New Orleans Royale and Atlanta Old White finished 9th and 8th in the Club 7’s National Championship this past weekend. A very big check mark to the credibility of the southern rugby. As a rugby pundit said back on July 17th,
Only 3 teams even trying 4 7s Nats from the South & 2 get bids. Pretty sad. The West’s 3rd, 4th & 5th teams wld probably win the South.
South region #1 seed, Atlanta Old White, went 2-1 on the first day going second in their pool. New Orleans finished 0-3 and last in their pool. While the first day went over a little better for the Atlanta Old White, New Orleans struggled on their first day.
New Orleans appeared to struggle in the second half of the games. Though taking the lead in all three of their pool play games, poor ball handling and slippery grass didn’t allow New Orleans to finish the games strong. On the first day, New Orleans out scored teams in the first half 42-21. But in the second half the tides turned drastically as New Orleans was outscored 36-5. Despite the score, New Orleans did keep the games close as they only lost by an average margin of 5.67 pts per game.
Second day of the matches, New Orleans came out far more prepared as they destroyed Northern Virginia 28-0 allowing them to win the Bowl qualifier match. In the Bowl semi-final, a last minute try over Schyulkill River Exiles by Bobby Johns gave them the 21-17 win. Finally, New Orleans was able to avenge a pool round loss to 1823 (Columbus, OH) for the Bowl Trophy win, 12-7.
Atlanta Old White unfortunately had the opposite day. After going a remarkable 2-1 in pool play and opening the second day in the quarterfinals round, they went 0-3 on the day losing to the Chicago Lions, San Francisco Golden Gate and Middlesex Savages by a combined score of 56 – 33. Regardless, Atlanta managed to end the Club 7’s National Championships with an 8th place finish.
Even though neither South teams finished with the tournament championship, they managed to win in credibility. As most of the USA rugby nation doesn’t have much respect for the southern region rugby, top 10 finishes speak loudly for what the south has to offer. We want to congratulate New Orleans Royale and Atlanta Old White for their accomplishments at the Club 7’s National Championships. This is what sets the trend for other teams to prove what is happening in the south.
Article by Gift Egbelu