The Emirates Airline USA National 7s competition – held on Treasure Island in San Francisco - was a superb event featuring the top 16 clubs in America.

I was very impressed with host club San Francisco who consistently have put on an excellent tournament. They didn’t feature a team in this year’s event but did deliver some cool temperatures on the weekend, which made playing sevens a lot easier! 

The tournament is a massive occasion for domestic rugby players in the USA, with current Eagle 7s coach Al Caravelli watching every minute of action throughout both days. This year USA Rugby did an awesome job by streaming the tournament LIVE online, and most of the matches are still available at www.ustream.tv/usarugby.
On the field, the action was intense, with several upsets, and a new champion crowned! Even though you know the results, here are my thoughts on how things unfolded.

Pool A: Belmont Shore, NOVA, Humless of Provo, Dallas Harlequins

This group proved to be an absolute thriller. My team – Belmont Shore – started off with an excellent 19-0 win against NOVA. We were able to contain Thretton Palamo and his brothers, with Belmont’s Eagles Matt Hawkins and Nese Malifa being key on attack. But Humless of Provo were fired up for their match against us, and taught Belmont a lesson, winning 19-12. Jason Pye was on fine form for Humless, and the Eagle 7s winger showed he hasn’t lost his pace. This saw Pool A wide open, and a cliffhanger of a match between NOVA and Humless. I didn’t see the match as we were warming up, but NOVA ended up defeating Humless 22-14, sending them out of the Cup quarterfinals.

Sevens is indeed a funny game, and it’s interesting how you can beat the finalists and still not finish in the top 8! Points difference proved vital in this pool, and amazing how important a few extra conversations can be. What was not-so-funny at the time, but funny afterwards, was when my team mate Peter Sio burst through against Dallas and instead of heading towards the poles to score, he veered to the touchline. At the time he didn’t realize we needed all the points possible to secure first place in our pool! Note to self: make sure everyone is aware of outcomes like this.

Pool B: Denver Barbarians, Life University, Boston, Chicago Griffins

This pool was also a very entertaining one. I was impressed with the Denver Barbarians who played really well as a team, even though they didn’t have that many experienced backline players. They won a 15-14 cliffhanger against Life, beat Boston 24-5, and just piped the Chicago Griffins 21-19. Life came through the pool second, with the experienced Gary Sullivan (back from retirement) and Tui Osborne guiding the side.

Pool C: Chicago Lions, Atlanta Old White, Belmont Shore 2, Mystic River

In Pool C all the talk was about the Chicago Lions, and they started off really well with wins over Belmont Shore’s second side (33-7) and Mystic River (38-7) but were in a fight against Atlanta. The Lions scrapped through 10-5 with Atlanta and their Kenyan stars posing a real threat. Atlanta beat Belmont Shore seconds 14-0 and Mystic River 29-10 to come in second.

In sevens kicking is frowned upon, as the percentage to regain possession is very low, that is with the exception of the Argentina side. In the same light Atlanta did an excellent job using clever kick throughs for their speed men to regather or to score.

Pool D: OPSB, Aspen, NYAC, Charotte

The sevens drama continued with Aspen opening up with a great 17-12 victory over Old Puget Sound Beach (OPSB). Then NYAC – after losing 12-5 against Charlotte – bounced back with a 10-all tie against Aspen. The final match saw OPSB defeat NYAC 19-10. This meant the New York side dropped out of the Cup quarters, with OPSB and Aspen finishing first and second. OPSB were without their Fijian superstar Isi Daveta on Day 1, who had been red carded in a tournament the weekend before. He was able to rejoin his team on Day 2, and caused all sorts of havoc with the ball in hand.

Sevens Recovery

A two-day sevens tournament is all about recovery, and how fresh one’s legs feel the next day. Protein shakes, ice baths, SKINS recovery gear and leg flushes from the team physio are all vital off-field activities which aid recovery. Sleep is another one – which I didn’t get as my roommate’s snoring woke me up at 5am! Now that you can’t account for!

Cup Round

The Denver Barbarians – led by Eagles Mark Bokhoven and Nic Johnson – played the game of their lives in the semi final against OPSB. Denver were excellent in maintaining possession and using more of a XVs approach against the much faster OPSB team. It almost worked until the final whistle when OPSB broke through to score the winner, 14-10.

In our semi-final, we played Aspen, a repeat of the 2008 and 2009 final. This time we controlled the match a lot better, with Eagles Riaan Hamilton and Peter Dahl superb up front. Belmont 26 Aspen 0.

The Cup final was a massive encounter with OPSB using their two Fijian speedsters - Fili Botitu (capped for Fiji) and Isi Daveta – in all five of their tries. We tried hard to comeback and scored three of our own tries, but it wasn’t enough as OPSB claimed the 2010 title winning 26-17!

International 7s players

During the tournament about 25 capped USA Eagle players took part in the various teams, which includes both XVs and 7s caps. But for me the difference was teams that brought top internationals players to their clubs. Morgan Salesa – the Samoa sevens sensation - was amazing for Charlotte, with his goose-step and turn of speed. Aspen have used Kenyan Teddy Omondi in recent seasons, and he was the one who kicked the championship conversion with a famous back heel for Aspen in 2008. But this year two Fijian players stole the show: Fili Botitu and Isi Daveta used amazing speed to carve up every opposition they faced.

National 7s Rules

Just in case you were wondering the current ruling is that a team can have up to two foreign players in their squad. Personally I like the rule, but it does become tough when teams import the best foreign players in the world. I know USA Rugby will be changing certain rules regarding 7s, and will be interested to see what it means for the 2011 season.

The other rule, which is also up for debate, is use of the tournament reserve pool. On the IRB circuit the host nation supplies a squad of 10 players that can be used by any side should they encounter some serious injuries. Now the USA National 7s doesn’t have a reserve pool – which is perfectly normal – but the current rule says a team can use a player from another side if needed.

The only restriction is that the player must be in a lower section. For example Aspen used USA Eagle Andrew Suniula against Belmont Shore in the semi final as his side was out of the Cup. This could have changed everything if Suniula scored four tries and won the match! Luckily he didn’t, but it leaves the rule to be misused.
It was a classic National 7s tournament, and the next massive one being the Championship Cup Series 7s in Las Vegas, February 12th & 13th.

UR7s.com columnist Dallen Stanford played 7s for the USA from 2006-2009. He represented Belmont Shore at Nationals this year, finishing second. Dallen is an ambassador for the Tackling Cancer Foundation, and also writes for RugbyZone, Rugby IQ, Eagles XV and Pakis Corner.