National Athletic Village Sevens club, out of Southern Pines, NC wins back-to-back National Championships after near perfect summer with a 12 to 10 last-minute victory over the Saint Louis Bombers in Madison, Wisconsin. NAV Sevens is the 8th team in USA rugby history to win back-to-back titles. Simi Moala was named tournament MVP after scoring both tries in the finals and 6 total in the tournament. NAV won the Mid-Atlantic Conference (MAC) going 18-1 and finished the season 23-1 overall.
Day one of the National Championship saw NAV in a pool with MAC rival Northern Virginia (NOVA), the Dallas Reds who won the Texas region and Life West out of Northern California. NAV defeated NOVA 26 to 5, after NOVA scored first Dalton Musselman started the scoring for NAV, followed by 2 scores from Tim Stanfill on the way to a 19-5 halftime lead. Mosese Kauvaka and Jeremy Misailegalu scored in the second half.
NAV easily dispatched Dallas 29 to 7 in a game where Misailegula trucked two players at once, the camera caught them questioning what happened on the ground, and that was reflective of the entire match. Tries were scored by Tim Stanfill (2), Jacques Odendaal, Simi Moala and Toti Nai.
In the final pool play match Tim Stanfill faced his former team Life West and scored 3 tries on the way to a 31 to 12 victory. Simi Moala and TotyToti Nai added their own tries and NAV easily secured the top spot out of the pool. Dallas managed to be the second side out of the pool, as all three other sides went 1-2 and they had the best point differential. NAV’s reward for winning the pool was a rematch of last year’s National Championship game with New York Old Blue up in the Quarterfinals to start day 2.
The knockout rounds are always nerve-breaking. Sevens is a game that only last 14 minutes, so a couple of mistakes can be too much to overcome. Simi opened the scoring with two tries in the first 3 minutes to go up 10 to zero, and Tim and Toti closed out the scoring for a 22 to 0 victory.
Next up in the semi-finals was last year's 4th-place team Denver. In pool play in 2022 Denver and NAV tied 12 to 12 after Denver put in a last-second try. Denver opened the scoring 4 minutes into the first half after dominating ball possession to take a 0 to 7 lead. On the last play of the half Misailegalu tied it up for NAV at 7. Denver took the lead with 5 minutes remaining to go up by 7. Misailegalu scored with 3 minutes remaining in the corner. In rugby, the kicks are taken for 2 points where the score happened, but Odendaal slotted the kick from the corner to tie it up at 14. A sure try was knocked on by Mosese at the end of the game to send it to overtime. The NAV guys didn’t let the momentum turn, and Odendaal scored the golden point 2 minutes into overtime to send the team into the national title match for the 2nd year in a row against St. Louis.
St. Louis had come in second in their pool, after tying Denver in their final pool match and having a lower point differential versus common opponents. They are big, fast and physical group that would prove to be a problem. It was a back-and-forth affair until Simi scored a long run around the edge to put up NAV 7 to 0. St. Louis answered 2 minutes later but missed the kick to bring the score to 7 to 5. St. Louis added another just 1 minute later after Simi slipped on the wet grass and missed a tackle to make it 7 to 10 at the half.
In the second half neither side was able to score, St. Louis controlled more possession, but couldn’t quite punch it in for a score. Ethan Suznevich came in and made multiple goal-line tackles. St. Louis had a costly penalty deep in NAV territory with 1 minute left in the game, but 80 meter to go to score. It felt like NAV had a little bit more left in the tank then St. Louis and the ball got in the hands of Simi in the corner with a 1-1 on the player that scored on him earlier in the game to give St. Louis the lead. Simi stepped inside and then swung outside the defender reached for him, but only got a lock of his flowing hair. 75 meters later NAV Simi was diving in the try zone to go up 12 to 10. There was time for the kickoff and one final play. St. Louis won the restart, but Mussleman forced a penalty in the tackle and Corey Jones ran the ball out to secure the victory.
The 12 to 0 victory was the lowest points for a winning side since the competition started in 1985. NAV becomes the 6th club to win back-to-back titles. “I couldn’t have been prouder of how our boys fought through adversity this season,” said head coach JK Anderson, “This victory is about them and the hard work they put it this summer.” NAV Sevens will now travel to Glendale, CO for the prestigious international Rugbytown 7s tournament that see some of the best players and teams from nearly 10 countries around the world compete. No rest for the 2022 and 2023 National Champions.
Tries Scored:
Mussleman – 1
Stanfill – 8
Kauvaka – 1
Misailegalu – 3
Odendaal - 2
Moala – 6
Nai - 3
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