Steubenville, Ohio - After taking a hiatus from 7's last spring, Franciscan Rugby kickstarted their 7's season with a nice showing at the Pitt Dome 7's on Sunday.
The sport of Rugby 7's is a rising sport in the US, specifically among colleges, with a pro league called Premier Rugby 7s (or PR7s for short) as well as being a summer Olympic Sport. The game of 7's is a shorter and faster version of Rugby 15s that is played in the fall. In sevens, there are 7 players per team on the field (14 total) and matches are 14 minutes long, 7 minutes of nonstop play per half. The game of sevens also creates an exciting brand of rugby due to the spacing that is available for athletes to showcase their athletic abilities, using fitness, speed, shiftiness, and strategy to win matches. Throughout the spring, teams play in multiple tournaments to compete against other colleges , either for fun, or to qualify for the CRCs (College Rugby Championship) by winning a tournament that is considered an AQ (Automatic Qualifier). The CRC 7's is the National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) national championship for the rugby 7s season-in the same way that 15's has a national championship in the fall season. Franciscan will be trying to make it to the 16 team National Championship for Small Colleges to be played from April 27th to April 29th in Boyds, MD (near DC). To be one of the 16 teams, they will either need to win an AQ tournament, of which there are two, or win the Allegheny Rugby Conference 7's Championship, or earn the only at-large bid available which would be based on a team's "resume" against quality opponents.
Franciscan was placed into Pool B with DI-AA Pitt Blue, DI Trine University, and rival Slippery Rock where all four teams play each other once. The records after pool play determines who plays in the knockout rounds vs teams in Pool A, which had Pitt Gray, UPJ, St. Vincent College and Back-to-Back 7's National Champions, IUP-who brought a mixed team of their starters and development players. Pitt had two teams with similar types of starters, a mix of 1st, 2nd and even 3rd side players. Franciscan went 3-0 in their Pool play, beating Pitt Blue 32-0, Slippery Rock 22-7, and Trine University 27-7. They would face Pool B 2nd place team, Pitt Gray, with the winner advancing to the finals. The Barons would prevail by the score of 29-12, setting up a showdown with IUP in the finals. IUP would come out on top, 24-21, stymying a last-minute try attempt by Anthony Chipps for the win.
The Barons Boys were gassed by the last match, but still put in a great effort to try to pull out a win against a powerhouse team like IUP. Franciscan will take a much need break and will next play at Clarion 7's on March 2nd. The team is hoping to get some reinforcements over the next month as they build towards a successful 7's campaign. Franciscan had only three players that have played 7's before, which was in the spring of 2022, Vincent Prezzia, Anthony Chipps, and Luke Hall. However, they still had most of their 15's players playing, with two new guys, so they still had rugby experience going into the tournament.
How it Happened
Franciscan 32 Pitt Blue 0
The Barons started things off with a bang, easily dispatching Pitt in their first match. Four newcomer starters to the 7's scene set the pace in this one with smashing debuts. Andrew Normandin continued his try scoring acumen from the fall with 2 tries. Rookie Ben Baska, playing his very first rugby match ever, dotted down two tries as well. Samuel Chipps and Jeremy Lemaignen also pitched in for a try. Sebastian Bise helped the Barons with a first half pass to Normandin to set up the first score. Anthony Chipps set up his brother Sam, with the second try. John Thibault, in his debut in playing 7s, led the way with 4 assist, as he garnered much of the defense's attention and offloaded the ball multiple times to set up scores for others.
Tries: Normandin (2), Baska (2), S. Chipps (1), Lemaignen (1)
Assists: Thibault (4), S. Bise (1), A. Chipps (1)
Franciscan 22 SRU 7
The next match pitted Franciscan against the always tough side of Slippery Rock. Their history is new but rugged as they have faced each other 5 times over the last two years in pressure packed matches. This match wasn't as important as previous ones, but it was still one to watch. Franciscan was able to put this one away early with tries from four different players. SRU was able to salvage a late try to avoid a blank scoresheet, resulting in a 22-7 win for the Barons.
Tries: Normandin (1), S. Chipps (1), Thibault (1), Bise (1)
Assists: V. Prezzia (2), A. Chipps (1), Thibault (1)
Franciscan 27 Trine 7
Franciscan faced off against their first DI opponent in a 2 years. Trine University is a varsity program, with a full time coach and rugby scholarships. They were hard hitters, with two starters leaving to leave this one. Normandin paced the team with three tries. Prezzia and Bise both left the match in the second half. The win here gave the Barons a 3-0 record in Pool play and they would move on to face the other Pitt squad in the knockout round. It was close in the first half as the score was 12-7 Franciscan on two of Normandin's tries. Newcomer to 7's Jacob Leerkes chipped in with his first assist on the day.
Tries: Normandin (3), Bise (1), S. Chipps (1)
Assists: Thibault (2), Bise (1), S. Chipps (1), Leerkes (1)
Franciscan 29 Pitt Gray 12
In the fourth match of the day, the Barons seemed to hit a wall. They looked sluggish and slower than the first three matches. This is to be expected in the first tournament of the spring season. Pitt
scored first and was the only team on the day to do so. This lit a spark for the Barons, as they had to put in two new players to start. Normandin cooled things off for Pitt with a try and then Thibault followed up with a nifty try off a penalty tap to help give the Barons the lead for good. Franciscan tries were scored by five different players. Pitt was able to score late in the match to make the score 29-12 as Franciscan made their first 7's finals ever; at least since they started playing 7s in the spring 3 years ago.
Tries: Normandin, Thibault, A. Chipps, Leerkes, S. Chipps
Assists: Thibault (2), A. Chipps (1), S. Chipps (1)
Franciscan 21 IUP 24
In their first finals, the Barons showed resilience against 7's back-to-back champs IUP. IUP did not bring their full first side, but they did have a 3-4 guys playing for them as they also looked to knock off rust of their own and get ready for their 7's season. Franciscan's main players were running on fumes at this point as Thibault played every minute in every game and Normandin, S. Chipps and a few others were playing tons of minutes. S. Chipps started things off with a try to start the game off a pass from Thibault. IUP hit back with two tries of their own to make it 12-7. Thibault grabbed the ball on a pick and go off a ruck, and made a dazzling juke move to freeze the IUP defender and took it to the house to tie it at 12 all. S. Chipps had to leave the game with a thigh contusion, putting stress on young guys to play a team up in level. IUP scored once again before the half was over to take back the lead at 17-12. IUP scored again to start the second half to bump their lead to 24-12. A. Chipps scored a try, barely squeezing in to dot it down, with Thibault offloading to him. With time running out, the Barons were close to scoring and A. Chipps received an offload from Thibault and tried to run through 3 guys that were bunched up in the middle, he fought his way to touch the ball down for a possible game clinching try, but was stopped. With time still remaining, play resumed and the Barons lost a turnover and IUP killed the time. It was a gritty performance for the Barons and one they should be proud of.
Tries: S. Chipps (1), Thibault (1), A. Chipps (1)
Assists: Thibault (2)
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