IRB Sevens World Series Tournament Finals

SAN DIEGO - The IRB Sevens World Series USA tournament at Petco Park concluded with New Zealand topping South Africa 27-12 in the Cup Final championship, the highest honor of the tournament. The event, which was held in San Diego for the second consecutive year, was again deemed a success.

Over 36,000 fans enjoyed the rugby action during the two-day event. The attendance figure marked an increase over last year's total of 29,000-plus. The tournament will return to San Diego for the three more years.

The most exciting championship match was the Plate Final between Argentina and Fiji. Argentina maintained a 21-14 advantage with 23 seconds remaining before Fiji scored a try and added the conversion to tie the game at 21-21. The teams played a five-minute sudden-death overtime period to settle the match. In the extra session, Fiji controlled the action and was scored a try late in the period for the 26-21 win.

The USA fell two points short in their bid to win the Bowl title, Wales edged the U.S. 21-19. The Americans tallied a try with under 30 seconds to play, but the two-point conversion failed and the USA lost.

Australia captured the Shield Final with a 24-12 win over Chile. The Shield Final is the lowest of the tournament's titles.

The results of this tournament will be added into the overall series points standings for the eight tournament series. New Zealand came into the tournament as the leader with 60 points , followed by Fiji (36) and South Africa (32). The next tournament will be held in Hong Kong on March 28-30.

Final Results
CUP - New Zealand 27, South Africa 12
PLATE - Fiji 26, Argentina 21, OT
BOWL - Wales 21, USA 19
SHIELD - Australia 24, Chile 12

Photos: The All Blacks (New Zealand ) in semi-final action against Kenya. (NC Sports/Jon Greene)

USA Edges France 12-10 to Move to Bowl Finals

SAN DIEGO - Chris Wyles scored in the final minute to help the Americans nip the French 12-10 in the IRB Sevens World Series USA Bowl semi-finals. The USA will now meet Wales in the Bowl Final later today at Petco Park. Wales down Canada, 22-14, in the other semi-final. Wylers has been the team's MVP during the course of the tournament. He tallied 10 points (2 trys) against France. Nese Malifa added the 2-point conversion after Wyles final score to win the game.

Photo: Chris Wyles is helping the USA come out of the rugby shadows. (NC Sports/Jon Greene)

U.S. Defeats Chile 40-12 in Quarterfinals

r



SAN DIEGO - The U.S. Sevens Team defeated Chile 40-12 in the IRB Sevens World Series USA Bowl quarterfinals this morning at Petco Park in San Diego. The USA moves into the Bowl Semi-Finals against France; the other semi-final features Canada (45-0 over Mexico) and Wales (19-12 over Australia). The U.S. is not in contention to win the overall tournament, the Cup Final. Mexico dropped to the Shield semi-finals, the lowest ranking in the tournament, with its loss to Canada earlier in the day. New Zealand, Kenya, South Africa ans Samoa will compete to win the tournament in the Cup Final.

Finals Schedule
4:25 pm - Shield (Mexico in contention)
4:50 pm - Bowl (USA in contention)
5:15 pm - Plate
5:45 pm - Cup


Petco Park configured for rugby on a beautiful day.
USA vs. England in pool play action.

Photos: NC Sports/Jon Greene

South Africa Blanks USA in Sevens Tournament

SAN DIEGO - On a beautiful day at PETCO Park in San Diego, the South African Sevens team blanked the United States 36-0 before a gathering crowd of enthusiastic fans during the first day of play in the IRB Sevens World Series USA tournament.

South Africa jumped out to an early lead in the 14-minute match with a score 1:20 into the contest. The South Africans increased their lead to 17-0 at the break. In the second half, the USA managed only a few attacks into the South African zone. Marius Schoeman and M.J. Martz led South Africa with 10 points each.

The USA is in a tough round-robin group with perennial powers South Africa and England, with Mexico rounding out the qualifying group. The U.S. will face England at 2:12 p.m. and conclude group play with a contest against Mexico at 4:34 p.m. England and South Africa are expected to advance from the group into the quarterfinals.

In other action, New Zealand topped Wales 19-0, Scotland downed France 19-12 and England trounces Mexico 48-0.

Tickets are available for both days of action at PETCO Park . For more information, visit usasevens.com.

