Thrilling Aussie 7s showing leaves US on the bubble

A shorthanded US 7s team logged milestone victories against England and Scotland, but fell to Argentina 26-21 in the Australian 7s bowl final.

The dramatic finish ends a six-tournament season with 6 points, presently good for 12th place -- ahead of France and Canada -- and the final automatic slot in the 2008-09 7s World Series. The tournament has two more stops to go in London and Edinburgh in late May / early June.

Having decided not to replace injured Takudzwa Ngwenya,  the 11-man US saw two more players sidelined on day 1 of the Adelaide competition.

In day 2's opener, Chris Wyles' overtime try lifted the Americans to a first-ever win over the English, 26-19. Wyles then added four in a 29-14 victory over Scotland, another first, lifting the OMBAC center to a tournament-high seven.

The 3-3 weekend included a day 1 win over Canada, which earned the US top seed in next fall's North American qualifiers for the 2009 7s World Cup.

A busy slate of collegiate territorial playoffs filed out the round of 16, with a pair of familiar faces returning to the national stage and one regular missing out. Air Force and Bowling Green are each in pool D, as is Kutztown, which replaces 2007 semifinalist Navy.

Utah v Air Force and Colorado v St. Mary's Utah look like particularly rugged opening-round matchups. Penn State v Minnesota, in any other sport a Big 10 rivalry, is in rugby a inter-territorial contest.

After week 3, unbeaten Charlotte and Boston are the surprise of the Super League, while 2006 titlist OMBAC lies in fourth place and will likely need to down PAC in Washington to stay in the hunt. The San Diegans may be buoyed by the return of Clever and Wyles.

Western division rival Golden Gate also could use a win over the Lions in Chicago, while Old Blue's crosstown match with New York AC takes on similar urgency.

Division 1 Round of 16 (unofficial)
    Cal v Tennessee, Army v Cal Poly
    St. Mary's v Air Force, Bowling Green v Kutztown
    Penn State v Minnesota, Colorado v Utah
    San Diego State v Arkansas State, Dartmouth v Brigham Young

Comments

[M.O.]

Do we know if USA Rugby is planning to offer any internet broadcasts for the collegiate playoffs?

[Goeagles]

Kurt,

You got it right in the body of the article but at the bottom you have the wrong teams playing for Colorado-SMC and Utah-AFA.

[aggies]

Goeagles, St Marys pulled a fast one. After the PCRFU seeds had been announced and posted for 6 months, they got the Pacific Coast to change them, bettering the Gaels seeding. First they screwed UC Davis, both by getting the PC to change who played Stanford after the WSU pullout, giving SMC a buy, then scheduling the qualifying match against UCD 21 hours later. Now that they qualified, they decided to protest the seedings and got the PC to change them from PC 4th to PC 3rd seed.

St Marys are a good team but their coaches are political animals. We are proud of UC Davis only losing to them by a try after having to play less than a day earlier. Under a fair PCRFU administration, UC Davis would be in the sweet 16.

[NO'Brian]

O'Brian is a slick MOFO.

[Goeagles]

Aggies,

I see that now. I have a few friends playing in Norcal who say the only team they hate is St. Mary's. That is garbage that they pulled that.

[Dave Tovar]

I've heard the same about St Mary's. I understand the coach is tied in with the PCRFU president Frank Merrill. Merill is a NorCal guy who screws the other regions. It looks like the Gaels have a good team, why the bullshit. The bracket they finagled their way into is the easiest of the four. Utah, and Davis for the matter, should be pissed out of their minds.

[UofU]

You better believe that Utah is pissed. It doesn't make sense to tell a team one thing, then when you win and other teams look at the competition, they switch it. You wonder if O'Brien would have made a deal about this if the seeds were the other way around and he would have gotten to that part of the bracket by being the fourth seed. Utah has a great attitude though, that they will play whomever they need to, they are happy to just compete.

[Utah]

Whats that? The PCRFU changing the system which in effect favors a Nor Cal team and screws a Utah team? It wouldn't be spring if that didn't happen.

[Go Gaels]

The PC administration is at fault, not St Marys. All coach OBrien did was was help his team in any way he could. If you guys don't like the change of seedings blame the Pacific Coast.

[Utah alum]

The PCRFU has been nothing but kind to Utah. Do not go biting the hand that feeds you. The fact that a seed in the PC playoffs is reserved for the loser of the BYU/Utah game is just one of the many evidences of this. The PCRFU has been nothing but kind to Utah and in my opinion done them a favor by looking past their backwards local union and seeing a school that puts together a consistently strong team. Other territories would not be so kind and both Utah and BYU would be hard pressed to make the territorial playoffs let alone the sweet sixteen no matter how good they were. All Utah fans should be thanking the PCRFU. Both Air Force and Colorado are a tough draw it doesn't matter the seeding. Besides if the Utes cared that much about it they should have beat Penn State (a game they could have one) last year and made the final four. Then their would be no question who would get the higher seed.

[inland rugby]

Frank Merrill posing as a Utah alum, how sad.

[Utah]

Exactly, look at the "Utah alum" post he refers to the Utah union as their union. If he was really a Utah alum he would refer to it as "my" or "our" union. And how could the poster possibly say that the #2 Utah Union seed should not get a seed into the Pac Coast play-offs? Utah or BYU have not lost to a Pacific Coast team (other than Cal) for at least 10 years!

[Anti-Mormon]

I saw Frank Merrill and Tim O'Brian sharing a rum & coke with a pack of cigarettes. They are obviously anti-Mormon. I think they hate the Jews too! Catholics....go figure.

[Utah Alum]

Inland and Utah. I can assure you I am not Frank Merril. I am a former Utah captain who felt that Frank Merril did a lot to help myself and my team. I am not saying Utah and BYU do not deserve a seed, I am saying that I don't believe every other territory out there would give them one. They essentially play one league match between each other each year. Granted they both play a lot of other matches and consistently prove they are quality sides, they still only play one league match. I don't think all the other territories out there would look at their whole body of work. That's just my opinon. Given how screwy things can be in USA rugby I could see people screwing Utah and or BYU out of the playoffs for a whole host of reasons, yet it does not happen in the PCRFU. I am also a former Highland player and coach and felt the PCRFU often did a lot to help Highland out when other people in USRFU and other territories had an anti Highland agenda. I am not going to let a small tweak in the seedings color my opinion of the PCRFU and Frank Merril. For that matter I have heard nothing but good things about O'Brian form a few of the coaches at Utah as well.

[Once in a lifetime player]

Is that you little Larry Gelwix using Utah Alum? Utah and BYU deserve every year to be in the playoffs, not matter the union. Stop your crap about if they were in another union they wouldn't make the playoffs, USA rugby would allow it like they have allowed the PCRFU to have four seeds. Don't forget where you came from.

[Ag's got screwed]

Mind you all that UC Davis scored with 5 minutes to go, only to have the try reversed for some bs call. PCRFU just needs another seed to settle all this; there are far too many blowouts in the round or 16 and beyond. The union needs to stop doing what they think is "fair" and put the best 16 teams in the country in the tournament.