Led by sevens captain Dimitri Efthimiou and the player/coach pairing of Kayne Bubb and Evin O’Driscoll, a combined men’s and college team played some dominant rugby on its way to winning the Middlesex Sevens tournament. More than 20 players made it up to Woburn to play under Mike Bozza, who stepped in as manager for the day’s proceedings.
The boys struggled to find any rhythm during the first few minutes of the 9am game against Framingham, but managed to pull away in the second half to close out the first win. The team had shaken off their Friday night by the time the second game against UMass Lowell kicked off, and the Mystics completely dominated the game. By the final whistle, more than fourteen Mystics had graced the pitch and maintained the intensity to win 43-0 (just 1.5 points shy of manager Mike Bozza‘s confident 44.5-0 pre-game prediction). The Mystics fell off a little bit in the final game of pool play against a Middlesex side, but still managed to qualify for a semi-final against Boston.
Evin O’Driscoll led the charge against Boston with some damaging runs, with the Mystics easily cleaning up to win 40-12 despite leaving a few holes in defence. The final against the main Middlesex team was clearly going to be the highlight of the day, as they were fresh off large victories in pool play and a 31-12 win over South Shore in the semis. Some seriously spirited defense from Adnan Kawuma in particular put Middlesex on the back foot all game, and the Mystics went ahead to 15-7 in the second half after a long breakaway try from new recruit Guy Matisis. With just over a minute to play, Middlesex scored under the posts and converted the try to bring the score back to 15-14. Mystic River gathered the kickoff, and managed to push a desperate Middlesex into giving away a penalty with seconds left on the clock. A quick tap into touch was all that was needed to bring the silverware home.
RugbyMag.com also covered the tournament: Mystic Wins in Middlesex