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During the recent US Nationals, UR7s have been providing a glimpse from behind the scenes thanks to Dallen Stanford and this year's winners Belmont Shore...

What a couple of weeks we've had UR7s readers!

The 2009 USA National 7s competition has come and gone, and finally here are some words to describe the past weekend.

San Francisco treated us to some great Sevens weather, and made a marvellous change especially for me coming from the 105 degree Texas. The crowds filled up on Day two of the event and the home side of San Francisco received solid support, which was nice to see.

A quick summary from Day one of the event, saw the top eight Cup quarter final matchups line up as:

Denver vs. Old Blue
SFGG vs. Aspen
Chicago Lions vs. Atlanta Old White
Belmont Shore vs. Life University

As mentioned I was part of the Belmont Shore side, and we managed to go through unbeaten on Day one. The organisation at this level has improved tremendously, with coaches Matt Hawkins (injured Eagle Sevens player) and James Walker even acquiring the superb services of USA Sevens physio Niki Blanchflower.

Recovery!

When we returned to our hotel we each had 10-minute ice baths (everyone’s favourite, especially mine) to help our legs recover faster. Then Niki addressed any injury concerns. It is very ironic that after being on more than 10 IRB tours with the USA Sevens team I have had no issues whatsoever but at Nationals something always pops up!

This time round I was taking off my rugby boots after our final pool match against OMBAC when I noticed I had swallowed a gold ball! It was located on my shin (the photos don’t do it justice) and looked very very weird. I told the team I wasn’t a fan of wearing short socks this year, and now look what happened.

That evening we had another team dinner nearby the hotel, followed by some administrative items from our notoriously tardy manager Allan Andrews – who incidentally purchased a watch which runs on African time.

Stepping it up

Day two of any sevens tournament is mainly physiological. Everyone is feeling tired and sore, but there is a job at hand. For us we faced Life University in the Cup quarter finals.

These tournaments are always special, and extremely fun, as you get to play against old friends and teammates. Life’s Tui Osborne played with me on the Eagle Sevens side, and Garry Sullivan was at a few Eagle Sevens camps.

We managed to subdue both these players (well, Cory Blair knocked out Sullivan in a solid tackle), with Belmont winning 19-7.

Next up we played against a powerful Chicago Lions team in the semi final, and it was one of those very physical encounters. They are very well coached by Aaron Manheimer, and made us play the full 14 minutes for our 14-0 victory.

Inbetweeners

Sevens is a long outing and between each game there is always quite a bit of time, ranging from one to three hours. What do we do? Each player has their own routine – mine is to change into comfortable shorts and team shirt; mix a vitamin C sachet with water; drink tons of Gatorade and water; eat a banana and some sweets like Swedish fish; then relax for a while watching the other matches.

I do spend some time getting photos with a few of my friends from the other teams for Pakis Corner, plus this time camera man Grant ‘the Heff’ Anderson helped film several interviews on the Flip Video.

The final of the 2009 USA National 7s competition was a repeat of last year: Aspen vs. Belmont Shore.
Going into the match we knew they would play for the full 20 minutes (duration of the final) and that we needed to control the ball to win. Standout players in their backline were Eagle Sevens stars Jason Pye and Mike Palefau. In the first half our kick offs went very deep forcing Aspen to run out of their 22.

D the Key

This is where our team defence won the match for us – a central theme for the weekend. Our center Peter Sio - who won the MVP award - was brilliant in every match, cutting loose for two sensational tries. Former Eagle captain Riaan Hamilton and myself each managed to score in the first few minutes, leaving the half time score at 24-0.

Aspen came back with a few tries of their own, but replacement flyer Sinipati Uiagalelei sealed the match for us scoring a superb try on the wing. In the end Belmont Shore took the title 34-15.

Aspen coach Andy Katoa was the first to congratulate us – showing the superb sportsmanship that he and his team posses. Both clubs have a rich history and will contest many a championship in the future!

It was an unbelievable moment when that final whistle blew. Supporters and teammates flooded the ground in celebration! After three previous attempts it was finally our turn to lift the winners trophy.

In the other matches NOVA and OMBAC were the two surprise teams in the bottom eight with NOVA going on to beat Boston 26-7 in the Bowl final to finish ninth. San Francisco Golden Gate finished fifth with a good win over Denver and a very close 26-21 victory over Atlanta Old White in the Plate final.

Old Blue were one of the surprise teams of the tournament as they easily defeated a very good Denver team 21-10 in the quarterfinals and just lost out 17-12 to Aspen in the semifinal. The Chicago Lions had another great showing – this time finishing third – thanks to a 14-7 win over Old Blue.

A very entertaining weekend of Sevens – with many of the best players from each region heading to New York this weekend for the upcoming US All-Star Championship and the next big tournament involving most of these teams taking place in Las Vegas for the 2010 USA Championship Cup Series.

www.pakiscorner.com