Kent Schools Under 15 7 a side rugby tournament

Spent most of the day refereeing at the annual 7 a side Kent Schools rugby tournament at Gravesend. There must have been 30 schools and over 300 players from all over Kent playing in 4 pools with a further pool for emerging rugby schools.

You might have expected a better shot that groups of players dotted about the grounds but there was little time to stop and stare except at the lunch break.

My pool only had 3 team at the start, with one team dropping out and one team arriving late owing to the teachers thinking the tournament was tomorrow. I ended up refereeing 6 games one after another, they're not long in duration - 7 minutes each way but these youngsters can be quick especially the first couple of games. After that they settled down and the pace dropped.

After the lunch break I had two more games, both quarter finals, I would have liked to have done some of the semis but wasn't able to stop any longer so I don't know who won overall. By a good, physically tiring day.