Eggchasers Rugby 7s Academy at the United World Games in Austria this summer. The article focused on one of the players – Sophie Morris, in Year 11. This article gives some more background about the other two players – Felicity Padgett and Amelia Westman, both in Year 8, starting with a match report from a Rugby 7s tournament both girls played in down in Reigate, Surrey, just before Christmas. Thanks to Katy Booton, Felicity’s mum, for the details!
“Just before Christmas, Felicity and Amelia travelled to Reigate Rugby club in Surrey to compete in a Rugby 7s competition. They were there representing the North East Eggchasers Academy U14 girls team. There were over 150 young people from all over the country competing in age categories from 11-18.
Rugby sevens is a very fast paced game, played on a full-sized pitch but with only 7 players on each side. Fitness, speed, strength, team work and quick decision making are key to success in this game. The players compete for 14 minutes – two 7-minute halves – in tournaments, with up to three matches per competition day.
Scoring is identical to 15-a-side rugby. A drop kick is worth three points, a try is worth five points and a conversion is worth two points.
The girls North East Academy team played two matches in the Reigate tournament.
Match 1
North East Academy was beaten 28-35. Felicity made some fantastic tackles, pushing back the attempts of the other team and set up some great passes for her teammates to convert. Amelia also made some excellent tackles, stopping try attempts from the other team. Amelia then scored a fabulous try after pushing back multiple tackle attempts from the opposition and with a final quick switch back, she scored!
Match 2
North East Academy won 28-14. Felicity was disappointed when her early try attempt was disallowed, but she came back with a fantastic assist, leading to her teammate making a fast sprint try. Felicity then continued to push back the opposition with her strong tackles.
Felicity and Amelia have now both been selected by the Eggchasers Academy to compete for their national team at the United World Games in the Klagenfurt Stadium, Austria in June 2025.
The United World Games has over 30 World Nations competing in many sports from rugby, football, swimming, track and field, gymnastics, to tennis, volleyball, ice hockey and many more. It’s like an Olympics for under 18s, promoting international friendships through sport at the highest level. Their vision is:
“Igniting the fire of friendship and uniting the world through sports.”
The athletes will stay in an athletes’ village and enjoy many events, including an opening ceremony, a flag parade, an international festival party, lots of friendly matches and training matches, as well as the main competition matches, of course. Four days of exciting events will conclude with the medal awards and closing ceremonies.
The girls are very proud, very excited and are training hard and looking forward to the United World Games event – the hard work starts now! The U16 girls have just returned from competing in New Zealand and the Eggchaser women’s team are just back from their recent win in the Dubai 7s competition in December. The standards are high!
The girls also both play rugby at their local clubs – Felicity for Richmondshire RUFC and Amelia for Darlington Mowden Park RFC. The girls have played together for over three years now. Richmond and Darlington have recently formed a collaboration for the U14 girls and are playing in the North East circuits as ‘The Northern Rebels ‘!”
Thank you to Katy for the insight into Amelia and Felicity’s rugby and the exciting months that lie ahead. We look forward to hearing more as the games approach and, of course, to a detailed report afterwards!