By Charlie Philippe, Sportsbeat

CAPTAIN Sarah Bern admitted all the hard work had paid off after Hartpury College celebrated claiming a top prize at the 76th Rosslyn Park HSBC National Schools Sevens.

Bern and her Hartpury College first team squad pitted themselves against some of the country’s best when they took to the field in the Girls AASE Colleges competition at the world’s largest school Sevens tournament in south west London last week.

The competition was based on a round robin format where the first-placed team overall was crowned champions.

As it was, Bern’s team found themselves in a three-way draw alongside Hartpury’s second team and Bishop Burton College, although they got the nod by virtue of a superior points difference.

And Bern admitted it had been a moment to savour for all involved at the College.

“It's amazing to be Rosslyn Park Sevens champions. We've worked so hard for this all year and to finally pull it off is just brilliant,” said the prop.

“This is the best sevens tournament we play in, the biggest one of our season, we've been preparing for about six weeks, so this result is brilliant, it puts the college out there and hopefully gets more girls involved in rugby.

We were confident in advance because we've done well this season and have a good reputation, but that reputation brings added pressure as well. I'm just so pleased we managed to win.”

A total of 650 teams, comprising 7,500 participants aged from 13-18, competed in various different competitions across the week, with the two Open finalists also getting the chance for a rematch at Twickenham during the ninth and final round of the HSBC Sevens World Series.

Cirencester College were another team in action from the region, although they could not carve themselves out similar success, failing to make it out of the group stages of the boys Under-18 Festival competition.

The teams were however watched closely by England international Mike Brown and the full-back was left impressed by what the next generation of rugby stars, such as those as Hartpury College and Cirencester College, had to offer.

“It’s been great to see the different schools in action and the high standard of rugby that is out there,” said Brown.

“There are some good kids out there, some very quick players, I remember when I was that age and couldn’t even stretch that quick. It will be good to see if any of them carry on all the way to the top level.

“Rosslyn Park Sevens is massively important to help develop grassroots rugby and help the players down here move forward and hopefully they’ll enjoy their rugby even more so they want to carry on.”

HSBC is proud to sponsor the world's largest schools rugby tournament. All HSBC’s rugby sponsorships aim to help develop and grow the sport and ensure even more youngsters get involved with rugby.