Tag: Rugby 7’s

My season continued

The next tournament that my team played at this season was Mudfest in Platteville, WI.  This one was frustrating, both on and off the field.

It was a 7’s tournament, but we only had two matches and 21 players there, which meant that each of us got about seven minutes of playing time the entire day.  In addition to that, we had our first game around 9 in the morning and our second 3 in the afternoon.  It was, in my opinion, not worth waking up at 5 am for.

The weekend after was much better, thankfully. It was our home tournament, Ruck the Dub, a 15’s tournament where each team had two guaranteed matches.  I played in four different matches; two for Madison and two for Whitewater.

Madison’s team didn’t have enough women for a full team, so I played with them against Whitewater for the first game of the day and again verses Stout.

I then went on to play with Whitewater against Stout, and the final game was the alumni game.

It was also where we announce rookies.  Its kind of like the sibs thing that sororities do, where new girls are paired up with more experienced ones to mentor them.  This year I got my second rookie, Rachel.  She is being trained to play scrum half and is doing very well with the position.

The weekend after that, Easter weekend, we were going to have a friendly scrimmage with our former coaches’ women’s team, but it got canceled either from predicted rain or not enough commitment, I’m not sure.

7’s Rugby

There are many differences between full 15’s rugby and 7’s, so I’m only going to go over the general gist of how the two differ.

In 7’s, there are teams of 7 instead of 15, as the name suggests, as well as having 7 minute halves instead 40 minute halves.  This is mostly because its fewer players dealing with just as much space as full 15’s.  In the game, each team only has two props, a hook, a scrum half, a fly half, an inside center, and an outside center.  All other positions in 15’s are dropped.

Rugby 7’s is what is currently played in the Olympics.

Rugby 7’s is a faster-paced game and is more speed and passing the ball oriented than slowing down the game and crash with the ball oriented.  That, however, doesn’t mean don’t play smart rugby.  Look before passing the ball, tackle low, and ruck.  From my experience playing 7’s, most teams don’t ruck, so this is important in gaining and maintaining possession of the ball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBci5AH5N8g

Take note of how quickly the ball is passed.  Rucks have one person in them when they form.  The scrum half passes it out faster than would happen in 15’s.

Getting in a solid, clean pass is still important.  Sloppiness can lead to knock-ons (where the ball is knocked forward during an attempted pass and causes a scrum) and dropped balls.  If a good pass cannot be completed and you don’t have anyone with you, it is OK to go down with the ball.