For one last time this season, our Sevens players got up early and took the train down to Lausanne. On the LUC and ERL pitches by the lake in Dorigny, they battled it out for Swiss Super Sevens glory. Nine teams took part in the men's tournament and a whopping eight teams took part in the women's competition. Slightly down on numbers, the Birds made a joint effort with their old friends, the Dangels from Luzern. The boys on the other hand came with a full team sheet and even a bunch of supporters.

In Pool A, the men had the strongest possible opposition first up with the serial champions, Switzers from Geneva. They managed to keep their structure for most of their game. The slightest mistake got punished by the Sevens specialists from Geneva however. Down one try at half-time, Basel finally lost 0-21. At least the break until the next match unexpectedly became longer, thanks to another team dropping out but not letting the organisers know until after the start of the tournament.

A strong performance with lots of points was called for against Nyon, our other pool opposition. In a strong start indeed, Basel were held up over the line early on and then managed to score soon after that. Nyon countered our unconverted try with a converted score however. Before half-time, Basel took the lead again and looked to shift into next gear. Whatever Nyon decided to do, it was the wrong thing. A yellow card for an intentional knock-on was upgraded to a red after some more mischief, leaving our team with a man-advantage for a good five minutes in the second half. Three more tries led to a 29-7 win, enough to qualify for the cup semifinals ahead of Albaladejo and Stade Lausanne.

Another two huge performances were required to finally bring the men's title home to Basel. The opponents had a bit more to offer however. LUC, a familiar foe from past seasons in XVs and 7s, scored four tries to our one. Despite the 7-24 scoreline, Basel played a decent game though. LUC were simply stronger and went on to challenge Switzers in the final, albeit without success either (14-7 win to Switzers in the grand final). The game for third place soon became a similar story, with GC running out as winners by 26-7.

Our four Birds joined a bunch of Dangels from Luzern for their quest for Sevens glory. Luzern even had two teams in the running, with the joint BS-LU team officially playing under the name of Basel. The first match became an intra-squad game of sorts, where the more experienced Birds-Dangels combo scored 32 unanswered points. In the second pool match, a 19-7 win resulted against Nyon. As third opponents, the Birds would face the Switzers. Losing 7-19, they finished pool play in second place.

Having won the other pool, the newly promoted Red Wolves became the Birds' next opposition. In a very entertaining game, the Birds scored six tries and conceded four. A showdown against the Switzers in the grand final beckoned. Experience and determination on the Birds (and Dangels) side met the sheer speed and specialist training of the Switzers. Having kept the game tight until half-time, the Birds and Dangels finally had to concede five tries but at least had scored three of their own.

After five years, this tournament was the last one for our Sevens coach Beau. Thank you so much for all you taught us and all the fond memories we have from 18 tournaments and four tours to Prague and Budapest. It may take a willage to be successful, but things would not work without such a good coach. We wish him all the best upon his move back home to California!