Standard not always terribly high but there were a lot of hard battles both among the ladies and men and a few teams that knew what they were doing.
Among the men the two top teams going into the finals were Exiles and Wexiö and when the smoke cleared today it could well be those two who meet in the final. Exiles were technically the best Seven´s team although they were short of a couple of speedsters. They scored over 100 points to nil against Malmö and Troján but had to work harder against Enköping who were one of the surprises of the tournament. Exiles conceded seven penalties and a yellow card in the first half and had little opportunity to put together any constructive play. Things got a little better in the second half but after yet another penalty, Enköping got the only try of the afternoon against Exiles on the final whistle.
Göteborg showed some enterprise while Södertälje, Troján and Hammarby all proved to have little to offer. Semi-finals tomorrow: Exiles – Göteborg and Wexiö – Enköping. The Melander brothers, Alexander and Dennis, scored ten tries between them on Day 1 and they could trouble Exiles if the ball goes Wexiö´s way. Exiles have probably the strength in depth, however , to come through to take the title.
A lot of very close games among the ladies, but the four teams who made it to the semis were probably the pick of the bunch. Exiles were none too convincing in their first two games against Kalmar Södra and Enköping but they finally came through with try counts of 5 – 2 and 4 – 1. Pingvin beat the same two teams comfortably and they then met Exiles to determine the group winners. This was the best match of the day with both teams raising their game and the winner in doubt until the end. Exiles just got home 17 – 7 after some crushing defensive work by both sides. The other group was perhaps at a little lower level with Vänersborg, not quite as strong as in recent years, just getting the better of Malmö. Semi-finals tomorrow: Exiles – Malmö and Pingvin – Vänersborg. The two latter teams may well knock lumps out of each other, giving Exiles the chance to take the title on superior fitness. But it will be a close run thing.The tournament has been well run by Malmö, the one black mark being the English commentator. He had no idea of the teams, how to pronounce them or a single player´s name. The number of factual errors about the laws and the games in progress were at about the same level as one of Trump´s incoherent speeches. Can´t you do better tomorrow?