Rugby Looks Back on 2015, Prepares for Second Half of Season

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The Harvard women’s rugby team (3-1, 0-0 Ivy League) is young. The team recruited six freshmen last season, and 16 of the 24 players on the team during the fall were either freshmen or sophomores. The co-captains of the team, Maya Learned and Isabel Delaura, are both sophomores. And many of these players are playing for the first time in sevens tournaments, a variation of the standard form of rugby, this spring.

“So many of the freshmen have been recruited and have rugby experience definitely helps with our preparedness initially,” freshman Akweley Okine said. “We still have older people on the team who are willing to help with anything... That’s just a good atmosphere.”

The team’s spring schedule consists of sevens tournaments rather than the standard form they play in the fall. Sevens is a variation of rugby that features seven players on both sides contrasting the typical 15 that play. Rather than an 80 minute game, each match consists of two seven minute halves. This allows for high-paced, high-scoring games. The shorter time limit enables entire tournaments to be played in a day.

“I haven’t played sevens before, but I have played 15s.” Okine said. “I definitely have a base in rugby. Sevens is a totally different animal. It’s a lot more running, and it takes a certain type of skill to move people where you want to move them on the field. A lot of the off-season has been running...improving passing, improving fitness.”

The team had a strong showing in the fall, setting their game-high points total at 111 then breaking the record again after putting up 132 against Penn on October 24. However, they ended the season with a loss to Army at the Varsity Championships.

The team returns to action this Saturday, hosting the Frostbite 7s Tournament on Cumnock Field. The Crimson will also host the Crimson 7s Tournament on March 26. They will then head to Quinnipiac for the Quinnipiac 7s on April 2 and Atlanta for the Atlanta 7s April 7-9.

“The team has come a very long way since last season, and even since the fall,” Delaura, a Crimson sports editor said. “We know the teams we’re playing, we’ve played against them a lot. We’re all feeling really ready to be back on the field.”

However, these tournaments are considered preparation for the Ivy 7s and Varsity 7s Championships in late April. The Ivy 7s Championships will be held in Princeton this season on April 23, with the Varsity 7s Championships beginning the following weekend in West Point, N.Y.

“One of the things...about the Sevens season that’s really nice is that we do get to play lots of different teams that we haven’t played previously...in addition to the Ivy League [teams],” Delaura said. “That really helps us hone our skills, try some new things out, and better prepare us for when we do play the Ivy teams.”

The Ivy 7s Championships of last spring went similarly to the Ivy Championships of this past fall with the Crimson finishing fourth. At the last Ivy 7s Championships in Princeton, Harvard finished 1-3 on the day. The Crimson opened with a loss to Dartmouth before blanking Yale 22-0. However, Harvard ended with two straight losses to Princeton and Dartmouth.

With the exception of the Atlanta and Varsity 7s tournaments, the Crimson participated in all of the sevens tournaments last season. At the Frostbite 7s, Harvard fielded both a Crimson and Black squad, rounding out a field of four with MIT and Beantown RFC. Both the Crimson and Black teams went 2-1 for a 4-2 overall record for Harvard at the tournament.

At the Crimson 7s, the team went 4-4 overall, with the Crimson team going 3-0 in pool play. The team lost to Norwich 1 in the championship, taking second place. Contrarily, the Black team, went 0-3 in pool play. The team beat Boston University 2 in the consolation game, though, finishing in seventh place. The Quinnipac 7s consisted of three matches against Quinnipac, Harvard losing all three. The team then played in the Sorenson Cup before moving onto the Ivy Championships.

“We have a great team to be the captains of,” Delaura said. “It’s an honor to be named captain. I think everyone feels a little bit of pressure going into the first tournament of the season, but I think that both Maya and I feel very strongly that we have a great team behind us.”

—Staff writer Wade G. Player can be reached at wplayer@college.harvard.edu.