The Rugby Advantage won the Girls HS Premier and Toronto Reds won the Boys HS Premier at the 2022 NY 7s held Thanksgiving Saturday.
The largest one-day tournament in North America, the New York 7s welcomes over 140 teams from the USA and Canada in 13 brackets.
There were four high school brackets: Girls Premier, Girls HS, Boys Premier, and Boys HS.
In the Girls Premier The Rugby Advantage—a select side program borne out of the old Rugby Northeast program and run by Ryszard Chadwick—fielded two teams, Black and Red. Black was certainly the more experienced team and ran through pool play 3-0. With two pools of three, the format was that every team in Pool A played every team in Pool B, and vice versa, giving everyone three games.
No other team went 3-0, with Atlantis and Rugby Quebec both going 2-1. That put those two against each other in the semifinals, with Quebec winning 19-12. The Rugby Advantage Black, led by captain Hattie Greenwood, beat Vikings 7s Academy 15-12 to make the final. In the final it was once again a three-tries-to-two game, with The Rugby Advantage edging Rugby Quebec 17-12. Upright Rugby out of Ontario beat The Rugby Advantage Red for 5th.
In the Boys Premier it was Canadians all the way with Toronto beating Upright Rugby 38-7 in the final. Two Pennsylvania teams, Rugby PA All-State and Berks County made the semis and both lost close games. Greenwich beat Mystic River 34-0 to take 5th.
It was a 13-team bracket in the Girls HS competition (three pools of three and one pool of four). Atlantis, Morris Rugby Red, Aspetuck, Rugby PA, and New Hampshire Youth all came out of pool play 2-0. In the semis Rugby PA defeated New Hampshire 29-12 and Aspetuck got by Atlantis 25-19. Rugby PA then won the final in convincing fashion 29-5.
Aurora out of Ontario took 5th over Morris Red, and Upright Rugby beat Morris Black 24-5 to take 9th.
In the Boys HS, Elysian defeated Play Rugby USA 19-10 in the final after getting past Roosters Youth Rugby out of Maryland in the semis 14-10. Play Rugby beat Rugby PA 24-5 in their semi. In a nice portent for a comeback for this New York program, the Harvey School beat Upright 19-17 to take 5th.
