The Women’s 10s event at the Rugby Americas North Championship is a bit of an unknown quantity, but should be intriguing just the same.

Head Coach Rosalind Chou, who led Life University to a USA Rugby/CRC 7s double this spring, was asked to take on the coaching job, and she said it will be something of a new experience for everyone.

“I haven’t played 10s and haven’t coached it, but I have a good idea of what we want to do, and we’re going to work on an approach that works for us,” said Chou.

Still not well-known in the USA, 10-a-side rugby is usually played with no flankers, only one center, and a combination wing/fullback. The game is sometimes played with no No. 8 making it five in the forwards and five in the backs.

It’s not quite the wide open, wild format of 7s, and yet not exactly 15s, either. The RAN Super Week women’s tournament is 10s mainly to be sure that all of the teams involved could get enough players.

For Chou, finding players was at once easy and difficult. 

“We are glad we got some players from outside Life University, but we didn’t get a lot and we’d like to get more in the future,” said Chou. ‘But we will be relying on some Life players.”

Among them, team All American Nicole Strasko, Strasko is expected to captain the team, and ten more players in the 15-woman squad are from Life. 

The South opens up July 14 against Trinidad & Tobago, followed by Jamaica on the same day. The Panthers then face the Bahamas on July 15, followed by the placement finals.