USA Sevens Rugby Begins Today

SAN DIEGO - The USA Sevens Rugby Tournament returns to PETCO Park today through Sunday. The popular international sporting event features rugby action and a great fan festival for the entire family. The fifth annual tournament, which is the largest international rugby tournament in North America, is the fourth of eight stops in the International Rugby Board's Seven Schedule. Past winners include Fiji, 2007; England, 2006; New Zealand, 2005; and Argentina, 2004. For more information, please visit www.usasevens.com.

The following is a story about last year's event.

U.S. Rugby Moving On Up
Team USA Wins Shield Final Title During Event at PETCO Park
by Jonathan Greene

SAN DIEGO - The rugby world came to PETCO Park for the International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens World Series USA on the weekend of February 10-11. The host U.S. team was involved in an international competition featuring a total of 16 countries, including powers Argentina, England, Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa and Tonga.

In rugby football, as in American football, the object if the game is to cross the goal line with the ball. Unlike modern football, but like the football played at the beginning of the 20th century, the ball must be "touched down" to score (and thus the term "touchdown" in football). The conversion kick, worth 2 points, is taken at a point perpendicular to the goal line where the ball is touched down (and as far back as the kicker desires).

There are two other ways to score: a penalty kick from anywhere is worth 3 points, and a drop kick between the posts at any pint in play is also worth 3 points. Because of the high rate of try scoring in sevens, neither penalty kicks nor drop kicks are common in this variety of the game. The standard rugby match is played with 15 men per side. In terms easier to understand, the sevens game is what arena football is to the NFL. Fewer men, faster pace and more scoring means the fans get their moneys worth. The sevens game is played in seven or ten minute halves, depending on the round of the tournament.

Unlike the rest of the world, U.S. Rugby is still working on the ground level of the sport. Most international rugby players can earn a living playing professional rugby, however in this country players often miss work and even pay their own way just to play the game they love. Things are slowly changing for Team USA, both on and off the field, as displayed by the results of the tournament held in San Diego,

On the second day of tournament play, the Eagles (nickname of the U.S. squad) played neighbors Canada in a quarterfinal match. The U.S. was riding high after routing Kenya 33-5 the night before to secure the quarterfinal bid. Chants of USA! USA! USA! were shouted by a dampened, but festive crowd. Such chants were new to the Eagle players, who had never heard such a tremendous refrain during tournament action. Team USA dropped the exciting match 14-7. Despite the loss, the Eagles were not out of contention for the Shield championship (the lowest title of the tournament), they met the West Indies in the Shield semi-finals. The U.S. shutout the West Indies 17-0 allowing them to advance to the Shield finals against Portugal. In the finals, the U.S. secured its first IRB Sevens World Series Shield since the USA Sevens Tournament in Los Angeles in 2004 by beating Portugal, 26-5.

“How the U.S. played today was extremely important to the growth of our sport in the USA. Not only will it help our fan base, but it could even grow the interest of our sport at the youth and high school level,” U.S. head coach Al Caravelli stated. To his point, a two-day total of over 29,000 spectators watched the action at PETCO Park, which included a large contingent of U.S. fans. In fact, the turnout surpassed previous attendance totals of the event, which was held in the Home Depot Center outside of Los Angeles the previous three years.

Fiji walked away the victors of the tournament, after a 38-24 battle with Samoa in the Cup finals. In other final action, South Africa beat Scotland, 28 -19, for the Plate, while Argentina and Tonga had to battle through overtime for a 22-17 result in Tonga’s favor for the Bowl.

Photos:
1. International rugby action at PETCO.
2. Aerial view of rugby action at PETCO Park.
3. USA vs. England in rugby action
by Jonathan Greene/NC Sports

USA Rugby Adds Players Before Tournament

SAN DIEGO (USA Rugby) - USA Rugby Men's Sevens Coach Al Caravelli has added four players to the pool of prospective players being considered for the USA Sevens tournament at PETCO Park on February 9-10.

Following the USA team's training session tomorrow, Caravelli will select his final roster of 12 from the expanded pool. Additional players currently under consideration include Sevens veteran Riaan Hamilton (OMBAC), who rejoins the pool after recovering from injuries, winger Takudzwa Ngwenya (Biarritz, FRANCE), who turned in a huge performance for the Eagles in George, Errol Allard (Arkansas State) and Justin Boyd (Dallas Harlequins).

