On December 10, the National Collegiate Rugby Sevens Tournament was held at Zhuhai, Guangdong Province. Its exceptional scale was evident since the most competitive China’s collegiate teams have joined the contest. The traditional strong teams, including the battle-hardened China Agriculture University team (CAU); teams of Shanxi University (SU) and Shandong Sport University (SSU), as well as the equally robust teams of South China Normal University (SCNU), Southwest University, and Jimei University, etc., were all poised to stake their claim to the coveted championship.

XMU rugby team made a comeback two years later after its debut. And it’s worthy of note that, unlike two years ago, this time the challenge for the XMU was unprecedented because it would play in the tougher Men’s Group B, vying against professional teams, like the CAU team, nicknamed “little national team”, and the SCNU team, billed as “the mighty squad in the south”.

On day one, XMU met SCNU in the field, the former’s superb performance and soaring morale eventually turned the tides, propelled the team to move from defensive to offensive and scored their first win over SCNU. After that, XMU continued to play against the potent team of CAU, which proved to be real tough fight for XMU. In spite of their Herculean effort, the XMU team failed to secure the victory over the more seasoned rival. At last, with one win and one loss, the XMU placed second in the group and ranked top four at the tournament.

As the points of SSU and SU of Group A were lower than that of CAU, XMU team entered the semifinals to compete with CAU. With the experience gained from the previous battle, this time the XMU team withstood the powerful attacks and scored some points. However, much to our regret, the XMU team gradually ran out of strength and finally lost to their rival CAU. In the next competition, XMU team would face up to third-place play-off against SU.

When confronted with the team of SU largely composed of professional players, XMU team displayed their valor and composure. What with the rival’s competition experience and competence, what with an unexpcted episode that an XMU team member was penalized for offside, SU seized the opportunity to turn the scale and ultimately won an upper hand over XMU. In the end, CAU and SSU ranked the first and second while SU and XMU placed the third and fourth.

The XMU team actually did a remarkable job at its initial competition with professional teams. In front of the mighty SCNU, it showcased its prowess and earned the hard-fought victory. But it also lost twice to SU, which revealed its weaknesses and deficiencies, for instance, their competency regarding passing the ball, cooperation and self-quality still leave a lot to be desired. The reversal of fortune that they encountered at the semifinal also laid bare the shortest piece of wood of a cask as a team of newbies, i.e., real game smarts.

Source: http://news.xmu.edu.cn/78/01/c1552a227329/page.htm

Edited by Meng Ling