TOLA Rugby 7s Series    

Though there was no TOLA action in week 5, multiple teams enterred the West Qualifier in Dallas to get a TOLA bonus point. Teams that have intentions of competing on the National Stage will be removed from TOLA standings upon their entry in a second national qualifier (KC or Denver for example). This is a bit akin to a superleaue 15s club that competes in Div. 1 but is not eligible for Div. 1 playoffs.

The updated standings are:

Week 4 Results: Austin Bloodfest:

On a hot and sunny day, twenty-three men’s teams took the field at the 11th annual Bloodfest 7’s Tournament in Austin.  The format was a 16-team open bracket utilizing the “Hong Kong” format and a 7-team Social/Super Social bracket.  The open bracket proved to be particularly interesting with a great deal of parity.  The Blacks easily moved through their pool of UT teams (UT Grads; UT Irish; UT Alumni-Homer’s All Stars.  Shreveport also went undefeated in pool play defeating Midland; The Grey; and Corpus.  The surprise of the day was definitely the men from Alliance who went undefeated beating the Dallas Harlequins, Dallas Reds and Alamo City.  The last pool winner was the tournament host, Team El Azul from Austin, who squeezed in with a last minute try defeating a very tough and talented team from San Angelo (with a win over Texas Tech and a loss to HARC).

After the famous Bloodfest Rugby Olympics, an intense thunderstorm rolled in sending teams for any cover they could find or a taller person to stand next to.  After a wait of almost an hour, play resumed.  In the championship Bracket, the Blacks easily handled El Azul and Alliance continued to surprise defeating Shreveport.  Shreveport defeated El Azul on the field for third.  Alliance gave the Blacks fits in the championship game but in the end the team from Austin had too much speed and beat Alliance.

The “plate” bracket saw San Angelo crush all comers for some well deserved hardware.

The “bowl” bracket was won by Alamo City who had to plead with the tournament director to be in the open division and proved to all it was no mistake.\

The “trophy” bracket was won by HARC.  The final in this bracket is of note as it had two of the pre-tourney top seeds (HARC and the Dallas Reds). 

In the Super Social Bracket, the UT Erin squad pulled an upset of the Irish Social Club (ISC).  ISC had dominated pool play with its gameplan of 6 big boys and a speedy back.  In the end the boys from UT found a weakness, bring in a rainstorm and watch the said back cramp up; force ISC to play 7 big boys and pray you do not get tackled… it worked. 

Oklahoma City dominated the Social bracket.  Spending the night “guarding” the biergarten, Oklahoma City woke up refreshed and in fine form.  They went undefeated and played an extra game for good measure. 

TOLA Bonus Points: One point was awarded to Oklahoma City for guarding the biergarten and playing an extra game to help out the tournament.   One point was awarded to San Angelo for sportsmanship (they had a legitimate beef during a very close game and let the issue drop and then instead of whining, proved themselves on the field by winning the “plate” bracket).

Week 4 Standings:

Week 3 of the 2008 TOLA 7's Series saw action move to Houston for the Jaime Varano Memorial 7's Tournament. Despite the forecasted heat and traffic along the way fourteen Men's teams showed up for the 10AM start, after it became clear the 15th team wasn't going to show a motley side was assembled to fill the final bracket (3 x 5 teams). Midland and Texas Tech were each awarded a discretionary point for making the long trip down to Houston. Thanks to everyone that attended and see you this weekend in Austin.

FINALS SEEDING:
At the end of pool play three teams remained undefeated (HARC's Dead Cows, Austin Elite Black and Grey) earning a place in the cup semi-finals. San Antonio, the Dallas Pirates and the Corpus Christi Crabs each emerged from pool play as 3-1. Point differentials were used to determine the team moving up to the cup and at +60 San Antonio handily edged out the other two sides for the #4 seed, leaving the Dallas Pirates and Corpus Christi Crabs (the #5 & #6 seeds respectively) to play for the Plate. Playing for the shield would be El Azul with a 2-2 record (#7) and the young Texas Tech squad who snuck into the #8 slot with a 1-2-1 record .

CUP:
The first cup semi pitted the #1 (Blacks) and #4 seeds, it turned out to a great game to watch with great pace and ball movement from both sides, at full time the Blacks were a 40-0 winner. In the other cup semi #2 HARC took on #3 Elite Grey; showing consistency in their scoring (26, 26, 26 and 27 points in their pool play) HARC would emerge the winner at 27-12. This set up HARC to take on Elite Black in a match seemingly played year after year, unfortunately as in years past the Blacks just had too much athleticism and firepower for the HARC squad and won the Cup 47-7. For the third place consolation match both San Antonio and Elite Grey elected to have a boat race; the young Grey's would win this one.

PLATE:
As the #5 & #6 seeds on the day (both 3-1) the Dallas Pirates took on Corpus Christi and would come out the winner earning them a piece of hardware to take home.

SHIELD:
On top of the TOLA board, and looking to stay there with a win, Texas Tech played a spirited match against El Azul. After being behind much of the game Tech was ultimately able to get the points they needed to take the trophy home to Lubbock AND stay on top of the TOLA board.

Week 2 of the 2008 TOLA 7's Series saw 20 Men's teams attend the 27th Annual Lone Star Classic in Dallas, TX and gave us a look at the teams to look out for for the remainder of the season. Five teams (Austin, Dallas Reds, Dallas Harlequins, Shreveport, Alliance) went undefeated through the first three rounds with Shreveport being unlucky to miss the Cup due to being fifth in point differential. For their performance in Pool play, Shreveport was awarded the 2 discretionary tournament points in week 2. Also surprising many was the young Alliance team that dominated their pool and found themselves a few unlucky bounces away from upsetting the Austin Blacks in Cup semifinal. The Dallas Reds defeated the Dallas Harlequins in the other Cup semi before beign bested by Austin in the final. Though Texas Tech went 2-1 in pool play, the 2 points they earned from winning the bowl was enough to keep them on top of the standings for a second consecutive week though the Reds Performance in week 2 gave them enough to join the current series leaders at the top. Current standings are: