The New York Women made it to the Cup Final at the Ruggerama 7s tournament down in the DC area on July 14, where they fell to tournament hosts, NOVA, to take 2nd on the day...

This past weekend, NYRC traveled down to Rosecroft Raceway (also host to of the Furies Ruggerfest) to participate in NoVa's Ruggerama 7's. Various travel and hosting arrangements were made, featuring none other than Lee Knight's house and a guest appearance by Lisa Rowe. Also in support were the Collier family and Allison's mom, Mrs. Olsen. It was a typical Mid-Atlantic summer day, hot but not scorching; humid, but not sweltering.

As I arrived in the middle of game 1 (thanks to some ill-fated map questing), I was pleasantly surprised to see the orange and blue running in try after try. After an extremely fun weekend at Cape Fear with the Empire City Blues (the tight 5 + 1 wing show), I was expecting a similarly motley crew. The Ruggerama roster was as follows:

Coaching: Pudge, Allison

Playing:

Hedwig
Kat
Daniela
Luisa
Phaidra
London
Amanda
KT Mac
Dominique
Annie

After quickly and easily rolling over the MD Exiles, NY took the James River team in a similarly dominant manner. The game plan "avoid contact" was lost on a few of us, but the coaches modified the philosophy to say, "well if you're going to do it, do it all the way". We won that game 5 tries to 1. Our last game of pool play was against the Hustlers, a team that had squeaked a win past the Empire City Blues on the previous weekend. This was a team of some East Carolina and James Madison University alumni. . .now strengthened by All-star 7's players SBJ and Beth Black. However, NYRC would again prevail. The rugby improved with each game and in this one, we actually saw more team movement of the ball and group-effort tries.

After going 3-0 in pool play, NY advanced to the semi's to face the hosting NoVa "Black" team. NoVa had divided their teams fairly equally along the black and purple and each team made the semis. This, of course, was the most challenging game thus far. It took some fantastic defense and some great breaks to secure the win. We came from behind at the half to win 2 tries to 1. For the 3rd year in a row, New York earned their place in the final match.

Using the tournament cross-rostering rules to maximum advantage, NoVa stacked their final side with their best and brightest. Though a heart breaker, it was a fabulous contest. Each team played with tenacity and pluck. A NY try was answered by a NoVa breakaway, the same pattern repeated. Hedwig make several "miracle kicks" from the sideline for conversion. Finally, the last possession of the match was by Nova. What could have been a "gimme" line break was defended with an amazing from-behind tackle by sweeper, Daniela Mogro, and the NY line rushed back to assist. It took 3 more pass-in-tackle's for NoVa to finally find space on the outside to touch it down at the final whistle.

-Annie Collier