As part of Southgate RFC President’s day celebrations Enfield Ignatian pulsars were invited to participate in Southgate’s first ever Charity 7’s tournament.

The big draw and superstar guest team of the day were the VI Barbarians, many of whom have represented England as part of the VI Roses. The Change Foundation support this team, and do fantastic work making a huge difference to young peoples lives, and were the charity that this day was supporting.

The tournament was extremely well supported with a fantastic festival atmosphere, everyone was relaxed and enjoying the Pimms tent, well they were until the Pulsars captain Chris Lyons turned up with his strategy white board, black book of notes and tactical warmup routine. John Georgiou was lucky to even make the starting team for not listening to the strict truck and trailer warmup routine.

The veteran pulsars, the oldest at the tournament showed no signs of ageing legs and stormed through the early round of matches. With their self-elected number 1 pulsar legend Leighton Thomas on the field it seemed quite appropriate that the only shirt that would fit him was in fact the number 1 shirt, and the fly half playmaker, come prop, created plenty of scores all day.

The pulsars had the support of two U9 parents in their team who had never even played Rugby before, one being Jon Yates who could have been mistaken for a blind side when he dropped his shoulder in defence and sent a 20 stone opposition in the air. When the referee reminded him it was touch he proclaimed “what else am I supposed to do when a giant is charging at me”. The second amazing parent was Darren Kail who himself is VI (visually impaired) and delivered a storming performance, maybe a callup to the VI Roses is coming!

Pulsars finally met the VI Barbarians In the semi-final and 3 of our players were asked to wear VI goggles. If you close your eyes and picture this: the smell of freshly cut grass; the roar of the crowd; running full pelt down the field; the touchline almost in reach; your winger just to your right; the heavy footsteps of the opposing defender bearing down on you. Now, open just one eye slightly, squint tightly, and try your best to catch that ball hurtling towards you while avoiding that other defender coming at you headlong even faster! That may give you an inkling of an idea as to what teams playing visually impaired rugby face each time they take to the field. The game was played at a ferocious pace, and clearly too fast for Christopher Grilli (pictured) who wearing his VI goggles failed to even find the ball. The Pulsars however came through to knock out the favorites by a single score, naturally from captain fantastic.

The final was contested with an energetic and skillful Saracens side, but with their tails up and a trophy on the line the Pulsars stood firm to take the glory. Player of the tournament was handed to Nick Bolton, our Welsh Wizard, who was simply immense in every game, although the real reason was to make up for the Six Nations result.

A huge win for local clubs, for charity and of course Rugby.

Squad:
Chris Lyons, Daniel Pearce, John Georgiou, Jon Yates, Nick Bolton, Chris Grilli, Leighton Thomas, Bill William, Darren Kail, Kacper Jawoeski, Ian Blackman