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Experience is everything for Sevens squad

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Leicester Tigers were unable to make it through to the finals of the Singha Premiership Rugby Sevens this year, but the opportunity to play in the tournament was still a memorable one for a young squad.Academy full-back George Worth was among the Tigers try-scorers in the Pool stages at Newcastle on Saturday and says he enjoyed the whole experience.   “It’s a day I will remember for a while,” he said.   “Playing in front of a big crowd, playing in front of the TV cameras, it was all a new experience for me.   “You could hear the crowd the whole time, especially when we played Newcastle in the opening game.”   Tigers were beaten in all three games, against hosts Newcastle Falcons, Worcester Warriors and Sale Sharks, but Worth said the group were determined to take some positives from their day.   “The boys did everything they could, they dug in for each other,” he said. “The results weren’t as we would have hoped and everyone has their personal disappointments, the missed tackles or whatever. But everybody did what they could do for the team, just maybe there were a few too many individual errors and a lack of experience.”   Worth, who played his early rugby at Spalding RFC in Lincolnshire, has had an eventful summer, training with the first-team squad under the eyes of Richard Cockerill and Aaron Mauger.   “I think being with the senior players probably helped me to get over some of the nerves ahead of the Sevens,” he said.   “I felt I was among the senior players in such a young squad so I tried to take quite a vocal role. The speed of the game with the first team is obviously quicker and the physicality working with those boys every day has really helped.”   Hooker Jake Farnworth, at 20 the oldest member of the Tigers Sevens squad, captained the side in his third Premiership Sevens tournament and said: “There was obviously disappointment, but you still want to take something from the experience.   “Newcastle had a lot of specialists and in the other two games we were still in with a chance at half-time, but probably in the end there were too many individual mistakes, we struggled with a lack of height in the team at the restarts and a bit of physicality.   “Sevens can be very cruel. You concede a try and then they score again from the restart. Suddenly, from being a close game, it starts to run away from you. That happened to us in just about every game today.”   With the Sevens campaign over for the summer, Tigers’ next action is the international challenge with the Argentina squad warming up for the Worlds Cup as part of Marcos Ayerza’s testimonial year. The Pumas visit Welford Road on Saturday, September 5. Tickets are available now online, at Welford Road or by phoning the ticket office on 0116 319 8888 (option 2)