In 2009, the International Olympic Committee voted to include seven-a-side rugby, also known as Sevens Rugby, as an Olympic sport. With the sport debuting in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and rugby becoming one of the fastest growing sports in the United States, the Kansas City Blues Rugby Club and Sporting Club Network partnered to start the Sporting Club Rugby Sevens Academy to work as a feeder system for the U.S. National Olympic Rugby Sevens team. As part of USA Rugby, these teams from KC Blues and Sporting Club Rugby Sevens Academy have been able to compete in tournaments around the Midwest against other professional Sevens Rugby teams.
The Kansas City Blues Rugby Club is part of the new Frontier Sevens Region of USA Rugby. The Frontier Region has three major tournaments for their qualifiers for the Sevens Club Nationals. The first of the three qualifiers this year was the Denver Sevens in Colorado on June 21st. The tournament was made up of six divisions, including 69 teams from around the Midwest, of which Kansas City Blues and Sporting Club had four teams in three divisions. The KC Blues Premier squad was in the Men’s Qualifier Division and placed third behind Denver and Glendale, while the KC Blues Reserve team played in the Men’s Social Division (finishing 7th) and Sporting Club Rugby Sevens Academy had two teams in the Collegiate Men’s Division. Sporting Club’s White team won the division by beating Colorado State University in comeback fashion with a final score of 26-12, while the Sporting Club Blue team suffered a narrow defeat in the to Air Force in the third place game.
In the most recent Sevens Rugby tournament on Saturday, July 12th, the KC Blues hosted the Heartland 7’s Qualifier. The event included 26 teams throughout three divisions, which were all won by KC Blues or Sporting Club teams. The Blues Premier squad beat Glendale Raptors 31-12 to take the Qualifiers Championship and move atop the qualifier standings with eight points. Meanwhile in the Men’s Open Division, the KC Blues Reserve side managed to pull out a close win over Sporting Club 7’s Rugby Collegiate Academy, a team made up of players from universities around the Greater Kansas City Area. In the High School Division, Sporting Club Sevens Rugby High School Academy outscored Cougars RFC 41-15 in the championship game to win the tournament.
The success from each of these teams has KC Blues and Sporting Club excited for a bright future in Sevens Rugby going into the last two years of Olympic qualifiers. For more information on the Kansas City Blues upcoming tournaments, click here. Also, don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all things Sporting Club Network.
