In what used to be a rarity promoted by a few teams, now most men’s clubs competing for a 7s national championship have recruited college players, including underclassmen, to help them.

The recruitment has been widespread and in some ways somewhat haphazard. From Goff Rugby Report’s research, we have concluded that some men’s clubs are more systematic about their recruiting of current and just-graduated college players than others.

In addition, we know from our own observations that there are talented 7s players who are not playing club 7s this summer.

Player who join clubs for the summer are players who are interested in making the commitment. Sometimes they are from well-known programs, and sometimes not. Sometimes they are just players who return to their hometowns for the summer and hook on with a club. 

Perhaps the most diverse large college group is with the Denver Barbarians. It includes current Eagle 7s player Martin Iosefo (Montana), and USA Selects player Ben Pinkelman (Colorado State), and also NSCRO 7s MVP Kevon Williams (New Mexico Highlands), who certainly should get a look at higher levels. All told we counted 11 college players with the Barbarians from ten different colleges.

Old Blue rivals that group with ten players from eight schools, with Christian Adams (AIC), John Abraham (Dartmouth), and Michael Al-Jiborri (Oklahoma), and that’s just the A’s. We're also pretty excited to see Corey Jones at Little Rock, and Alex Faison-Donohoe at Seattle, and Marcus Tuapola at Belmont Shore.

Below is the list we’ve come up with. It is by no means comprehensive. We are sure we missed somebody. But this is the group we could confirm (and it includes a couple of high-schoolers, too).