Rugby Pennsylvania will host a championship high school 7s tournament at the end of October.

Stopping short of calling it state championship, Rugby PA is instead calling the event FallFest and encouraging all teams to participate.

To gear up for this, teams are starting to play in low-stress tournaments in buildup weekends. All of this has come to pass as Pennsylvania has loosened COVID-19 restrictions, and as Rugby PA teams have started to attract players and follow state protocols.

Rugby Pennsylvania’s Board of Directors voted this week to hold FallFest over Halloween Weekend. The Fall Fest will be a two-day event hosted by the Doylestown Rugby Academy at 3650 Cold Spring Creamery Road, Doylestown, Pa. The High School Boys will compete on Saturday, October 31 and the High School Girls on Sunday November 1. Separating these two brackets will help in addressing some COVID safety concerns. 

Since Rugby PA is operating under Stage 4 of the existing  Rugby PA Return to Play guidelines, teams are permitted to have limited contact scrimmages in the lead-up to the FallFest. Teams are permitted to schedule these scrimmages at their own discretion, and will have to provide their own referee coverage. This sort of competition has already happened. Volunteer referees have been critical to making this happen. The scrimmages can't have mauls, scrums, or lineouts.

"It works out fine," said Berks County Coach Greg Stelluti. "We don't have lineouts so we just start with the ball five meters in and we go. Other than those changes we're playing rugby."

As the fall progresses, Rugby PA will map out how the games at FallFest will be officiated.

It's a careful launch by Rugby PA, but it's a launch.