The Rugby Advantage blazed through a very difficult U18 Girls Elite bracket to win the NAI 7s, highlighted by two very tough victories over the all-conquering Majestics.
TRA word have been forgiven for opening their weekend with a loss given that the team brought in players from all over the map. However, a camp in Atlanta had helped forge a bond and their opening game against Majestics, while imperfect, produced a 17-14 victory.
Majestics, for their part, had come in united and with a national 15s title and a Tropical 7s title to their name.
Other contenders showed themselves early. The SacPal Amazons worked the ball wide quickly and did well to control the contact area. Pasefika backed down from no one and were probably the tallest and most powerful side in the competition. That allowed them to control the defensive line and in pool play (three games) the Hawaiians allowed just three tries.
One of those was to The Rugby Advantage Red side, which looked to be the younger of the two TRA groups. Pasefika’s 33-7 victory there put the opposition on notice.
All of that led to TRA Black going 4-0 in pool play, with Majesties right behind them at 3-1. Pasefika was 4-0 (three wins and a forfeit) in Pool 2 with TRA Red right behind.
That set up the semifinals. Since there were two pools of five teams (actually one pool of five and one of four) some teams had played four pool games. So having quarterfinals was too much and thus there were semifinals for 1st, semifinals for 5th, and Badger took 9th.
SacPal beat the Utah Cannibals and Atlantis shut out the California Grizzlies in impressive fashion to reach the 5th-place final, which the Amazons took 19-14. The Grizzlies took 7th.
Majestics were perhaps at their best in the Cup semis, playing fast and making the ball do the work as they beat Pasefika by making them cover the entire field. Final score 22-5.
The Rugby Advantage Black got by The Rugby Advantage Red in their semifinal. The players didn’t seem to mind though.
