DUBAI – Pigs must be flying and there must be snowball fights in Hell. That’s the only way one can understand what’s transpiring at the HSBC 7s Dubai stop.
Aside from it absolutely pouring rain here in the desert, Portugal have beaten South Africa and England. The latter victory now has England coach Ben Ryan wondering if he’ll be looking for another job… France beat Australia… Canada beat the USA, France and tied Australia… It goes on and on.
Another big development doesn’t have anything to do with the men. This is also the inaugural IRB Women’s Sevens Series!
And there’s even more 7s being played this weekend… The USA Collegiate National 7s Championship Lets take a look at each tournament.
WOMEN’S DIVISION: For all results – as they happen – click this. The Canadian Maple Leafs are the defending champions of the Women’s Division but they’ve suffered a major blow from Russia, who held on to beat them 15-12… Team USA avenged their Eagles 15s squad by beating up on France, but lost to The Netherlands, who are always strong… and look like an Abercrombie & Fitch ad while doing it… Aside from the excitement on the pitch, the women have really scored with their very own IRB 7S tour. The 4-stop series will go to Houston next – that’s Texas – and RWU fan, Grant Cole has already requested our presence for it… After Houston, the tour moves to China and The Netherlands – or Holland – depending on which Dutch person you ask…
MENS DIVISION: We’re happy to see RWU contributor and all around good-guy, Matt “Polar Bear” Hawkins, selected for his second tourney since his return from hiatus for Team USA. Unfortunately, Team USA lost to France, Australia and Canada on this first day.… England star and RWU contributor, Mathew Drew Turner, is still rehabbing his broken ankle and his absence was magnified as England dropped matches to Australia and Portugal despite a rousing win over Samoa. England had the ball on the Portugal 5 meter line and couldn’t finish after the final hooter…. Wales, behind RWU friend Richie Pugh, nearly knocked off the All Blacks but are happy with a 2-1 record today… Click this to see Pugh on-camera with Johnathan Wicklow Barberie. Another RWU friend, DJ Forbes, has his team purring at 3-0, holding off Wales and Argentina, while spanking Russia.
But back to Hawkins… A while back the future of the Polar Bear was in doubt. He was suffering a bit from burnout and it appeared his days in g red, white & blue were over. Here he is discusses it on camera with Matt McCarthy:
For a complete schedule, click here. Matches can be seen live on NBC-Universal Sports, with some live coverage of second day action on NBC. You can also try VipBox.tv for live action.
Collegiate 7s National Championship
24 Men’s sides and 16 Women’s sides… In the Men’s bracket the smart money would go to a final between Life University and Dartmouth… In the Womens bracket, Navy is the heavy favorite but the house seems unsure of who their opponent will be… Princeton right now leads the pack buy that could change, so it is wise not to lay money down on who will be the challenger. Here are the complete pools and brackets.
Mens’s:
Pool A: Life, Wisconsin, Colorado State, Northeastern
Pool B: Cal, Arkansas State, N.C. State, Middlebury
Pool C: Central Washington, Kutztown, Virginia, Texas
Pool D: Dartmouth, Cal Poly, Air Force, Navy
Pool E: Texas A&M, St. Mary’s, Western Washington, Bowling Green
Pool F: San Diego State, Davenport, Delaware, Lindenwood
Women’s:
Pool A: Norwich, Stanford, Ohio State, Sam Houston State
Pool B: Navy, Harvard, Colorado, Northern Iowa
Pool C: Texas, Cal, Boston College, Oklahoma
Pool D: Oregon State, Princeton, James Madison, Texas Tech
For those of us not Texas – like rugby savants Grant Cole & Kelly Kirkpatrick – you can watch the knock-out matches on ESPN3 or online at Youtube.com/USARugbyTV.
That is it for me for now. Please feel free to comment below, look for and “Like” our Facebook Rugby Wrap Up Page and follow us on Twitter @RugbyWrapUp, @JunoirBlaber, @Declan Yeats and @Mathew Drew Turner, respectively.
And as always, stay low and keep pumping those legs.
