IF the Sandys Sevens rugby tournament last Friday is anything to go by Bermuda looks to have some very promising youngsters to eventually step up into the national team. So said Chris Naylor, a Teachers RFC and Bermuda player who teaches at Sandys.

Naylor, originally from England, has been heavily involved in trying to get more young Bermudians to play rugby and it is starting to look as if his efforts are beginning to pay off.

Over 90 students from Sandys, Saltus and Warwick Academy came out for the round robin tournament played in two age divisions ? the Under 13 and Under 14.

Saltus beat Sandys in the Under 13 division while Sandys came out on top against Saltus in the Under 14 division. "Unfortunately Spice Valley had to drop out," said Naylor of the school which also has a good rugby programme.

"But the fact that we had 12 teams with something like 98 kids playing says that the future is promising. I am quite pleased and you could tell that Bermuda's school kids have a lot of talent ? they really do."

Naylor said that the seven-a-side format suited the young ages for the tournament. "You are talking about using your speed and not being so technical which suits not only the school kids but also Bermuda players as a whole. There are a lot of fast athletes here," he said adding, "the kids are mad about the game ? especially the tackling. The games were hard tackling but played with a lot of sportsmanship which was nice to see. These kids do not like to play touch rugby ? they like the hitting."

Naylor had a seven-a-side tournament at Sandys two years ago. "That was more of a one-off but now we want to have this as an annual event ? like what the Whitney Sevens was for so many years. And my boss Melvin Bassett (headmaster at Sandys) is very keen to keep it going."

And next year Naylor is hoping to get more schools involved. "I would like to see more of the public schools involved with the tournament," he said adding, "there is a lot of talent out there."