USA Women Lose RugbyX Final to England, USA Men Exit After Semifinals

The inaugural RugbyX tournament, an international Rugby Union tournament approved by World Rugby and the RFU, was held at The O2, London on 29th October 2019.

The Women’s Final was won by England over the USA after the one-on-one following the regulation 20-20 tie. This gave England the ball first. They scored three times to two for the USA for the win. Based on the laws, the USA did not have the opportunity to tie the match after England’s third try.

The Men’s Final was won by Argentina 25-15 over Ireland.

RugbyX was played under existing Rugby Union Laws in respect of foul play and breakdown penalties, but included some law-trial adaptations in order to encourage simple and fast gameplay, including:- 5 players per team- Matches to last 10 minutes with no half time- No line outs – quick throws to be taken by a substitute from the team in possession- No conversions.

Ben Ryan, Technical Director of RugbyX, said: “RugbyX is bringing World-leading international Sevens rugby teams into Europe’s Number 1 Entertainment Destination – the O2 Arena – for an adapted form of the game we love. RugbyX will provide new and existing fans with an opportunity to support their national team in a brand new rugby environment.”

Mike Friday, USA Men’s Sevens Head Coach said “When I first heard about RugbyX I knew that it would be a format that would perfectly suit the type of rugby that we try to implement across USA Rugby. The fast-paced high-intensity nature of the game will have our fans hooked from the start. To be able to play indoors in a huge arena is a feature that has our players excited and will prove to be a great spectacle, we can’t wait to return to London later in the year”.

The Men’s teams included the U.S., Argentina, France, England, Ireland and the Barbarians in a full-contact version of rugby with a slight twist. RugbyX was played on a half-sized pitch with the details on format listed below courtesy of rugbyx.com.

The Women included the USA, Ireland, England, and France. Each side played two games in total starting with a group match where the U.S. faced Ireland and then a final for either 3rd/4th place or for the title.

The USA Men’s Sevens went 0-2 in Pool play with losses to Argentina and France. In the Quarterfinals, the USA beat the Barbarians and then lost to Ireland 25-20 on the final play of the match.

In the other semifinal, Argentina defeated France after Los Pumas took a quick tap after a penalty as time had expired. This set up a final of Ireland and Argentina with the Pumas 7s winning 25-15..

The USA Women’s Sevens won their Pool match over Ireland with Alev Kelter scoring RugbyX’s first hat trick. This set up the team to face England in the Women’s Final.

England came back to score a hat trick try by Emma Uren on the final play in regulation to level the match at 20 all. This set up a one-and-one decider with England going first. Each team scored tries when they had the ball, however, England scored three tries first for the title.

RugbyX Schedule & Results

Men’s Group A England 30-30 Barbarians #BaaBaas won 3-2 on the one-vs-one
Men’s Group B Argentina 40-20 USA
Women’s Semifinal 1 England 35-20 France
Men’s Group A Ireland 25-20 Barbarians
Men’s Group B USA 15-25 France
Women’s Semifinal 2 Ireland 15-30 USA
Men’s Group A England 10-25 Ireland
Men’s Group B France 25-20 Argentina
Men’s QF1 Barbarians 15-35 USA
Men’s QF2 Argentina 55-15 England
Women’s 3rd/4th France 35-20 Ireland
Men’s SF1 Ireland 25-20 USA
Men’s SF2 France 20-25 Argentina
Women’s Final England 20-20 USA #England won 3-2 on the one-vs-one
Men’s Final Ireland 15-25 Argentina

Men’s Sevens Squads & Staff

USA: 1 Carlin Isles 3 Danny Barrett (C) 4 Pat Blair 5 Maceo Brown 6 Maka Unufe 8 Harley Wheeler 9 Stephen Tomasin 10 Naima Fuala’au 11 Perry Baker 14 Kevon Williams 17 Marcus Tupuola 18 Ben Broselle Staff: Head Coach Mike Friday, Assistant Coach Phil Greening, Strength & Conditioning Coach Jon Hood, Athletic Trainer Brian Green, Team Manager Scott Novack

Argentina: 1 Fernando Luna 2 Tomas Acosta Pimentel 3 Geronimo Prisciantelli 4 Francisco Ulloa 5 Rodrigo Etchart 6 Rodrigo Isgro 7 Lautaro Bazan Velez (C) 8 Ignacio Mendy 9 Joaquin De La Vega 10 Felipe del Mestre 11 Luciano Gonzalez Rizzoni 12 Franco Sabato Staff Coach Santiago Gomez Cora, Mgr: Alexis Koracie S&C: Fernando Levy Phusio: Juan Martin Zucchiatti

