PR Sevens Wraps Three-Tournament 2022 Season
PR Sevens Wraps Three-Tournament 2022 Season
The Loggerheads won the Men’s Premier Rugby Sevens Series over the weekend, while the Headliners Women not only won their championship but led the Headliners to the united (men’s and women’s) titles as well.
The Premier Rugby Sevens (PR 7s) is a professional 7s league that kicked off with a single tournament last year.
This year there were three events, in San Jose, Washington DC, and the finals in Austin, Texas. There were four teams in action through the summer, each fielding a Women's team and a Men's team. Saturday's finals day was moved to the evening because of the heat in Austin, and was played under a semifinal-final (with consolation finals) format.
Every team had two games.
It’ll Be Alright on the Night
The Loggerheads went into the final tournament seeded last out of of the four teams, but put it all together on the night. In a semifinal-final format in Austin (so all teams got just the two games) the Loggerheads held off the Experts 19-12, and pulled away from the Headliners 38-17 in the final.
The Experts beat the Loonies for third.
Another Semifinal Surprise
The Headliners women, for their part, carried their #2 seed into Austin to face a tough #3 seed in the Experts. They won that game 19-7 while the Loonies took a page out of the Loggerheads book (actually it was the other way around as the men played their semis after the women) and won their semi over the #1 seed Loggerheads 22-12.
In the final the Headlines ran rampant 33-7. Loggerheads took third.
United Championship
The teams also combined their finish for a United Championship. The Headliners were certainly the program at the top there. On Saturday they finished 1st and 2nd, and that was enough over the entire season of three tournaments to push them past the Experts, who entered Texas leading in points.
But with the Experts finishing third among the men and 4th among the women they took only four points out of Austin. Since their lead was only three points to start with, the door was open for the Headlines, and they took their 16 points on the day to claim the title.
Overall United Standings:
1. Headliners 41 Pts
2. Loggerheads 31 Pts
2. Experts 31 Pts
4. Loonies 20 Pts