Both American entrants into the World Club 7s leg in Limerick--San Francisco and New York--have learned their opponents for next month's tournament. Both teams were invited to participate in the tournament based on their showing last year in the World Club 7s in London. New York have been drawn into Pool A with Auckland, the Bulls, and Saracens.
The club New York takes to the Limerick leg will have several players that will not be playing in the London due to the fact that the National Club 7s takes place that same weekend (August 9-10th) and it's likely that two of the main clubs feeding New York (the Northeast ODA) will be involved in Nationals. Currently Old Blue lead in the Empire and should make nationals. That will mean players like Nate Augspurger, Derek Lipscomb, and others won't be available. However, it's been known for awhile that this conflict would come up and the Northeast ODA has planned accordingly.
Take the jump to read more.
Pool A will be difficult. Auckland finished as runners-up in London last year while the Saracens have been one of the top Premiership teams in terms of 7s due to their overall depth. The Bulls didn't have a strong tournament in London last year but should have learned from that experience and take a better team.
San Francisco have been drawn with Daveta, Munster, and Moscow in Pool C. Of the draws there's is slightly more favorable. Moscow made the semi-finals of the Plate in London while Daveta and Munster are new to the tournament. Daveta will be made up of mostly Irish-based players. Munster is of course the home team.
The Bay Area side have known they were going to participate in this tournament for awhile as well. The squad will almost exclusively be made up of SFGG guys and as a result the club has de-emphasized competing at Nationals. Also, because this tournament takes place the same weekend as Nationals the winner of the Elite City 7s would not have been given enough time to get ready for the tournament.
Pool B, the only other pool, has the Waratahs, Vancouver, Western Province, and Stade Francais.