Greensboro 7’s Triad Tournament
06/19/10 → Charleston sent a fairly inexperienced team to Greensboro this weekend to take on the challenge of the Triad 7s tournament. With many of our party new to sevens it was always going to be a learning process for the team and the Charleston team took to the field in game one with slight apprehension but with a lot of energy. Fort Bragg were the first opponents and despite their greater physical presence Charleston kept up with them for much of the first half. Unfortunately with legs starting to tire, Bragg got two quick tries. Into the second half the Cougars were again holding their own and a deceptive step from Austin Coon left the space for the man from Pandora; Eric ‘Avaratar’ Harris, to score. CofC 5, Bragg 12.
Game two saw a full rookie 7s team take to the pitch. Despite an early onslaught, the team held firm, with notable tackles from Cody Scattergood. Unfortunately they were undone in the closing moments of the half and Charleston went into the break trailing. After a couple of Changes the Cougars were back in the hunt with Rupert ‘Pip’ Munro scoring a breakaway blindside try. Greg Fronda followed up with a score, taking the game to a close final score of 17-12.
The final two games of the day were a defining point in the development of the Charleston 7s team. Taking a number of points from the earlier games, the entire squad came together to produce two quality performances to turn around their somewhat underserving 0-2 record. Game 3 saw the Cougars crush the host’s second team, Triad II, 26-0 with two breakaway tries from Rupert Munro and another two quality back plays giving Lee Altman and Austin Coon their first points of the day. The final game was more of an annihilation than a rugby game with Charleston playing Eno River. Marc DiFronzo scored his first try for the club early in the first half with George Woolston adding to the score. The second half changes brought on some fresh legs and the score racketed up with a quick duke returning 5 points to Austin Coon after the opponent cynically fly hacked him en route to the try. The resulting red card gave CofC a penalty restart which within seconds resulted in Lawson Ballard adding to the score with a preposterous dummy and run. Cullen Lea and Ollie Dedominicis finished out the half scoring, taking the Cougars to a deserved 32-0 win.
With a final total of 75 points for and only a meagre 29 against, the young Cougar team can take pride from the 2-2 result. The team developed throughout the day with notable potential for the coming games and 15s season shown by several of the younger members. The results came from a combined squad performance and the quality of the final two games is a credit to the participation of all Charleston rugby players who took part this weekend.