On a glorious spring day, Malsis School's Under 11 rugby side won the prestigious Stonyhurst College Seven-a-Side tournament for the first time last week.

The tournament attracts schools from all over Britain and Under-16 and Under-18 tournaments take place alongside the Under-11 event, with over 400 children taking part.

Last week, Malsis narrowly failed to win the Packwood Sevens down in Shropshire, losing to Mouslford, a school from Oxford. Earlier in the term Malsis defeated Ampleforth in the final of the Yarm sevens to claim their first trophy of the seven-a-side season.

In the group games played at Stonyhurst's Prep School, St Mary's Hall, Malsis comfortably defeated Grosvenor House (Harrogate), Merchant Taylor's (Liverpool), Catteral Hall (Yorkshire) and The Oratory (Berkshire), conceding only one try in all the matches. In the semi-final, they met Yarm School from Teeside and scored six unanswered tries in what was their best performance of the day and so were through to the final.

In the final, Malsis, captained by Alex Wardman, met Merchant Taylor'sl. Malsis, playing superb seven-a-side rugby, looked very good indeed and quickly went two tries up, scored by James Bracewell and Freddy Hammond. David Sharpe converted one of them to make the score 12-0 at half-time.

The second half was a very nervy affair. Both teams were getting very tired and started to make mistakes and Merchant Taylor's scored two tries to put the game back in the balance once again. Then, in the dying seconds, Henry Brook, from Ilkley, saved the game for Malsis by chasing back, putting his body on the line and pulled off an outstanding tackle from behind just three yards from his own try line.

David Walker, Under-11 sevens coach and Deputy Headmaster said: "It was a magnificent day's rugby and the boys should feel very proud of themselves. It caps what has been a wonderful season for al the Malsis rugby sides, from Under-9 right up to Under-13 and we have won trophies all over Britain."