USA Club 7s Championships Set for This Weekend
USA Club 7s Championships Set for This Weekend
St. Louis, Mo. will be the host city for the USA Rugby Club 7s National Championships this weekend.
The tournament, which has followed largely an invitational format (heavily influences by on-field results, of course), includes 16 teams for men and 16 teams for women. It will be held August 13-14 at Emerson Central Fields in St. Louis, admission is free, and it will be streamed live on The Rugby Network.
The defending Signes Cup champions from 2021 will return as the Chicago Lions (men's defending champions) and Scion (women) head up the list.
Topping the women's bracket at Life West, Washington Athletic Club, and San Diego Surfers. The Surfers have won this event before, and the WAC, when they played as Seattle Atavus, did also. Life West made the final in 2021 before being beaten rather convincingly 40-0 by Scion.
In the men's bracket the Lions are joined by WAC, Denver, and a long list of contenders. WAC won it all in 2019; Denver has made eight finals but never hoisted the cup. Former champions Belmont Shore, Old Blue, and former finalists Westside Ronin (2021) and Schuylkill River (2011) are also there.
Interestingly, several of the teams in this event will also turn around and compete in the End of Summer Bash at the LA Sevens. Denver, Belmont Shore, Berkeley All Blues, and Scion are all set to double-up, while a number of players in other teams are expected to suit up for compilation sides in LA.
Go here for LA Sevens Tickets and to see the End of Summer Bash>>
This is an interesting tournament as often it's a collegiate player who steps to the fore to help teams take the title. That was certainly in evidence in 2021 when Will Chevalier, still a student-athlete at Indiana, was MVP of the tournament.
This tournament is not without its controversy—the at-large nature of of the tournament certainly leads to some disagreements, and it's interesting see, for example, the Austin Hunts not included. (This might be because the Huns, in the 7s series in Texas, fielded three teams, with two coming 1st and 2nd in one tournament, and a third group winning two tournaments—had they played as one unit they might have logged more points.) three regions—Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Pacific Coast—get three seeds in the men's event. Interestingly, Cincinnati and St. Louis were both 2nd in their respective standings in the Midwest (East for Cincy, West for STL), and yet it is Cincinnati, not St. Louis, that attends the tournament in St. Louis.
In the women's bracket, there are four teams from the Mid-Atlantic, with three seeds from the West, Pacific Coast, and the Midwest.
| 2022 USA Club 7s Men's Pools | |||
| POOL E | POOL F | POOL G | POOL H |
| Chicago Lions | WAC | Denver | Cincinnati |
| Dallas | Old Blue | NAV | Life West |
| Beltway | Schuykill River | Westside Ronin | Belmont Shore |
| Atlanta Old White | Oceanside | Detroit | Mystic River |
| 2022 USA Club 7s Women's Pools | |||
| POOL A | POOL B | POOL C | POOL D |
| Scion | Life West | WAC | San Diego Surfers |
| Chicago Lions | Chicago North Shore | Rocky Mountain | Berkeley All Blues |
| Boston | sHARCs | Atlanta Harlequins | Phoenix |
| Albuquerque | NOVA | Tempe | DC Furies |
(Note: Phoenix is not from Arizona, but from Florida)
| Historical Champions | Men's Champions | Women's Champions | |
| 1985 | Old Mission Beach Athletic | ||
| 1986 | Quad City Irish | ||
| 1987 | Duck Brothers | ||
| 1988 | Old Puget Sound Beach | ||
| 1989 | Maryland Old Boys | ||
| 1990 | Old Puget Sound Beach | ||
| 1991 | Old Puget Sound Beach | ||
| 1992 | Old Puget Sound Beach | ||
| 1993 | Old Blue of New York | ||
| 1994 | Old Blues (CA) | ||
| 1995 | Old Mission Beach Athletic | ||
| 1996 | Northern Virginia | ||
| 1997 | San Mateo | ||
| 1998 | San Mateo | ||
| 1999 | Philadelphia Whitemarsh | ||
| 2000 | Old Mission Beach Athletic | ||
| 2001 | Old Mission Beach Athletic | ||
| 2002 | Old Mission Beach Athletic | ||
| 2003 | Riverside | ||
| 2004 | Riverside | ||
| 2005 | Old Blue of New York | ||
| 2006 | Old Mission Beach Athletic | ||
| 2007 | Chicago Lions | ||
| 2008 | Gentlemen of Aspen | ||
| 2009 | Belmont Shore | ||
| 2010 | Seattle-OPSB | ||
| 2011 | Belmont Shore | 2011 | Berkeley All Blues |
| 2012 | Belmont Shore | 2012 | San Diego Surfers |
| 2013 | Seattle-OPSB | 2013 | Berkeley All Blues |
| 2014 | Seattle-OPSB | 2014 | San Diego Surfers |
| 2015 | Seattle Saracens | 2015 | American Pro Training Center |
| 2016 | Rugby Utah Selects | 2016 | Scion Sirens |
| 2017 | Rugby Utah Selects | 2017 | Seattle Atavus |
| 2018 | Bulldog | 2018 | San Diego Surfers |
| 2019 | Washington Athletic | 2019 | San Diego Surfers |
| 2020 | COVID-No Tournament | ||
| 2021 | Chicago Lions | 2021 | Scion |
