It wasn't the best weekend of American teams at the Victoria Youth International 7's over the weekend but it was a good building block for future tournaments and a great learning experience for the players. The Utah Cannibals had the most success of all the U.S. based teams. Led by Tournament All-Star selections Tyler Johannson, Connor Perry the Cannibals ran out to a 3-1 record on day one. They beat Sherborne 2 24-5, BC White 36-17, and SoCal 1 29-7 while losing to eventual champion BC Gold 26-19. That was good enough for second place in the pool and a match against Ontario in the Cup semi-final on day two. Unfortunately things didn't go according to plan for the team, going down 36-0. They then lost to BC Blue 26-14 in the third place match.
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SoCal 1 made it to the Plate final only to lose to Sherborne 1. The team actually finished pool play with no losses having lost to BC Gold, Utah, BC White, and Sherborne 2, but rallied on day two to beat BC White 38-17 in the Plate semi-finals. The Washington State Loggers finished Pool B with an 0-4 record as well. They lost to BC Blue, Ontario, Sherborne 1, and SoCal 2. However, they did beat SoCal 1 for 9th place.
In addition to Johannson and Perry, Christian Rodriquez from SoCal and Wilson Vasukilakeba from Washington were named to the tournament all-star team.
University Games
The U.S. women's University Games rugby team, which is comprised mostly of players from the U.S. Naval Academy along with a few notable names like Sadie Anderson, did finish pool play in a way they would have liked a will now play Japan for ninth place. The team didn't get off to the greatest of starts as they lost to Brazil 12-7. Ryan Carlyle scored for the team. The match was even at 5-5 in the first half but Brazil scored in the second half to seal the match. In their second match of day one the team came from behind to beat Italy 17-14 near the final hooter. Lauren Rhode, Anderson, and Siera Snapp scored tries. On day two the team fell to China 24-0 and Great Britain 21-10. Kacey Liscomb and Anderson scored for the United States.