"One of the advantages of being at your home tournament is we get the opportunity to look at the players one more time and be able to scrimmage with other teams to help us select the top twelve players," Caravelli said.

The Eagles scrimmaged against Fiji during a morning practice session today and are set to scrimmage IRB World Series leaders New Zealand tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. at the Olympic Training Center in San Diego.

"Our final scrimmage will be against New Zealand tomorrow, who as everybody knows is the top team in the world. It's always good to go against the best one, as a measuring stick and second, to see if there's any gaps that we have both in offense and defense so that we can plug those up in time for the tournament," Caravelli said. "It helps us to see if everybody's ready to perform at this level and helps us define our squad of 12 players."

For more information, please visit www.usasevens.com.

USA Sevens Rugby Tournament Returns to PETCO

SAN DIEGO - The USA Sevens Rugby Tournament returns to PETCO Park this weekend. The popular international sporting event features rugby action and a great fan festival for the entire family. The fifth annual tournament, which is the largest international rugby tournament in North America, is the fourth of eight stops in the International Rugby Board's Seven Schedule. Past winners include Fiji, 2007; England, 2006; New Zealand, 2005; and Argentina, 2004. For more information, please visit www.usasevens.com.

The following is a story about last year's event.

U.S. Rugby Moving On Up
Team USA Wins Shield Final Title During Event at PETCO Park
by Jonathan Greene

SAN DIEGO - The rugby world came to PETCO Park for the International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens World Series USA on the weekend of February 10-11. The host U.S. team was involved in an international competition featuring a total of 16 countries, including powers Argentina, England, Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa and Tonga.

In rugby football, as in American football, the object if the game is to cross the goal line with the ball. Unlike modern football, but like the football played at the beginning of the 20th century, the ball must be "touched down" to score (and thus the term "touchdown" in football). The conversion kick, worth 2 points, is taken at a point perpendicular to the goal line where the ball is touched down (and as far back as the kicker desires).

There are two other ways to score: a penalty kick from anywhere is worth 3 points, and a drop kick between the posts at any pint in play is also worth 3 points. Because of the high rate of try scoring in sevens, neither penalty kicks nor drop kicks are common in this variety of the game. The standard rugby match is played with 15 men per side. In terms easier to understand, the sevens game is what arena football is to the NFL. Fewer men, faster pace and more scoring means the fans get their moneys worth. The sevens game is played in seven or ten minute halves, depending on the round of the tournament.

Unlike the rest of the world, U.S. Rugby is still working on the ground level of the sport. Most international rugby players can earn a living playing professional rugby, however in this country players often miss work and even pay their own way just to play the game they love. Things are slowly changing for Team USA, both on and off the field, as displayed by the results of the tournament held in San Diego,

On the second day of tournament play, the Eagles (nickname of the U.S. squad) played neighbors Canada in a quarterfinal match. The U.S. was riding high after routing Kenya 33-5 the night before to secure the quarterfinal bid. Chants of USA! USA! USA! were shouted by a dampened, but festive crowd. Such chants were new to the Eagle players, who had never heard such a tremendous refrain during tournament action. Team USA dropped the exciting match 14-7. Despite the loss, the Eagles were not out of contention for the Shield championship (the lowest title of the tournament), they met the West Indies in the Shield semi-finals. The U.S. shutout the West Indies 17-0 allowing them to advance to the Shield finals against Portugal. In the finals, the U.S. secured its first IRB Sevens World Series Shield since the USA Sevens Tournament in Los Angeles in 2004 by beating Portugal, 26-5.

“How the U.S. played today was extremely important to the growth of our sport in the USA. Not only will it help our fan base, but it could even grow the interest of our sport at the youth and high school level,” U.S. head coach Al Caravelli stated. To his point, a two-day total of over 29,000 spectators watched the action at PETCO Park, which included a large contingent of U.S. fans. In fact, the turnout surpassed previous attendance totals of the event, which was held in the Home Depot Center outside of Los Angeles the previous three years.

Fiji walked away the victors of the tournament, after a 38-24 battle with Samoa in the Cup finals. In other final action, South Africa beat Scotland, 28 -19, for the Plate, while Argentina and Tonga had to battle through overtime for a 22-17 result in Tonga’s favor for the Bowl.

Photos:
1. International rugby action at PETCO.
2. Aerial view of rugby action at PETCO Park.
3. USA vs. England in rugby action
by Jonathan Greene/NC Sports