On Saturday, Oct. 6, the CU men’s rugby team will host a three-school rugby sevens tournament at the fields outside of the Leeds School of Business. The University of Wyoming, the University of Northern Colorado and the Buffs will all enter multiple teams into the tournament.
The first games are set for 9 a.m., and the tournament should end around 5 p.m. Rugby sevens games are only 14 minutes long, so the tournament will consist of many short match-ups.
This tournament will be a good warm-up for teams to find out where they stand before playing in the Pac-12 Conference qualifier next month. All three schools will enter multiple teams in order to see who their best players are moving forward. The qualifier, held at the University of California, Los Angeles, will decide which schools can send teams to the USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships at the end of November.
Rugby sevens will be in the Olympics in 2016, and most of the Olympic team will be made up of current college players. Thus, the national championships, held at Texas A&M University, may include a strong showing of future Olympians.
Saturday at CU will be a big day in the world of college rugby as well as national rugby. This is a major tournament before the Buffs go to Southern California to try to qualify for the national championship.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Scott Annis at Robert.annis@colorado.edu.