Blue skies and a steady breeze were the ideal conditions for rugby teams from all over the Southeast who played in the 41st annual Cape Fear Sevens rugby tournament at Ogden Park July 4-5. The two-day event was organized by the Cape Fear Rugby Club.
Chris Love, the club’s vice president, was pleased with the number of teams entered in this year’s tournament.
“It was 40 teams this year, men and women. It was a good turnout,” he said.
Love said the $300 entry fee each team paid will help support the upkeep of Cape Fear Rugby Club’s practice pitch, Flytrap Downs.
“We have our own field,” he said. “We’re one of the only teams in this area that has its own field.”
Ryan Glass, who plays hook, a forward position, said the sevens tournament is the biggest summer tournament in which the team competes.
“Usually, tournaments are one-day Saturday tournaments,” he explained. “What we do here is a Saturday-Sunday tournament. It’s nice. We start at 9 a.m. and it’s over by 3 p.m.”
However, Glass said he would like to see the tournament grow even larger.
“I’d like to see a couple international teams out here,” he said.
Glass, originally from South Africa, said rugby has gained popularity in the United States since he came to the country in 2000. He said one of the perks of playing rugby is that little equipment is required.
“There are no pads, but I feel like there’s less injury than playing football,” he said.
He also said the fast pace of rugby sevens, when a full game lasts only 14 minutes, is appealing to many athletes and spectators.
“It’s a lot of fast, full-impact stuff,” he said. “It’s in the Olympics, coming up. I think it’ll grow and grow.”
Some Cape Fear rugby players, like Glass, have been playing the sport since they were young children. Others, like Daysi Fajardo, just started playing a few months ago.
Fajardo, a long-time soccer player, joined Cape Fear’s women’s team because she wanted to try a new sport.
“I was looking online to see what sports are around here that I can do, other than soccer, and Cape Fear popped up. … I got into it and now I love it,” she said. “I mainly play prop, which is just tackling and passing the ball to the fast girls.”
On Saturday, each of the 40 teams played three games, which seeded them for Sunday. Cape Fear Rugby Club had five teams in the tournament — Cape Fear 1, Cape Fear 2, Cape Fear 3, Gladiators and Fear Women.
Cape Fear 1, comprised of experienced players, like Glass, won one match Saturday and beat the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s team 33-0 Sunday.
Cape Fear 2, a team of less-experienced players, won one match Saturday and lost to 3281, a team of players from around the state, Sunday.
Fear Women won one match Saturday and lost to Dirty South, a Louisiana team, Sunday.
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