Last week, the Midwest sevens qualifier series kicked off in
Cincinnati, Ohio with the Cin City Sevens tournament. With the first competition
in the books, the predictions on how the season will turn out can begin.
Though there were some organizational issues with
participating clubs at last weekend’s event, the tournament committee, the Midwest
Sevens Men’s Coordinator and the Midwest Rugby Referee Society put together to
draw, scheduled and delivered a well-organized event. The tournament ended up
having nine teams in the qualifier bracket on the men’s side – two teams from
Cleveland, 1823 and Cincinnati, along with Louisville, Dayton and Grand Rapids.
On the women’s qualifying side there were two sides from 1823 and Cincinnati,
the Pittsburgh Highlanders and Oakland.
At the end of the day, two of the Ohio clubs took center
stage. Cleveland and 1823 took four of the top five spots, with Cincinnati’s
first side taking third place on the men’s side. Cleveland’s clubs got second
and fourth place, respectively, while the two sides from 1823 took first and
fifth. The first sides from 1823 and Cincinnati too first and second place,
respectively, for the women.

After an initial loss, Cincinnati’s first side regrouped and
performed well on the team’s home soil. Overall, the Wolfhounds put in 28 tries
throughout the tournament, second only to the 29 put in by the A side from
1823. Unfortunately, that early loss made it so the home team couldn’t get
higher than third place.
This final breakdown on the men’s scene was no surprise to
anyone familiar with the Midwest sevens series. Cleveland, 1823 and Cincinnati were
the top finishers from the East region of the Midwest last year. The matches
these teams produced on the way to the weekend’s final result produced some of
the most inspired play of the day.
“Cleveland A was involved in two of the most competitive and
exciting matches,” Lucas said. “First up in the morning, they beat Cincinnati A
in a game determined by conversions, by a score of 21-17. They scored the go-ahead
game-winner late in the match. In the Cup Playoff Round, they squared off with
their own Cleveland B. That match ended in a three-point win by the A-side.
Also in pool play, a stubborn Dayton club finally succumbed to 1823 B in a very
physical match 17-10.”
Going forward, it would be easy to make the men’s series a
three-way race, but the new teams on the scene could easily threaten the
established clubs as the summer goes on. According to Lucas, Dayton was able to
hang with the established teams and make a competition of each match. Dayton
fell to Cleveland’s second side by 14 points and 12 to Cincinnati’s first side.
Louisville was hot-and-cold throughout the day. Louisville was able to put up
points against Grand Rapids, Cleveland B and Dayton but got shut out by Cincinnati
B.
While the results of Cin City Sevens looks like more of the
same from years past, change has been infused into this year’s series and the
expectation is that structural change will mix up the entire scene. The Midwest
was divided into East and West regions in order to decrease travel and give
more teams an opportunity to make a run at Nationals.
“In the past, the Series became a battle of attrition based
on players’ availability, distance and cost of travel and competitiveness,”
Lucas said. “The East-West set-up is encouraging Clubs who once participated
in, or hosted, Qualifiers to return to playing at the highest level of sevens. For
the last three years, the same four clubs from the East and the same four clubs
from the West have all finished in the Top Eight. This year, there might be a
surprise or two.”
The next East Region tournament in the series is the Rock n
Roll Sevens tournament, set to take place in Mentor, Ohio on July 9. In the
meantime, there will be two opening tournaments in the West region and a
non-qualifier tournament in Pittsburgh on June 18.
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