“…OMBAC gave us all we could handle and I don’t recall a Santa Monica side as strong as today’s team in many years.”
- From a posting on rugbymag.com Saturday night by a Belmont Shore club member
SANTA BARBARA, CA -
The Dolphins traveled north EN FORCE to Ellings Park yesterday to compete for the second and final Southern California spot in the National Club Sevens tournament next month. As in Long Beach two weeks earlier, the team played some fantastic rugby, but did not reach its ultimate goal of qualification, going 1-2 on the day, with a victory over Huntington Beach and losses to Belmont Shore II and OMBAC.
The quote at the top of this e-mail says it all about how much we have grown as a Sevens program and the respect we now command from the 7s community and the current best 7s program in the country.
The following 11-man squad represented SMRC with distinction in yesterday’s Qualifier:
Matthew Strangeway (C)
Alistair Ross
Adam Knight
Chris Kelley
Joe Killefer
Kelly Serfoss
Peter Roses
Spenser May
Cris Erdtsieck
Chris Clay
Riaz Fredericks (Player/Coach)
There can be no doubt that we compete in the best Sevens union in the country, which was confirmed once again by yesterday’s results: OMBAC, a perennial national 7s champion, has also failed to qualify, while 2-times running champs Belmont Shore have qualified two squads. Despite this wealth of talent in our union, SoCal is still only alloted two spots in the 16-team nationals - this seems wrong.
Stupid Rugby Political Tricks aside, the Dolphins represented in both the Qualifier and Open brackets of the Santa Barbara tournament. The commitment, fitness, skills and game management that the guys have worked on for weeks in training was in clear evidence on the field yesterday. Crisp, long passes, excellent ball-handling and strong defense marked the play of both squads.
The qualifier team played an amazing match against Belmont’s “second” squad, comprised of no fewer than 5 former or current USA 7s Eagles. Honorable mention in that match goes to Captain Matt Strangeway for his typical ferocious defense and leadership. Strong performances were also put in by Joe Killefer, Kelly Serfoss and newcomer Chris Clay who scored a cracking try while blowing by 3 Belmont players to dot down in the corner.
Player/Coach Riaz Fredericks even joined the fray, putting in his first performance for the green and black in many years and for the first time in front of his young son Aiman.
Against Huntington Beach, the team put in a true squad effort, with Fredericks clearing the bench, and solid backline performances from Adam Knight, Ali Ross and Cris Erdtsieck. The victory set SMRC up for a showdown with traditonal foes OMBAC for a spot in the final against Belmont.
In a truly back and forth, crowd-pleasing affair the game went down to the last minute with SMRC coming up short 31-19. Kelly Serfoss played out of his mind the entire match despite a very late, out-of-bounds cheap shot from ombac early on. Strangeway played with reckless abandon on defense and Joe Killfer put in a tremendous effort in the forwards to lead SMRC. Adam Knight and Dolphin vet Chris Kelley gave their all in the match as well, both players making breaks and keeping the ball alive in key situations.
For the record, Belmont II beat OMBAC 38-24 in a late-evening, double-overtime thriller worthy of the Isner-Mahut Wimbledon match, with the go-ahead try scored by former Dolphin Duncan “DO” Oneyango.
(Write-up:
http://www.rugbymag.com/news/sevens/clubsevens/hawkins-leads-shore-to-double-dip.aspx
OPEN DIVISION -The Dolphins also competed in the Open division yesterday, posting the same 1-2 record as the Qualifier team, with an impressive victory over San Luis Obispo and losses to Mexico (Yes, the country!) and UC Santa Barbara. SMRC’s second team competed hard all day and earned their first international caps in loss to Mexico, who entered a developmental side as they look ahead to the 2016 Olympic rugby tournament.
The side was lead on the field by veteran 7s Dolphins Padraig Cremin and his lieutenant Ryan Guss, who filled in ably when Cremin had to leave to play Gaellic football (he is a man of many talents). Honorable mentions for the day go to scrumhalf Danny Carpio, who played almost every minute and keyed SMRC with a lot of big breaks from the scrum, flyhalf Shawn Cigliano and forwards Bailey Hardwick and Sam Amiri, who bolstered the scrum. Thanks also to SMRC alum Alex Rylance and his 3 Malibu RFC players that joined our squad for the day.
It was a great day for Santa Monica Sevens all around, and it was clearly the largest, most cohesive presence I have ever seen us have at a tournament. We occupied and entire end zone area and each squad supported the other all day long - we have caught the attention of Belmont and OMBAC, as well as many others. Hats off to Coach Fredericks for his leadership and attention to detail with the entire effort this summer.
Special thank yous to fitness coach Mathias Narducci and trainer Amy Fee for making the trip and donating their time yesterday - the squad was all the better for your contributions.
Though the Nationals is out of reach for this summer,we still have at least three tournaments to play and more chances to win some hardware this season. Practice will resume this week and the Long Beach Social Sevens will take place this coming Saturday, July 17th.