USA sevens rugby tournament

This past weekend was the USA sevens rugby tournament in Las Vegas which aired on NBC. The tournament featured 16 international teams from all over, representing the best teams in the world. The reason it's called sevens rugby is because it is not the same as traditional rugby. A traditional rugby match is played with 15 men and is 80 minutes long played in two 40 minute halves. Sevens rugby is the faster paced tournament version and gets the name from there being 7 players on each team and each half being only 7 minutes long with a 1 minute rest at halftime. Seven minute halves doesn't sound like a whole lot but during that time it's non-stop running and tackling so you get tired real quick.

The games being much shorter allows for multiple games to be played in a day. Over the past two days a total of 44 games were played amongst the 16 teams. England was ranked #1 coming into the tournament and favored to win but that wasn't the case. Ninth ranked USA didn't do so well either, losing their first two matches against South Africa and Samoa. The final match was played earlier today with South Africa versing Fiji. The fifth ranked South Africa team, in the picture above, was unstoppable on the field and came away with win. Throughout the entire tournament their team's speed and stamina couldn't be matched.

Rugby doesn't really get as much attention in the United States as it does around the world but it's popularity has been growing here. Lots of athletes have made the switch over from football to rugby because they find it to be a more fun fast-paced game. More athletes are expected to make the switch and start training for rugby because it's once again becoming an Olympic sport in 2016. With me being both a player and fan I'm really looking forward to seeing this sport develop more in the future.