Beantown won the final NERFU qualifier Saturday for the top seed out of the union. /// Photo courtesy Beantown RFC •
The top finishers from the New England (NERFU) and Empire unions converge this Saturday at the Northeast Club 7s Championship, hosted in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The eight-team bracket will name the region’s two representatives to club nationals, which occur on Aug. 13-14 in Commerce City, Colo.
Each union held its own set of qualifiers that fed into the Northeast 7s championship. Beantown clinched the top seed out of NERFU after winning two of three qualifiers (Springfield and Worcester), while Newport victor Boston finished second. Providence has established itself as a veritable threat, advancing to two qualifier finals and finishing third in New England.
“Providence, Beantown and Boston all compete very closely each weekend, and the main improvement in competitiveness, I think, has been the Northeast Academy,” Boston stalwart Morgan Roberts explained. “Each team has a handful of those players, and they’ve brought their teams up.”
In the Empire, academy players are more concentrated in Old Blue, which has dominated the New York region this summer. New York is rebuilding its ranks and proved Old Blue’s best competition throughout the season, while the Village Lions placed third.
The championship calls for an eight-team bracket; however, both unions’ fourth-place teams (Springfield and Monmouth) declined their invitations. NERFU 7s Director John McGeachy and Empire 7s Director Sean Horan attempted to fill the vacancies with additional teams and second sides, but only Old Blue was able to answer the call. Only Old Blue 1 is eligible for nationals; therefore, if there is an all-Old Blue final, then the third-place team will receive the second seed to nationals.
Pool A
Old Blue 1 (Empire 1)
Boston (NERFU 2)
Village Lions (Empire 3)
Old Blue 3 (NERFU 4)
Pool B
Beantown (NERFU 1)
New York (Empire 2)
Providence (NERFU 3)
Old Blue 2 (Empire 4)
Looking ahead, the Northeast champion will enter nationals as the eighth seed and compete in Pool A with the Red River champion (#1), Pacific South runner-up (#9) and South runner-up (#16). The Northeast runner-up will enter nationals as the 14th seed and compete in Pool C with the Pacific South champion (#3), Midwest champion (#6) and Mid-Atlantic runner-up (#10).
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