France: 1 Jonathan Laugel 2 Manoel Dall’igna 3 Tavite Veredamu 4 Marvin O’Connor 5 Stephen Parez 6 Paulin Riva 7 Remi Siega 8 Pierre-Gilles Lakafia 9 Pierre Mignot 10 Jean-pascal Barrique (C) 11 Sacha Valleau 12 Mathias Colombet Staff C: Jerome Daret Mgr: Julien Candelon S&C: Julien Robineau Dr: Claude Labanere

Barbarians: 1 Samisoni Viriviri 2 Jasa Veremalau 3 Oscar Ouma 4 Kitione Taliga 5 Vatemo Ravouvou 6 Kyle Brown (C) 7 Jaike Carter 8 Pio Tuwai 9 Louis Lynagh 10 Luke Treharne 11 Lenox Anyanwu 12 William Ambaka Staff C: Danny Care Mgr: Ropate Kauvesi Physio: Brett Davidson

England: 1 Richard De Carpentier (C) 2 Will Hendy 3 Noah Sixton 4 Dan Norton 5 Ronnie Du Randt 6 Tom Emery 7 Jamie Barden 8 Api Bavadra 9 Will Edwards 10 George Barber 11 Olu Odunlami 12 Will Glover Staff C: Simon Amor Physio: Emily Ross

Ireland: 1 Jack Daly 2 Adam Leavy 3 Harry McNulty 4 Cormac Izuchukwu 5 Aaron O’Sullivan 6 Billy Dardis (C) 7 Sean Cribbin 8 Greg O’Shea 9 Hugo Lennox 10 Terry Kennedy 11 Mark Roche 12 Max O’Reilly Staff c: Anthony Eddy AC: James Topping S&C: Ed Slattery Physio: Orla Armstrong

Women’s Sevens Squads & Staff

USA: 1 Cheta Emba 2 Emily Henrich 3 Fane Haungatau 4 Alena Olsen 5 Alev Kelter (C) 6 Saskia Morgan 7 Naya Tapper 8 Lauren Thunen 9 Stephanie Rovetti 10 Kayla Canett (C) 11 Kasey McCravey 12 Kayla Lawson Staff: High-Performance Director Emilie Bydwell, Head Coach Warren Abrahams, Athletic Trainer Hilary Stepansky

Ireland: 1 Deirbhile Nic A Bhaird 2 Hannah Tyrrell 3 Lucinda Kinghan 4 Claire Boles 5 Stephanie Carroll 6 Kathy Baker 7 Katie Fitzhenry (C) 8 Megan Burns 9 Lucy Mulhall 10 Eve Higgins 11 Louise Galvin 12 Katie Heffernan Staff C: Stan McDowell Mgr: Eimear Flannery S&C: Ed Slattery Physio: Jo Montgomery

England: 1 Beth Wilcock 2 Abbie Brown (C) 3 Abigail Burton 4 Heather Fisher 5 Helena Rowland 6 Deborah Fleming 7 Emma Uren 8 Celia Quansah 9 Alex Matthews 10 Megan Jones 11 Holly Aitchison 12 Amy Wilson-Hardy

France: 1 Coralie Bertrand 2 Seraphine Okemba 3 Ian Jason 4 Mathilde Coutouly 5 Montserrat Amedee (C) 6 Yolaine Yengo 7 Charlotte Torres 8 Camille Grassineau 9 Nassira Konde 10 Jade Le Pesq 11 Shannon Izar 12 Joanna Grisez Staff C: David Courteix AC: Germain Igarza Physio: Thomas Pommes

RugbyX Trial Laws

DETAILED OVERVIEW OF RugbyX Trial Laws
Full Contact Rugby on a Half Sized Pitch	55m x 32m pitch dimensions plus 5m runoffs.
Five Players Per Side Plus Seven Rolling Substitutes	Rolling subs allowed at breaks in play following tries.
Single Scoring Unit	Five points for a try, no conversions, no drop goals, no penalty goals.
Tap Starts & Restarts Replace Kick-Offs	To take place on the 5m line, with opposing team 10m back.
Chip kicks allowed; no box kicks or up and unders	Referee to receive real-time notification using Sportable ball-tracking technology when a kick is over 10m in height, resulting in tap and play.
Quick Throws Replace Line Outs	All line outs to be quick throws taken by a substitute from the team awarded the throw with any match ball. In practice each team stations one substitute on each sideline, with a match ball in hand ready to take a quick throw when required. Offside line as per 7s and 15s quick throws.
Scrums	Three-person scrums with no pushing. Hooking is allowed.
Rucks	Maximum two players per team.
Mauls	Maximum three players per team.
Sin Bin	Yellow card results in sin bin until the next try is scored.
Drawn Matches Settled by One on One	Settled by a ‘one on one’ involving one defender on 5m line and one attacker 30m from goal with a ball. The attacker has 10 seconds to score. This is played as per a sudden death penalty shoot-out – if Team A scores, Team B must then score or Team A wins the match.