National 7s weekend

WHAT. A. WEEKEND.

Last weekend, on Friday and Saturday March 6/7, 28 teams from across the country came to Langford to play in the National 7s Championship.

For those of you unfamiliar with Rugby 7s, it’s basically the same as Rugby XVs except with only 14 players on the field (7 on each team) playing on the full field. There are two 7 minute halves instead, creating a 14 minute game, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s not tiring, because it’s exhausting! Games are fast-paced with tons of action, allowing for multiple games to be played in a day.

For this weekend, I was on the Vikes Blue team (we also had a Vikes Yellow team playing). On day one, we had to play the University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge and University of British Columbia Okanagan. Our toughest game of the day by far was the second game against Lethbridge, being our only loss of the day. Nonetheless, we recovered for our last game and qualified for the Top 8 round on day 2 to get to the cup quarter finals.

Results:

UVic 29 – Calgary 7

UVic 14 – Lethbridge 17

UVic 19 – UBCO 0

At the end of day 1, a few of us went to Thetis Lake to ice bathe which – we ended up finding out – was much colder than any of us would have thought! The biggest lie of the weekend came from me, declaring “I’m totally fine now,” after a minute in the water. In actuality, it took about 7 minutes until we all managed to come to a consensus that we were “fine.”

Thetis Lake in March

The second day started off bright and early with a game against Guelph who won the inaugural 7s Championship and are always at the top of their game. It was hard fought, but we managed to get the win 14-12. That win allowed us to move onto the semi-final where we met longtime rivals, UBC. We’ve played many, many times this year alone, so it was already set up to be a great game. After some back and forth play, we also came out on top 12-7!

After the semi-final we had almost a 5 hour gap until our next game, which would be the final against defending champions, McMaster. To escape the crowds and wind-down, the team went to White Spot down the road (a classic Westcoast restaurant) where we relaxed, napped and fueled our bodies before the upcoming game.

Both teams got back to the field for 3:15. The Vikes Blue were treated to a pleasant and very cold, 4 minute pre-game ice bath. We then cheered on the Vikes Yellow team as they fought to a huge win over Brock, 31-5, to bring home the Women’s Shield!

Ice bath

We were up next in the Cup Final. Although we lost, 31-5, I find it hard to feel disappointed. Everyone left what they had on the field but, more importantly, looking at how far we’ve come as a program is incredible. Last year we finished 4th, this year 2nd, and next year you can count on us going for 1st! On the fifteens side, we went to the final 4 in CanWest for the first time in years and actually placed for the first time ever.

A few McMaster friends with Tiffany and I after the game, good excuse to catch up!

It’s an exciting time for the program as a whole, playing some incredible rugby, and with a core group of players who still have many years of CIS eligibility left, I can’t wait for the seasons to come!

Team Picture

Watch out Canada, #VikesNation is coming for ya!

Jess