Porky Blinders reached the final of their last Secure Trading 24/Sevens tournament - and player Luke Chitty is keen to replicate that success.

The team of former Loughborough students started playing in the tournament a couple of years ago, entering as a favour to a friend – and the rest is history.

At Birmingham Molesley they qualified for the final at Allianz Park, where their luck ran out – and Chitty is keen to go all the way in the next round.

The Blinders will compete at Ealing Trailfinders on June 30 in a bid to qualify for the National finals, which this time are in Bath.

“We didn’t go all that well in the final,” explained Chitty, who is based in south-west London.

“We’d been on a bit of a team bonding holiday the week before to Ibiza, so we didn’t quite live up to our expectations in the final there.

“The final is definitely the aim. I’m trying to gather a few guys together now as early as we possibly can to have as strong a side as we can.

“It’s a pretty good excuse for a weekend down in Bath if I’ve ever had one, so we’d like to go and get a win at Ealing.”

The Secure Trading 24/Sevens Series is England Rugby’s premier competition for sevens teams – open to all community clubs and men’s and women’s sevens teams to enter, with qualifiers, followed by regionals later in the summer and the National Finals at The Recreation Ground in Bath on July 28.

The competition, which attracted more than 10,700 players from around the country in 2017, is aimed at continually growing sevens among both men and women and is back for a third year.

Chitty admitted the Blinders’ training regime isn’t the most rigorous, but after seeing the positive results in the last tournament, he is hopeful that a bit of hard work can make the difference at Ealing.

“We’re a bunch of guys who don’t play too much 15-a-side rugby during the season so our fitness wasn’t the best, but it was a really good challenge,” he said.

“Competing down in the south-east would probably be historically the hardest place to win in all regions of a regional tournament.

“But if we can turn up, and get the lads in the gym and get a few 5ks on the old treadmill under their belt, we’ll be confident.”

The Secure Trading 24/Sevens Series is England Rugby’s premier competition for sevens teams – open to all community clubs and men’s and women’s sevens teams to enter. For more information: www.englandrugby.com/24sevens