The USA 7s Collegiate Rugby Championships are being held June 4-5 at PPL Park in Philadelphia. For tickets go to www.usasevenscrc.com

LSU is looking to break into the top 7s circuit this year and put the other, more established teams on notice. While the university is still new to the collegiate 7s game, the team has players, such as Adam Ducoing and Robert Johns, with a wealth of experience. Also, Julie McCoy has stepped in to help LSU. McCoy is a former USA Women’s 7s coach and coached the team to third place in the 2009 7s World Cup. Her vast experience will no doubt serve the Tigers well.

The team is well balanced, with a good mix of size and speed that can be deadly in 7s. The Tigers will have to give enough to top Penn State first though. Not an easy task considering the Lions recent run of form. And no team hopes to be in the same pool as Cal.

“There’s not really any nervousness, maybe among the younger guys, but we’ve been practicing for about three months,” Ducoing said. “I really think we have a solid squad going and I think we’re really going to surprise a lot of people. We’re not going up there to lose.”

If the Tigers play up to their potential, they can show the other teams what they’re made of and make a good showing at their first Collegiate Rugby Championship.

Player notes: Senior Cullen Glennon was a wrestler on Brother Martin HS team that won the state title, and he was also a rugby player at Brother Martin and later with the USA U20s that played in Kenya in 2009. His family’s home was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Talking about his family losing almost all their possessions, Glennon says his family developed a tighter bond. “The trials that we faced made us tougher and allowed us to develop a stronger bond to our city and state.”

Senior Bobby Johns will have to fly up to the CRC late Friday due to his summer job with Exxon Mobil – on his own dime. Johns and Ducoing have been friends since they were 6, but went to rival high schools (Johns at New Orleans Jesuit and Ducoing at Brother Martin).

Paul Rogers is another former USA U19; his father was an All American football lineman at Cincinnati University.

The Northeast did it again. The Nessies successfully defended its Women's All Star Championship Tier I title with a convincing 29-0 win over the Midwest in the final, and did with a lean squad that varied greatly from last year's championship team.

NRU's Phaidra Knight on a breakaway.

But even though the Northeast was missing 12 of last year's players, there was little lost in the way of dominance. Veteran all stars like Jamie Burke, who was named MVP, Phaidra Knight, Amy Daniels, Kitt Wagner, Katy Dowty, Rebecca Brafman, Kristin Bonomo and Stacy Baker upped the performance of the newer players for a great winning weekend.

After watching the Midwest's 19-12 win over the Pacific Coast on Friday, the Northeast was expecting a physical contest and started its biggest lineup size wise. The team knew it had to play at a national-team standard and capitalize on any mistakes offered them.

The team responded accordingly and played the game that coach Richard Ashfield was looking for.

"In the first game [against Southern California], we played well at times and had some good individual performances," Ashfield said of Friday's 24-3 win. "We spoke a lot about improving our team game and they really unified today."

Physicality was the name of the game today, and the NRU let it pervade every aspect of play. Its scrum dominated, and if Ashfield could have awarded the entire front row the MVP honor, he would have. Rosie Meisner's expert jumping and handling solidified the lineouts, and flanker Kristin Bonomo was a workhorse around the pitch. In the backs, Amy Daniels stepped into flyhalf and set up center Rebecca Brafman for a number of rumbling runs past the gain line. And wing Jen Kuchar was outstanding on the day, punishing players who attempted to attack out wide.

Meisner accounted for the team's first two tries, which came after sustained forward phases down the pitch, and Knight, Bonomo and Dowty tacked on the second-half tries. Kath Ryan and Kuchar split the conversions.

The Northeast allowed only three points-against all weekend, a fantastic accomplishment. But one of the biggest positives of the weekend was the performances of its younger players, several of whom were groomed in the NRU U23 program, led by Tony Brown, and which is also enjoying back-to-back all-star championships. The joint success is a promising one, and sure to keep producing championship teams.