Isle of Man’s under-18 rugby sevens squad enjoyed an impressive trip to Portugal for the 2020 the Junior International Cup last weekend

A squad of 13 players travelled, representing five of the island’s clubs and four schools.

There was a coaching and analyst team of four whose job it was to support and stretch the players across the trip.

The opening day saw the Manx side beat Jaguares 52-5, followed by a defeat to hosts Agronomia, 17-14 before beating Benfica 34-5.

This meant the Isle of Man progressed to the cup quarter-finals on day two where they faced Portugal’s reigning under-18s 15-a-side champions Belenenses. A tight game saw the island boys coming out 5-0 victors.

The semi-final paired the Manx youngsters against the competition’s eventual winners, South Africa’s Barbarians.

Despite taking an early lead thanks to an excellent Elliott Callow effort, the Isle of Man eventually went down 24-7 to their big opponents.

This then placed the lads in the third place play-off against Agronomia, giving the Manx players a chance to avenge the defeat from the group stage.

The score was 14-10 to the Isle of Man with only five seconds to play when Agronomia broke down the side and managed to squeeze a try in the corner, 14-15.

With the hooter sounding for the last play of the game, the Manx team had time to receive the kick off which Luca Simmons took calmly under pressure.

The ball was worked wide through some safe hands and Kyle Martin made a huge decision at the resulting ruck deep into injury time. He duly ran in a try from his own half to give the Manx a worthy third-place finish in the 16-team competition with a 21-15 win over the Portuguese.

The attitude and behaviour of the players was described as exemplary throughout the trip, while the work rate on the pitch could not have been higher - all-in-all they were fantastic ambassadors for the Isle of Man.

There were some great performances on the field of play, but two boys in particular excelled in Portugal both on and off the pitch, therefore the team’s players of the tournament were Elliott Callow and Django Kinley.

The boys and staff have been blown away by the support received from everyone and would like to thank the public for the backing.

All eyes are now on the North of England Schoolboy Sevens competition which takes place in a couple of weeks’ time, before the team make a second trip to the prestigious Rosslyn Park National Schools Sevens in southwest London.