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Ice Box: Rugby – The Wellington 7s

craigwell-1-dobson rugby 7s
Miles in action...

Last week the Ice Box featured an awesome cartoon for big kids.  This week we’re trying equally hard to stay away from 100% all-out consumerism by talking about another so called fringe sport: Rugby 7s.  Expect more Ice Box material like this as the season continues.

A while back,  I interviewed Miles Craigwell about his recent foray into the Rugby world, from that of football.  He was just getting started but people seemed to think his future in the sport was bright.

I knew about Miles because we went to the same high school (Miles was a couple years younger) and I coached his twin brother, Marcus, on the Weston High Lacrosse team after I graduated.  Well, now Miles has made it all the way to the US Rugby 7s team and he’ll be playing for the Red, White and Blue in the upcoming Wellington 7s competition, which is of course being held in Rugby-mad New Zealand.

Here’s a little Rugby 7s 101:

[fvplayer src=”https://youtube.com/watch?v=FupxNVSOjmM?fs=1″ splash=”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FupxNVSOjmM/hqdefault.jpg” caption=”Rugby Sevens 101″]

Rugby 7s is a fast-paaced game that lacks the almost constant scrum action many Americans associate with the sport.  You must be strong, fast and able to run hard throughout an entire game, resting when you can, which is to say, rarely.  Miles only started playing Rugby in July of 2010 so for him to come this far, this quickly is extremely impressive.  Now I’m a lacrosse guy through and through, but there are a couple of other sports out there that I’m very impressed by, and Rugby 7s is one of them.  It’s fast, exciting, has a lot of scoring and some big hits.  And if more guys like Miles decide to give it a shot, we’ll be whupping up on the Kiwis and everyone else in no time.  The lacrosse connection here is razor thin, at best, but it’s still worth talking about… this is America, right?  The fact that Rugby 7s will be in the Olympics in 2016 doesn’t hurt either.

I’m trying to find out if the games will be webcast.  If you’ve never seen Rugby 7s before, you’re missing out.  Great stuff.

[fvplayer src=”https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ii_B_sK1lBw?fs=1″ splash=”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ii_B_sK1lBw/hqdefault.jpg” caption=”From NFL Gridiron to U.S.A. Rugby Sevens – Miles Craigwell”]