Pankey and teammates at the Parade of Nations / Michael Lee – Taiwan Mike Photography – KLC fotos for World Rugby
I’m not new to international tours with USA Rugby. Since 2011, I’ve traveled to Canada and France a couple of times each, Italy, Wales and England – but all with the USA Women’s 15s team. Each tour was unique (who can forget beating Canada on Canada Day?), and they afforded many of my rugby “firsts.” But the latest addition to the list – competing in an HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series stop – was quite a “first.”
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Fifteens and 7s are different species of the same beast, and the same holds true for their respective tours. The 15s tours tend to be longer with 2-3 games and three days in between each match. Tack on time for travel, prep and acclimation, and a tour averages 10 days.
Our stop in Vegas was six days long – Tuesday to Sunday – however a 7s tour is typically a week-long adventure, with non-stop play over 2-3 days. Think of a 7s tour like the structure of a story, beginning with an intro, rising action and tension, climax and denouement; while a 15s tour is more like a roller coaster, with a couple of hills and some large looping spirals.
The most glaring difference between the Vegas 7s tour and many of the 15s tours I’ve attended was the publicity surrounding the event. USA 7s, for the first time, played host to both the men’s and women’s tournaments. I suppose it was also partly due to the large domestic sister tournament (LVI) and the fact that rugby is the fastest growing team sport in this country.
When we were in France this past November, I was a little jealous of the amount of press the French women got. Our games were broadcast live on television, and there were repeat showings. We were able to watch ourselves in our hotel rooms after we had played. We got a police escort to our second match. And the crowds were large and loud. It was a wonderfully vibrant and energetic atmosphere, but it wasn’t for us. In Vegas, we got to experience that.
There were photographers all over the place. Teammates were being shepherded off to interviews from time to time. We attended an event for kids at a local school. We had fun talking with the elementary kids and putting them through some games and drills, and the kids loved us. I don’t know if I’ve ever received that many hugs in one day.
Photo: Paul Rudman / KLC fotos. View more.
Then there was the Parade of Nations. With fans screaming their praises for us, asking for autographs and giving us high fives, I simultaneously felt like an adored celebrity and a zoo animal (not that the feeling was a bad one, just different). We saw our friends and family in the crowd, and their support was palpable. Some of my Scion teammates (one on the shoulders of another) started a “USA” cheer, and got the crowd really riled up.
That was only the beginning of the cheers and crowd support. The energy in the stadium dwarfed that of the parade. To use a music metaphor, the parade seemed like a small acoustic show in a coffee shop in comparison to the sold-out rock concert that was Saturday in Sam Boyd Stadium.
The first day of play didn’t draw as many people to the stadium. It was a Friday, and our first matches were early in the morning. Most of the fans began to trickle in after our second match, but they came just in time to see us beat Fiji and secure a spot in the quarterfinals.
Photo: Paul Rudman / KLC fotos. View more.
On Saturday, there was a bigger crowd in the morning watching us beat Ireland, setting up a semifinal match against the eventual tournament champions, New Zealand. Against New Zealand, I heard some of my San Diego teammates start a “Pankey” cheer, and I could discern one voice yelling that she, too, was “thirsty” when I ran water out on the field.
I can’t begin to explain how it feels to hear your name chanted at a sporting event. In my sports career, from high school and college basketball to international rugby, I don’t think I’ve ever had fans who have cheered my name. It’s like no other confidence boost, like no other adrenaline rush.
Though we lost to New Zealand, and lost to Canada in the third-place match, I felt like we gave the fans plenty for which to be proud. We placed fourth, behind the top-three teams in the world, and in doing so, further ascended the ranks in the World Series standings. Of course, it’s not the ideal finish, but it was a solid finish, and we only hope to improve from there.
Photo: Paul Rudman / KLC fotos. View more.
After the tournament, I chose to hang out with old friends at the Cosmo and reward myself with a $10 milk shake (courtesy of one of my great friends). The shake was another first for me—the first milk shake I’ve ever had that had a piece of pie mixed into it—and it was worth the $10.
I also got to see one match from the domestic tournament—a thrilling overtime match between my 7s club, the Scion Sirens, and Tribe from Australia. Though Scion came out with the short end of the stick, they played great and poured more cement over their reputation as a national powerhouse 7s team, so I’d like to give them a special shoutout. If I’d never put on a lime green Scion jersey, I don’t think I would be where I am today—reliving the amazing energy of Vegas.
Speaking of that energy, the inspiring women I get to play with every day are still working hard to continue our winning trend. Many of us will be representing the USA again this month, when we take the field against Canada in two 15s matches. We hope that we can spread the rugby love enough to fill the stands at the Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista. If we can get even a fraction of the crowd support we had in Vegas, it will be an incredible boon to our chances of beating the Canadians.
SAM PANKEY earned her first USA Women’s National Team cap at the 2011 Nations Cup and is a current member of the 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup and USA Women’s 7s player pools. A three-sport athlete in high school, Pankey received an athletic scholarship to East Carolina University, where she played basketball all four years and served as captain as a senior. She also earned Strength & Conditioning All-American and Academic All-American honors and graduated first in her class. Today, Pankey spends her days at the Chula Vista EATC, living the rugby dream as a resident.
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