ELLIOT Morgan insists his Ilkley side can hold their heads up high despite falling just short of the inaugural 24/Sevens national final.

Ilkley headed to West Park, Leeds on Sunday for the North play-offs of 24/Sevens, an exciting new community sevens series run by England Rugby.

And while Ilkley were unable to book their place in this Saturday’s national final, skipper Morgan believes there were still plenty of encouraging signs from his team.

“We started the day really well but fatigue set in and we struggled from there - it was an intense day,” he said.

“We deserved to win our games but we failed to take chances and after a great start we struggled to keep it going.

“It was a really important tournament for us because our team is very competitive and the guys that played have an advantage over the rest already.

“We have a lot of players who want to join the club so competitions like that really show us if they are good enough to cut it, because the level is so high.

“We always have a look at different players and new players, we had two guys who hadn’t played for us before and so it is great to chuck them in and have a look.”

Ilkley started the competition well and won their first three group matches against Caldy 31-14, Wigton 29-5 and Billingham 29-7 but were then beaten 29-22 by Cardinals and 14-12 by Mighty Peth before drawing 21-21 with Red Panda.

Tha left them in third place behind invitation sides Cardinals and Red Panda who qualified for the naional final.

Ilkley did have the consolation of finishing as the top club side, the leading two are invitation outfits.

And while their 24/Sevens journey may have come to an end this time around for Ilkley, Morgan was already looking forward to seeing the team grow going forwards.

“There was so much strength in depth and it was much harder than the Caldy one when we qualified,” he said.

“There we could relax in the early rounds, but there was none of that here.

“To play at a national final would have been great but it was not to be, but we are still happy with how we did overall.

“We will be back next year and we need to make sure we have 12 fully fit players because you need them all in sevens.

“At West Park we only had 11 players and we lacked someone with the legs to stretch teams.

“We will be putting in more work to get there next year, that’s for sure.”

lEngland Rugby 24/Sevens, a new exciting grassroots sevens competition for all rugby teams, welcoming anyone who just wants to pick up a ball and run, for fun or glory. Visit www.englandrugby.com/24sevens to get involved