Surprises and Thrillers in National Youth 7s
Surprises and Thrillers in National Youth 7s
It was a hut, humid day at the National Youth 7s Championship in North Canton, Ohio Friday, with three competitive brackets in action.
U14s
This was a wild one. Panther Rugby Academy opened up with a close loss to the Assassins out of North Carolina. But in the next round PRA put together a bit more of a much better performance against a Bethesda Roosters side that has played together quite a bit.
The Assassins, meanwhile, were hit hard in their second game by Highland, 47-10. Highland was 2nd in the Cleveland city U14 championship and then won the state playoff, beating the team (West Park) that beat them in the city final on the way. So they knew each other well and were impressive keeping the offloads going.
So, of course, things shifted once more, with Panther Rugby Academy playing fast and defending well to beat Highland 24-7. Highland then beat Bethesda, but had to really work for it to do so.
To end the day, PRA had to play a fourth game. This is because the pools in the U14s are pools of five teams. So everyone plays four pool matches, and because one team always has a bye, in the end one team had to play an extra game on Day One. This turned out to be PRA, and it was perhaps one game too far on the hot day, as North Carolina Gray won 19-12.
So Pool A ended Friday play with Assassins and Highland both at 2-1, PRA at 2-2, and both Bethesda and NC Gray 1-2. The upshot is that it's still anyone's game. The top two from each pool make it to the semis, PRA will need to hope that either Highland or Assassins lose their final pool game Saturday morning.
In Pool B, Wasatch played some of the best defense of the day and, crucially, held off West Park 21-14. That kept Wasatch 3-0 and they take on a very strong Badger Selects (2-1) on Saturday morning.
U16s
Loudoun County is perhaps the team that is most familiar with themselves, and they looked quite polished in their opener against Badger Selects. their clash with Iowa Selects was a thriller and they held on 19-17. They won Pool A while Badger won a very exciting match over Iowa 20-19.
That game was a matchup between a bigger, more powerful Iowa Selects team against a Wisconsin team that needed to make their tackles and move the ball. Work off the ball was crucial for Badger Selects, and in the end they scored four unconverted tries to Iowa's three tries and two conversions ... and Badgers won by a point 20-19.
That victory put Badger Selects into 2nd and the semifinals.
In Pool B, we once again saw a pool where there was no straightforward 3-0, 2-1, 1-2, 0-3 ranking. Panther Rugby Academy beat a tough-minded Gorilla side but were overcome by a Bethesda team that played superbly as a unit. With San Diego having lost only 21-20 to Bethesda on a late try, and then beaten Gorilla by a point, the Mustangs thought they had a good shot against PRA. As it was, the Panthers won fairly convincingly 28-12. Having brought together players from all over, PRA kind of put it all together when they needed to.
So, going into the final game, PRA was 2-1 and Bethesda 2-0. The Roosters, however, found Gorilla a tough matchup. The Texas side had some power in the middle, and forced a slightly tired Bethesda defense to worry about their hard-chargers. Once they did that, Gorilla showcased some smart passing to score out wide.
Gorilla controlled the game and won 24-7. However, Bethesda had enough of a positive points difference and, despite ending up 2-1, took 1st in the pool. This pool was very close, with scores including 22-14, 21-20, 26-19, 15-14, and 20-19.
Semifinals for Saturday:
Loudoun vs Panther Rugby Academy
Bethesda vs Badger Selects
U18s
This is a new bracket in the competition and with six teams, teams from the two pools of three played the other three teams instead of the teams in their own pool (this is a common World Rugby format for six-team competitions).
Panther Rugby Academy looked polished and together. With some players taking care of the unglamorous stuff—Colin Spellacy, Wyatt Appleton—that allowed the likes of Ivan Nisa to put on the moves and score the fancy tries.
PRA won in three shutouts, at one point preventing an opponent scoring on them when they were down 7-on-5 (one yellow card and one player down injured). Once PRA got the yellow card back and the injured player was subbed off, they regained possession and scored from about 80 meters out. That was a backbreaker.
So really the comparison is not those scores, but scored compared to those of other teams. Yes Gorilla was 2-1, but lost to PRA 48-0. The #2 team in Pool B, Iowa Selects, beat Gorilla 31-0. So it seems like maybe the best two teams are Panther and Iowa. But there's more rugby to be played to figure this out. PRA and Badger won their pools. Iowa plays Celtic on Saturday morning to decide who faces Badger in the semis, and Gorilla plays Murfreesboro for the honor to face PRA.
