All-Americans Claim Serevi RugbyTown Sevens

Photo: All-American Twitter

The All-Americans went a perfect 6-0 throughout the weekend to capture the 2013 Serevi RugbyTown Sevens final. The All-Americans swept through pool play, finished off Air Force and then Tiger Rugby on their way to the final where they beat the hosts Glendale 31-12.

From Glendale's initial kickoff the All Americans set the tone of this match as Garrett Bender fed from the air to Madison Hughes who got wrapped after 15 meters. Still going forward, Hughes offloaded to a speeding Stephen Tomasin who ran another 20 meters before selling the sweeper and passing to Tanner Barnes. Barnes almost made it to the line, only to be tackled by Chad London.

At the 2 minute mark, Glendale stole an All-American scrum and quickly passed to Preston Bryant who nicely backed himself on the right side against Ryan Matais and raced 50 meters to dot the first score. Mike Graham could not convert.

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The All-Americans answered right back after Bender took another restart and the ball worked across the field to Matyas. Matyas beat his man but had two more defenders ahead. So, he crossed to the Glendale sweeper, sold the dummy, and switch passed for an at-pace Zinzan Elan-Puttick. Puttick dashed 30 meters untouched for a try center and converted himself to put the AAs in the lead 7-5.

The Raptors found themselves defending deep inside their 22 and London tried to kick for relief only to have Pat Blair charge-down the kick. They escaped another All-Americans try with some deft ball-handling and running. However, the All-Americans were soon awarded a scrum at 5 meters center from a Glendale knock. London disagreed with the call and was sent to the bin as a result. The All-Americans tapped as soon as they could and spun the ball out to Tanner Barnes for a try. Hughes converted and the team up 14-5.

The Al-Americans kicked deep on the restart and held up Bryant in a tackle. From the scrum, Puttick spotted a missing sweeper due London's binning and chipped ahead. He was not able to capitalize on it because a Raptor fell on it in-goal before he could. From the resulting 5 meter scrum, the All-Americans fed the ball to Hughes who dove into the right corner for a try one minute past the hooter. However, he couldn't' convert putting the halftime score at 19-5.

The first 5 minutes of the second half proved a highly defensive affair for both sides. However, the All Americans spent more than half of that time in the Glendale end of the pitch, probing and prodding. Finally, a right-side lineout from 7 meters out was won by the youngsters and they spun the ball wide to their speed-merchant Matyas. Bryan met Matyas hard, but the youthful momentum was too much as the All-Americans won another try at the 5 minute mark, this time in the left corner. Hughes' conversion split the uprights and nicely to put the team comfortably ahead 26-5.

Scrums went back and forth for a few minutes, but Ata Malifa was dinged for a not-straight feed. The All-Americans tapped and ran, never giving the veterans of Glendale a breather. A punishing Ryan Roundy collected a couple of tacklers, then fed the 18-year-old Tomasin a nice pop-pass from the tackle. Tomasin had been punishing minor lapses in defense all weekend and weekend. He darted 25 meters untouched for the final All-American try. Hughes missed the conversion, but the prodigious collegiates didn't need the extras. They led 31-5 with one minute left in the final.

It may have been all but over, but a freekick was awarded to Glendale on the restart, then three successive penalties. That was enough for Mike Graham to find a seam to slip through for a try for pride. He converted his try to bring the final score to 31-12.


The All-Americans defeated Tiger Rugby in the semi-finals to reach the final. The match was possibly the best match of the day and featured great rugby from both teams. The All-Americans went up 14-0 before Tiger Rugby came back into the match. It wasn't until a great run from Hughes sprung Joe Cowley for a late try that the All-Americans sealed the win. Glendale advanced to the final with a 17-14 win over the French Armed Forces.

In the 3rd place match Tiger Rugby proved too much for the French Armed Forced to get a 35-7 win.  The Tigers got on the board first through Zach Pangelinan after they took advantage of repeated French penalties to get the easy try under the posts. Peter Tiberio did a little show and go to get his team's second try. Kelly Kolberg added a third try before halftime.  In the second half things got a bit chippy but the Tigers stayed on the go. Tiberio scored his second try of the match after a great Taylor Howden run and then Chad Joseph added the team's fifth try. The French did score a try to get on the board.

Army surprised a few people by making the Plate final but they were consistently solid all weekend. Unfotunately they faced a very tough Serevi Selects team in the final. The Selects wasted no time getting on the board after William Rasileka sent a nice one-handed pass to Emosi Vucago for the try. Rasileka would then score two quick tries to increase the lead to 15-0 at halftime. In the second half the Selects picked up right where they left off. They stayed incredibly patient and eventually Kellen Gordon was the one rewarded with the try. Tim Stanfill  added to more tries to bring the final score to 34-0.

El Azul claimed the Bowl over the Falcons thanks to a last minute try from Rick Darrow. The Falcons took an early lead thanks to a very well worked team try. He did a good job of fighting through the defenders to find himself alone. But El Azul responded with a pair of well worked tries of their own. However, just as they have done all weekend, the Falcons refused to give up. Navy cadet Jack McAullife scored just before halftime and Tim Acker add the conversion to make it 14-12 at halftime. McAullife was fantastic all weekend and is a sure prospect to keep an eye on. After the break El Azul scored a great team try to take the lead. But as the nature of the match, the Falcons evened the score through Zach Siemens and then took the lead through Acker's conversion. Unfortunately for the Falcons, Darrow came through in the clutch for the 26-19 win.

The Cayman Island went up early in the Shield final over Navy and never looked back. They picked up three more tries before halftime to Navy's one to take a firm 24-7 lead in the match. Michael Wilson led the way with a first half hat-trick. The Cayman Islands then went on to score two more tries to bring the final score to 38-7.

The day began with the best team from yesterday, the Northeast, suffering a surprise defeat to Glendale.  Full credit to Glendale for turning it up on day two. The other high-profile match-up in the Cup quarterfinals saw Tiger Rugby beat the Serevi Selects 26-24.

Grant Cole contributed to this article.

Bowl Quarterfinals

Falcons 26-7 Cayman Islands
Marines 38-0 Bermuda
RAF Spitfires 34-0 Mexico
El Azul 36-0 Navy

Cup Quarterfinals

Glendale 21-12 Northeast
French Armed Forces 24-10 Army
Tiger Rugby 26-24 Serevi Selects
All-Americans 43-0 Air Force

Shield Semi-final

Cayman Islands 26-5 Bermuda
Navy 10-5 Mexico

Bowl Semi-final

Falcons 34-0 Marines
El Azul 26-21 RAF Spitfires

Plate Semi-final

Army 10-5 Northeast
Serevi Selects 33-14 Air Force

Cup Semi-final

Glendale 17-14 France
All-Americans 19-14 Tiger Rugby

Shield Final

Cayman Islands 38-7 Navy

Bowl Final

El Azul 26-19 Falcons

Plate Final

Serevi Selects 34-0 Army

3rd/4th Place

Tiger Rugby - French Armed Forces

Final

All-Americans 31-12 Glendale

Recap from Day One.