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| After the Tobago 7s |
The crux of the season comes in August when they have the Limerick 7s and then the World Club 7s in back to back weeks. There will once again be a split squad as the Serevi RugbyTown 7s overlaps with the World Club 7s. Complicating this even more is the fact that the National Club 7s Championships are the same weekend as the Limerick 7s and at least two of the clubs that will feed the team for that tournament will be involved.
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According to coach Steve Lewis the organization notified the Premiership, which backs the Limerick and World Club 7s, well in advance that they might be missing players and the Premiership agreed to allow the NYC 7s to swap out players for the tournaments. That means if Old Blue are in the Club 7s Nationals players like Derek Lipscomb and Nate Augspurger will miss the Limerick 7s but will be available for the event at Twickenham. Additionally, because the Northeast ODA has a number of players under its guidance filling two squads for the World Club 7s and the Serevi RugbyTown 7s shouldn't be a problem, which they did last year. The premier side will be in London, obviously.
The season will start for the team in May. "The season will start with open tryouts in Boston and New York in late May to identify potential athletes to add to our existing squad, and we will be targeting collegiate athletes in particular, where we have had some success this year discovering young players of promise such as Ben Roach of AIC," explained Lewis.
In total the team will play at five tournaments in the U.S. and then four overseas. The domestic tournaments include the World Club 7s qualifier (they are playing as Boston and if they win could technically send two teams to London), the Cape Fear 7s, the Serevi RugbyTown 7s, New York 7s, and the Las Vegas 7s. It is expected at the Cape Fear and New York 7s that the squad will be split into two or more. In addition to the tournaments in Limerick and London the overseas stops include the Dubai 7s and the Tobago 7s.
In regards to playing in overseas tournaments, Lewis noted that heading overseas is "in line with our mission of exposing USA sevens athletes to more elite sevens competition." He went on to add that "above all, we are committed to improving the level of sevens in our region and broadening the base of quality players from which USA Rugby can draw."
Schedule
World Club 7s Qualifier (June 6-7)
Cape Fear 7s (July 5-6)
Limerick 7s (Aug. 9-10)
World Club 7s (Aug. 16-17)
Serevi RugbyTown 7s (Aug. 16-17)
Dubai 7s (Nov. 27-29)
Tobago 7s (Dec. 13-14)
Las Vegas 7s (Feb. 13-15)