The Belmont Shore Rugby Club made history this weekend by qualifying their 2nd VII side to the USA Nationals competition, thanks to another thrilling 38-26 double overtime win against staunch rivals OMBAC.

Belmont Shore – based in Long Beach California – qualified one side at the Sunsplash Sevens in June when they defeated OMBAC 20-14 in that final. Shore then selected a completely new team of 12 payers to take part the Santa Barbara Sevens event last weekend.

That side had the luxury of including five USA players in the starting lineup all with IRB Sevens experience : Current Eagles Matt Hawkins, Nese Malifa and Tommy Saunders along with Riaan Hamilton and myself.

For all the global UR7s readers out there who might not have heard of Belmont Shore, here is a brief history lesson!

In the early 2000s the Californian and Nationals sevens scene was often dominated by the OMBAC club.

With a rich sevens history they last won the National competition in 2006, incidentally lead back then by Riaan Hamilton.

Since then they haven’t lived up to expectations, with Belmont Shore taking over the number one California spot since 2008.

Shore placed second in that year at the National tournament in a thrilling final against Aspen, who scored on fulltime to win 26-24.

Last year saw Shore bounce back with an excellent performance beating Aspen in the final 34-15. Following that Shore won the inaugrual Championship Cup Series (CCS) tournament – held in Las Vegas during the IRB 7s tournament – beating the Chicago Lions 31-7 and claiming the $7,500 cash prize.

Coach Walker

The man who must be credited with much of Shore’s success is head coach James Walker.

The South African started coaching Occidental Olde Boys (Pasadena) in 2000, before linking with some of Belmont Shore’s players in 2006.

That year the Oxy Tigers not only qualified for Nationals for the first time ever, but were one of the surprise teams of the tournament. The Tigers won their pool with victories over Denver, Park City Haggis and later San Francisco Golden Gate.

If it wasn’t for a 14-7 loss to the Maryland Exiles during the quarter-finals the Tigers could have gone all the way. They had to settle for a Plate victory taking 5th place.

The following season Walker and his key Occidental players joined the Belmont Shore Rugby Club – assisting in the 2007 Super League Shore 15s title. Unfortunately injuries saw their 2007 National 7s championship disappear, claiming the Bowl and 9th place. Surprising the side only lost one match, but a draw saw them enter the lower half of the competition.

Since then the growth of sevens at the club has been phenomenal. Walker has been instrumental in leading the recruiting drive, between running his very successful IT company called Future Trends Technology Consulting.

With the South African link and creating a fun sevens environment players started flowing in like OMBAC’s Matt Hawkins, Riaan Hamilton and Chris Frara together with several other young talents.

Santa Barbara Sevens

Anyway back to what went on at the weekend’s Santa Barbara tourney.

Shore cruised to an early lead against Santa Monica in their opening pool game with tries from Saunders, Hamilton, Hawkins, Stanford (2) leading to a 32-12 win.

The next pool match against OMBAC was a thrilling encounter. Shore played excellent sevens to spread the field and shoot to a 10-0 lead with youngster Myles Dempsey and Frara scoring. But a 3-minute period of attack from OMBAC in the second half saw past Eagle Jarvis Albury and Zach Pangelinan score to lead the match 12-10. With time expired, I summoned my ageing legs to make a break to set up Hamilton for the winner: Shore 17 OMBAC 12.

The final pool match against Huntington Beach was another great advert for sevens as Belmont rotated its squad to put down 30 points. Malifa, Hawkins (2), Matauaina Ikeniasio Losia and Frara going over.

1/2 hour final!

The final was a brilliant spectacle but an emotional rollercoaster for ourselves and OMBAC as it lasted a mind boggling 30 minutes!

Shore started off well with I along with Hamilton and Hawkins managed scores taking us out to a 19-0 lead. But Brian Barnard put OMBAC on the board with a great individual try, which sparked them back into action. Two more scores and it was all tied at 19-19 on fulltime!

Coach Craig Hartley fired up his OMBAC troops, knowing a trip to Nationals was on the line.

A Nese Malifa try saw Belmont lead 26-19, but Pangelinan scored a superb intercept to tie it up in the first 5 minute period of extra time!

Moment of the match came from Shore captain Matt Hawkins – who had an outstanding tournament – when he bust through the middle for a sensational score, giving his side a 33-26 cushion. It was tense times for the final two minutes as OMBAC camped near the Shore tryline.

But it was that man Hawkins who made a breakout from his own 22, finding substitute Duncan Onyango who ran 50m to finish a breathtaking game! Shore 38 OMBAC 26. I feel exhausted just writing about it.

Socal needs extra seed

This match clearly highlighted the fact that Southern California deserves three seeds for the National competition.

Currently only two qualifying tournaments exist in Southern California, with the winner of each being sent to Nationals.

This is drastically different to other regions where several tournaments based on a point system rewarding the most consistent sides.

Southern California have dominated the USA National competition, supplying seven title winners this decade.

Previous National winners include:
2000: OMBAC (Southern California)
2001: OMBAC (Southern California)
2002: OMBAC (Southern California)
2003: Riverside (Southern California)
2004: Riverside (Southern California)
2005: Old Blue (Mid-Atlantic)
2006: OMBAC (Southern California)
2007: Chicago Lions (Midwest)
2008: Aspen (West)
2009: Belmont Shore (Southern California)

The USA National 7s competition will take place in San Francisco on Treasure Island during August 14 & 15.

---

Dallen is an ambassador for the Tackling Cancer Charity