Argentina Wins Halloween 7s

This past weekend, Argentina outlasted the Canadian Maple Leafs to win the inaugural Halloween 7s Championship. Hosted in St. Petersburg, Florida, the Halloween 7s is a brand new elite sub-international 7s tournament along the lines of tournaments such as the recently played Central Coast 7s. The tournament included an all-star field of eight elite 7s squads that included the USA Hawks and USA Falcons, Argentina, Maple Leafs, New York City 7s, Ohio 7s, Rugby Utah, Denver Selects.

With the start of the HSBC World Series just a month away, the Halloween 7s served as a warm up for squads like Argentina and Canada while the USA used the tournament to get more players high level game time ahead of what should be a tough selection process for the World Series.

Many of the top players from Argentina, USA, and Canada were all in attendance.

The Falcons were stunned in the Cup semifinals by the Maple Leafs. Leading 17-5 with just a few minutes to play, Canada rocked the Falcons with quick scores from Justin Douglas and John Moonlight to tie the match at 17-17. With no time left on the clock, Phil Mack snuck through the Falcon defense to score the game winner and advance to the title match against Argentina.

Argentina was a perfect 5-0 on the weekend as they downed Utah, Denver, both USA sides and rolled through Canada in the Championship 38-12. Argentina and the Maple Leafs played a tight first half with Argentina leading 14-12 at the break, but it was all Argentina in the second half as they pulled away for the tournament title.

The two USA sides, the Hawks and Falcons played for the Plate title with the Hawks winning 19-12. Peter Tiberio, looking to get back into the 7s national team, scored two tries to lead the Hawks to victory.

Halloween 7s Results

Day 1

Game 1 – USA Falcons 24 Denver 7s 12
Game 2 – Argentina Rugby 33 Rugby Utah 7
Game 3 – USA Hawks 31 Ohio 7s 0
Game 4 – Canada Maple Leafs 25 New York City 7s 14

Game 5 – Argentina Rugby 21 Denver 7s 17
Game 6 – USA Falcons 33 Rugby Utah 0
Game 7 – USA Hawks 32 New York City 7s 0
Game 8 – Canada Maple Leafs 33 Ohio 7s 0

Game 9 – Denver 7s 28 Rugby Utah 20
Game 10 – Argentina Rugby 21 USA Falcons 14
Game 11 – New York City 7s 26 Ohio 7s 10
Game 12 – Canada Maple Leafs 27 USA Hawks 21

Day 2

Game 1: New York City 7s 24 Utah 7s 10
Game 2: Ohio 7s 17 Denver 7s 14
Game 3: Canada Maple Leafs 22 USA Falcons 17
Game 4: Argentina Rugby 15 USA Hawks 0

Bowl Match: New York City 7s 41 Ohio 7s 5
Plate Match: USA Hawks 19 USA Falcons 12
Cup Championship Match: Argentina Rugby 38 Canada Maple Leafs 12