The USA Sevens Rugby international tournament has a confluence of factors boosting its visibility this year in Las Vegas as well on the international sports stage. The seventh annual citywide event now coincides with the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series, with both tournaments taking place March 3-5 at Sam Boyd Stadium. Profiles of Team USA players, from New England Patriot Nate Ebner to “world’s fastest rugby player” Carlin Isles, have risen in the past year. And Sevens Rugby made its debut as an Olympic Sport, with both Ebner and Isles representing the U.S. in Rio de Janiero.
“They did a great job of showcasing rugby, and it came out as one of the more popular sports at the Rio Olympics,” says Rob Cornelius, vice president of development for USA Sevens’ owner/operator United World Sports. “We had some great coverage of the U.S. team, and Nate Ebner from the Patriots playing with us. We’re hoping to have him back this year too in Vegas after the Super Bowl.”
Ebner, who became the first athlete in history to compete in the Olympics and play on a Super Bowl championship team in the same year when the Patriots defeated the Falcons, was understandably absent from Team USA’s matches during the 2016 NFL season. Captain Madison Hughes leads the Eagles—ranked eighth in a field of 17 going into Las Vegas—in points and conversions while former Arena Football League player Perry Baker holds top rank for Most Tries Scored, followed by Danny Barrett and Stephen Tomasin. Other top performing players include Martin Iosefo, Folau Niua and Andrew Durutalo.
Credit rigorous training designed for Sevens Rugby’s intense seven-minute halves with allowing players to maximize conditioning while minimizing injury. In a television interview, Ebner said the intense cardiovascular training he does for rugby made it easier for him to get “back into the swing of things” at the start of the 2016 NFL season, for which he wound up leading the league in special-team tackles. And while he came back from a concussion suffered during the AFC Championship to play in the Super Bowl, he avoided career-threatening injuries playing rugby.
“The great thing about rugby is it’s traditionally a gentleman’s sport,” says Cornelius. “It can be very violent as far as the hits and everything, but there’s nothing malicious there and you’re not trying to hurt somebody because chances are you could hurt yourself.”
Players’ athletic ability and stamina take precedence over spectacle for many fans, but there is plenty of celebration and pageantry when rugby sevens comes to town. Seventeen countries are currently represented, with 13 of those countries now represented by women’s teams. From the Parade of Nations on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas that highlights the opening ceremonies to the Adopt-a-Country program that educates Clark County students about the teams’ home countries, USA Rugby Sevens brings an international atmosphere to Las Vegas rarely matched during the rest of the year. “Who would guess that there’s 8,000 Kenyans that come to Vegas for a rugby event, right?” asks Cornelius. “It’s pretty amazing.”
Sam Boyd Stadium, times vary March 3-5, starting at $31 plus tax and fee. 702.739.3267
