Perhaps one of the biggest shockers in this spring of college 7s tournaments was Alabama’s victory at the SCRC 7s championships.

With South Carolina having won all three qualifiers, and with the next two strongest teams being Tennessee and Florida, it seemed as if Alabama, which finished 4th in all three buildup events, was just one of several dark horses running in the race.

But, said club president Matthew Schick, there were reasons they hadn’t won any tournaments before Saturday.

“We went to Gainesville with just eight guys and came away with 4th and we were really pleased with that,” said Schick. “We got hit with a bunch of injuries. We knew that if we were healthy, we would be physically bigger than the other teams, and if we used that right we’d do well.”

It wasn’t just about running over defenses, it was about trusting a system that also used the edges of the field. A big quick guy on the outside can cause any defense problems, and once the Tide 7s team committed to attacking on the edges as well as the middle, they started to win games.

“We were also lining up too flat, so we worked hard at getting our depth right and running hard at defenses,” said Schick. “And on defense we wanted to play a soft defense against the fast teams so they wouldn’t break through, and we saw that Tennessee liked to run a deep switch move, so we had a plan for that, as well.”

It seemed they had a plan for everything.

Hooker Shawn Branham was an effective runner and also served as the team’s kicker. Scrumhalf and sweeper Geoff Drum made some big plays on offense and defense, while center Ross Depperschmidt is a powerful center. But overall, it was a good team performance by a bunch of guys who had a plan to follow, and had seen when they upset Tennessee in 15s last fall, that following the plan and ignoring the form sheet can work wonders.

Now it’s on to Chester, Pa. for the CRC invitational. The SCRC winner gets a spot in both the CRC and the USA Rugby Championships, but it;s going to be the rare program indeed that can double up. Alabama can’t. While their alumni have stepped up to help fund the team’s travels, going to Denver and then Pennsylvania on two successive weekends is too much to ask. And since the University of Alabama allocates $50,000 to all of their club sports (over 30), while their athletics programs brought in $143.8 million in 2013. Faced with that reality, the Crimson Tide rugby team, which joins the football team as the only Alabama men’s sports to win a conference title this academic year, has picked the CRC, and will do their best to surprise people again.

“We’re starting to sell tickets now,” said Schick. “We’ve got a lot of work to do to get there.”

See video of the SCRC final here: https://vimeo.com/125478639