The New York 7s kicks off this weekend with 12 divisions of competition.

Once a go-to event on the club 7s calendar, the NY 7s is still that, but has seen the number of HS teams increase dramatically.

This year sees a HS Boys Premier and a HS Boys Open, as well as a HS Girls Premier and HS Girls Open.

Some of these teams know each other and we will certainly see a few in the North American HS 7s elite-level series in 2017. This past weekend, some of the boys teams got a little warmup, with Play Rugby USA playing Eagle Impact Rugby Academy New York twice during the U Rugby Bowl Series weekend. In the opening game, Play Rugby showed like a team that had been training for 7s for a while, and took apart EIRA NY. But in the second game, EIRA rebounded with a better approach - staying out of contact and taking care of the ball a little better.

It was all about listening to their coaches, said EIRA NY Coach Matt Persanis.

Play Rugby, with Nathan Salter setting up the offense and Eoin Sansavero playing well as an attacker and on defense, played some solid 7s throughout. EIRA, with Yoann Rolland and Mike Jennings having especially good days, needed some time to warm up, but looked very good at the end.

Salter, who plays his 15s with Xavier HS, has been with Play Rugby for five years.

“I like playing with them because it’s a chance for me to develop my skills and play with different players from around the area,” said Salter, who will captain the Premier-division Community Olympic Development Program Play Rugby team at the NY 7s. “I think we learned a lot from these games against EIRA and we’re developing a good rivalry.”

On EIRA, Thomas Treussard found the tryline a couple of times, and he, too is a Xavier product.

“The first game against Play Rugby was our first real competitive 7s game, and we knew we could get better,” said Treussard. “We started to connect better with our offloads and support better. It was all about following out pass.”

Also in the Boys Premier are Upright Rugby Rogues of Ontario - another NAHS 7s series team - Eastern Ontario, Equipe Quebec, NRU Thunder Green out of Niagara Falls, Ont., Rugby PA, and Toronto Rugby Reds.

 

In the Boys Club (Open) Division, 14 teams are in action:

ARL Legion (Quebec)

Eastern Ontario 

Greenwich (Conn.)

Keio Academy (NY)

Mississauga Blues (Ont.)

Northeast Academy-Boston (Mass.)

NYRC (NY)

Play Rugby USA (NY)

Section XI (NY)

St. Francis Prep (NY)

Tantallon (Nova Scotia)

Toronto Nomads (Ont.)

and two teams from the Nova Scotia Keltics program.

 

Interesting, Greenwich and Keio Academy (augmented by players from the French American School of New York) also played each other at the Bowl Series. Keio is led by the hard-wroking and elusive Kotaro Iwata and smooth-running Cyril Douady. Greenwich has a fine tradition in 7s and could win it all.

New York fielded a team at the Bowl Series, and split two games with Fairfield. Jordan Ayala and Coby Lee-Whitefield were players with a lot of promise for NYRC.

 

The Girls Premier teams are:

Atlantis

Play Rugby CODP

Eastern Ontario

Equipe Quebec

NRU Thunder (NY)

Toronto Reds

Upright Rugby Rogues

Nova Scotia Keltics

 

The Girls Club teams are:

Atlantis 2

Eastern Ontario

Mississauga Blues

Northeast Academy-Boston

NRU Thunder

NYRC

Phenix (Quebec)

Play Rugby USA Academy

Rugby PA

Southwest U18s (Ont.)

Nova Scotia Keltics 2

Nova Scotia Keltics 3