AIG Men’s Collegiate All-Americans Play Rugbytown7s & Oxford XV

LAFAYETTE, Colo. – USA Rugby announced today the 2017 AIG Men’s Collegiate All-Americans will have two separate weeks of development camps followed by challenging international competitions at the end of the summer.

This follows on from a successful MCAA Identification and Verification Camp at the Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., Jan. 13-16, 2017.

The MCAA Sevens return to Serevi RugbyTown 7s at Infinity Park, Aug. 25-27, following a one-year hiatus from the international tournament. The tournament is preceded by a week’s training camp in Glendale, Colo.

The All-Americans will turn focus back to XVs for a training camp the week of Sept. 10-17, peaking Sept. 16 as the All-Americans host Oxford University Rugby Football Club. The match will be held in conjunction with AEG as the curtain raiser for the Newcastle-versus-Saracens Premiership Rugby Round Three clash at Philadelphia’s Talen Energy Stadium the same day.

“The staff will be challenged to pick the 12-athlete roster for RugbyTown 7s,” USA Rugby General Manager for National Teams and High Performance Alex Magleby said. “Given the performances at the USA Rugby College 7s National Championships and Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championship invitational, the parity amongst the scholastic elite has increased over the last few years.

“As was the case last year, many of the All-Americans that stand out in the XVs match will compete for selection to the USA Rugby Selects, on their way to future Eagle test honors. Given this, and the potential for academic conflicts, the Oxford training week will primarily be student-athletes that are graduating this year.”

The MCAAs are an important development pathway for the USA Rugby Eagles National Teams for both sevens and XVs. Former All-American Sevens representatives include Eagles Nate Augspurger, Danny Barrett, Pat Blair, Nate Brakeley, Cam Dolan, Madison Hughes, Martin Iosefo, Rocco Mauer, Don Pati, Ben Pinkelman, Tim Stanfill, and Brett Thompson.

Student-athletes that have toured with the MCAAs in the past 15 years make up more than 50 percent of Men’s Eagles test caps in that time frame.

Men’s Collegiate All-American, Honorable Mention Collegiate All-American, and Sevens Collegiate All-American lists will be announced at the end of June, encompassing student-athletes performing at the best of their abilities at the country’s top post-secondary institutions.