{"id":76,"date":"2017-02-15T17:33:47","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T17:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vpms1.humber.smartmanagedservers.com\/sweatspring2017\/?p=76"},"modified":"2022-11-17T21:12:11","modified_gmt":"2022-11-17T21:12:11","slug":"rugby-sevens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/rugby-sevens\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby Sevens"},"content":{"rendered":"

By:\u00a0Britnei Bilhete<\/h4>\n

A referee blows his whistle to end a Humber-Sheridan women\u2019s rugby sevens match at the OCAA\u2019s very first season opener. \u201cThat\u2019s it?\u201d one spectator says to another. \u201cYep,\u201d she responds \u201cif you blink, you\u2019ll miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike the traditional game of rugby that lasts 80 minutes long, sevens is much quicker as it consists of two seven-minute halves, while the other major difference is the number of players on each team; seven compared to 15 respectively. Seneca\u2019s pivot Sarah Givens said she loved the new sport just moments after her first game. \u201cYou can give your all for seven minutes,\u201d she said happily. \u201cI\u2019ve never played before so it\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sevens\u2019 fast and physical spirit seems to have contributed to its recent popularity boost on an international level. This summer in Rio, rugby sevens made its Olympic debut. In 2015 at the Pan Am Games hosted in Toronto, women\u2019s rugby sevens was introduced to the program for the first time. Now, the OCAA is following suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the OCAA\u2019s perspective [we were] trying to determine a sport we can especially get female participation in,\u201d says OCAA vice-president of programs Wayne Fish. \u201cThere doesn\u2019t seem to be as many club programs for women\u2019s rugby and so this seems to be a sport that is growing very quickly \u2026 [and] at the high school level as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many women\u2019s rugby teams within the OCAA were scrambling to rally a typical team of 30. It was especially difficult to find participation at schools that emphasized arts-based programs, such as Sheridan College where Tamara Dixon coaches the women\u2019s rugby team and Fish also acts as varsity sport coordinator. \u201cWith fifteens there\u2019s a struggle to get 30 players out,\u201d says Dixon. \u201cWhen you have girls with responsibilities with their co-op placements or their work responsibilities or their family responsibilities, they can\u2019t make the weekday games and then you\u2019re running short to a game.\u201d Worst case scenario: \u201cYou might be going into a game with 19 players.\u201d Fewer athletes on hand means fewer substitutions when others are fatigued or injured.<\/p>\n

Dixon, who is a former rugby sevens player, says she appreciates the introduction firstly because a faster game means less contact which \u2018means less opportunity for injury\u2019. Although her reasoning seems logical, it may be, unfortunately, theoretical.<\/p>\n

According to a British Journal of Sports Medicine study, researchers discovered an interesting find. While watching England\u2019s women\u2019s rugby sevens Squad during the 2014 World Cup, they found \u2018match injury incidence in this small cohort was higher than in women\u2019s fifteens\u2019. The number of injuries that occurred during practices were also higher.<\/p>\n

Though Fish says it\u2019s still too early to tell what kind of injury trends there will be in the OCAA\u2019s sevens league, during <\/span>fifteens regular season of this year Loyalist college withdrew from the competition because of, what a post on their website indicates, a string of serious injuries within the team. Safety was the main reason the team folded; which was compromised in in part by the numbers of players on the team \u2013 only 18 out of 30 positions were filled.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For the fifteens season champions Fleming Knights, Loyalists drop out meant less competition for them. And that left them feeling frustrated. \u201cIt does feel better knowing that you defeated the whole OCAA rather than just the half that decided to play fifteens,\u201d says Knights rugby coach Shannon Burton.<\/p>\n

Since there was only three contenders at the championship game, every team medalled. Fleming was awarded an OCAA medal for a fourth-straight season. But this win didn\u2019t sit like the others.<\/p>\n

\u201cHumber always had a strong program,\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>says Burton.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cIf they had put together a fifteens team some say maybe they would have beat us. There\u2019s that thought \u2018You didn\u2019t beat everyone.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In fifteens defence, Burton says her team stuck with the traditional choice because \u201cfifteens allows a larger variety of players to participate. When you go down to sevens there\u2019s a type of player you\u2019re cutting that opportunity out for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dixon agrees it is a different game. \u201cSo a lot of the girls are experiencing more high intense running than in fifteens where it\u2019s run, go, run, go, run go.\u201d She says many of the fifteens players would struggle with the transition.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sevens, for the crowd, it\u2019s a better game to\u00a0 <\/span>watch. It\u2019s more
\nentertaining.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The rugby sevens season wrapped up with Humber\u2019s women taking gold.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By:\u00a0Britnei Bilhete A referee blows his whistle to end a Humber-Sheridan women\u2019s rugby sevens match at the OCAA\u2019s very first season opener. \u201cThat\u2019s it?\u201d one spectator says to another. \u201cYep,\u201d she responds \u201cif you blink, you\u2019ll miss it.\u201d Unlike the traditional game of rugby that lasts 80 minutes long, sevens is much quicker as it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[62,58,6,17,57,56],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/02\/FavFour.jpg",375,249,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/02\/FavFour-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"medium":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/02\/FavFour.jpg",375,249,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/02\/FavFour.jpg",375,249,false],"large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/02\/FavFour.jpg",375,249,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/02\/FavFour.jpg",375,249,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/02\/FavFour.jpg",375,249,false],"td_150x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/02\/FavFour-150x100.jpg",150,100,true],"td_218x150":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/02\/FavFour-218x150.jpg",218,150,true],"td_300x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/02\/FavFour-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"td_324x400":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/02\/FavFour-324x249.jpg",324,249,true],"td_485x360":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/02\/FavFour.jpg",375,249,false],"td_696x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/02\/FavFour.jpg",375,249,false],"td_1068x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/02\/FavFour.jpg",375,249,false],"td_1920x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/02\/FavFour.jpg",375,249,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"sweatmag","author_link":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/author\/sweatmag\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By:\u00a0Britnei Bilhete A referee blows his whistle to end a Humber-Sheridan women\u2019s rugby sevens match at the OCAA\u2019s very first season opener. \u201cThat\u2019s it?\u201d one spectator says to another. \u201cYep,\u201d she responds \u201cif you blink, you\u2019ll miss it.\u201d Unlike the traditional game of rugby that lasts 80 minutes long, sevens is much quicker as it…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions\/125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}