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The City-Based Women’s 7s League held their inaugural tournament last weekend, and while the emphasis wasn’t so much on who won and who lost, Washington DC emerged as the top team beating New York 17-10 in the final.

The plan for the event was to bring together teams that had trained under USA 7s head coach Sue Parker’s systems and there were two divisions, the experienced and the development.

Since being appointed to her position, she has set out to continue the growth of the women’s game in America and in doing so, make the USA Women’s Sevens side more competitive in future World Cups and potentially the Olympics.

“We told the rugby community that this league was a pathway to the national team,” Parker said.

“So we saw a group of athletes who are confident in their athleticism. We know they’re courageous as well. They stuck their necks out for this pilot league.”

Plans are in place to add a West Coast and even a Central division to this league. This year it was just one tournament, with experienced and development teams, but the expectation is this will expand.

For now, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC are the competing teams, but with amassed interest from Albany, Columbia, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Denver next year is set to be even bigger.