WILTSHIRE rugby hope Ben Loosmore scored two stunning tries as a scratch team of students destroyed the Dutch national side in Europe’s premier sevens tournament at the weekend.

The 20-year-old from Marlborough was one of the stars of the show as the group of talented undergraduates, mainly from the University of Bath, proved too hot to handle for an experienced Holland senior side at the Kinsale Sevens in Ireland.

The speedy scholars ran in seven tries in a 43-5 victory in their first ever game as a sevens rugby side to earn a standing ovation from a large audience in County Cork.

And they underlined their tag as the surprise package of the competition by following that with victory over an Irish select side with at least two sevens internationals in their ranks. Winger Ben who has represented Dorset and Wiltshire and also the South West, was one of 10 promising youngsters head-hunted by New York-based party giants Amscan to travel to the annual tournament under the banner of their newly-launched sports range “Pride, Passion, Party.”

The youngster, who has played club rugby for both Swindon and Cleve but is now studying sports performance at university, teamed up with fellow Bath scholars Max Ashcroft, Harry Sanders, Freddie Strange, Joe Ellyatt, Josh Elliott, Tom Brown and Zak Vinnicombe, for the event. They were joined by Exeter University student Mike Pope and Ireland-based scrum half Matthew Mahon at the prestigious tournament.

In their opening match the scholars – comfortably the youngest side in the tournament - destroyed the Dutch with their pace and skill, Brown bagging a hat-trick, Loosmore going over twice and Vinnicombe and Pope adding the others.

When they followed that with a hard-fought 14-10 win over an experienced Shamrock Warriors team, they were applauded off the field by an appreciative crowd.

The students went all the way to the final of the qualifying event on Saturday, only to come unstuck against last year’s champions Susie’s Exiles, another invitational side set up to play on the sevens tournament circuit.

But in the main competition the following day injuries to key players, including Ben, took their toll and the “Pride, Passion, Party” boys crashed out in the quarter-finals – beaten by the same Shamrock side they had defeated just 24 hours earlier.

Skipper Ashcroft said: “We did incredibly well on the first day, beating the Dutch and then a very strong and experienced Irish side.

“Considering we had never played sevens rugby before as a team, it was a terrific effort.”