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The United States will play host to the USA Sevens International Rugby Tournament and Fan Festival on President’s Day Weekend. Las Vegas, Nevada is the fourth stop on the International Rugby Board's (IRB) Sevens World Series, which has already held tournaments in Dubai and South Africa. Play continues in Wellington New Zealand on February 5 and 6 before coming to the United States.
National teams from sixteen countries will compete in a round robin tournament consisting of 44 total matches over two days. The tournament begins on Saturday February 13 at Sam Boyd Stadium with 24 pool matches to determine the table for the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals on Sunday.
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Countries participating in this year’s Sevens World Series are Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, England, Fiji, France, Guyana, Japan, Kenya, New Zealand, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, USA, and Wales.
Two Colorado ruggers, Lenard Peters from the Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Football Club and Mark Bokhoven of the Denver Barbarians Rugby (RSL) are in the lineup for Wellington and Las Vegas.
Rugby Sevens is a sprinter’s game played in two seven-minute halves with a one-minute halftime. Played on a standard size rugby pitch, a rugby sevens side fields seven players (hence the name) rather than the usual 15 players found in rugby union.
The basic game of rugby sevens is similar to rugby union with modifications to allow for the limited number of players, however, with so few players on such a large field, rugby sevens is a faster paced game than its rugby union counterpart and is full of breakaways and high scores.
The USA Sevens Tournament is the largest annual rugby event in North America and is one of eight international venues for the IRB Sevens World Series. This is the seventh year the United States has hosted a stop on the tour.
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