Ivy & Business School Teams Square Off in Sunday Sevens Invitational

As collegiate and club rugby teams around the country are preparing in earnest for the summer seven-a-side season, Dartmouth hosted the Royall Lyme Dartmouth 7s Presented by Rockwood Services Corporation on Sunday for teams representing a mix of undergraduate and graduate Ivy League institutions.  Designed to give teams exposure to competitive sevens play, Dartmouth hosted teams from Brown, Harvard, Harvard Business school, and Tuck (Dartmouth’s business school) to compete.  While a team from Yale was also invited, transportation difficulties prevented them from participating on match day.

Tournament play started with round-robin, pool play to establish team standings.  Dartmouth put forward four sides of undergraduate players, Harvard two, and Brown one, while Harvard Business School and Tuck each contributed one side to the tournament.  At the end of pool play, teams were placed in brackets based on match results.  The Cup bracket consisted of Dartmouth and Harvard’s respective I and II teams, while Bowl play included the Dartmouth III team, Brown I, and the Harvard and Tuck business school sides.

In the Cup semi-finals, Dartmouth’s I team started off championship play against Harvard’s II team, whom they beat handily 35-0.   Dartmouth II, however, was in for a more pitched battle as it faced off against the Harvard I team.  The match started off with two tries for Harvard, and with only one of the kicks converted Dartmouth trailed 12-0 with little time left in the first half.  A last-minute try scored by freshman Matias Reyna ’13 brought Dartmouth back within range of the Crimson, and a converted kick by Captain Tommy Brothers ’11 put the score back up to 7-12 at the half.   However, early on in the second half Harvard was able to break away from the Dartmouth defense, with back-to-back line breaks leading to a further 14 points scored for Harvard.  In the last minutes of the match, sophomore Michael Gordon ’12 broke through the Harvard defense for a 70-meter try.  Brothers converted the kick, and the score was left at 14-26, with Harvard I advancing to the final.

In the late afternoon, Dartmouth I faced Harvard I in the Cup final on Brophy Field.  Co-Captain Chris Downer was first to score, and a successful conversion by Fish put the score at 7-0 Dartmouth.  Quick tries by Co-Captain Paul Jarvis ’12 and  Ian Hogg ’11 put the Big Green up 19-0 with plenty of time remaining in the first half.   A fifty-meter carry by Nick Downer led to Dartmouth’s fourth and final try of the half, and a successful conversion by Fish put Dartmouth ahead 26-0.  Harvard was finally able to answer with a try of their own, and after a successful conversion Harvard trailed Dartmouth 26-7 at the half.   The final seven minutes of play was very much a repeat of the first. Tries were carried in by Will Lehmann ’12 and Paul Jarvis, putting Dartmouth ahead 40-7.  Harvard was able to answer with a try of their own near the end of play, but an missed conversion left the final score at 40-12.

After the final match, Dartmouth Captain Tommy Brothers ’11 remarked that the Royall Lyme Dartmouth 7s tournament had been extremely beneficial for the team, noting that for many of Dartmouth’s younger players, it was “their first sevens experience, so it was wonderful to see guys breaking tackles and scoring tries…We had a blast, and the boys are really looking forward to the tournament in Ohio”. Harvard coach David Gonzales remarked that the tournament “turned out to be a great opportunity to try our hand at the game before we begin training for the [the Collegiate 7’s tournament]”.

Dartmouth and Harvard both look forward to submitting teams to the USA Sevens Rugby Collegiate Championship, where they will be competing in the same pool along with teams from California and Notre Dame.   The tournament, which has been organized by USA Sevens LLC, will be taking place in Columbus, Ohio on June 4-6.  The games will be televised by NBC. For tickets and more information please visit: http://www.USASevensCCI.com/