August 16, 2016

Rugby hybrid takes over UOW

It was all fun on the field for the UOW Rugby Club last week as the Viva 7s competition came to a dramatic close, with Campus East, International House and Weerona dominating the competition.

The UOW Rugby Club, in conjunction with the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) and New South Wales Rugby Union, held an eight-week Viva 7s inter-collegiate competition.

Viva 7s was open to all UOW students, with men’s, women’s and mixed teams competing for first place on Wednesday 10 August.

In the final series, Campus East dominated the women’s league with an action-fuelled win over International House. The places were reversed for the men’s competition with International House defeating Campus East to take home the trophy. In the mixed league Weerona came out on top, defeating International House.

The ARU’s Viva 7s competition is similar to Tag Rugby, an off spin of Rugby 7s. Rugby 7s, a contact sport, has been increasing in popularity with the Australian women’s team taking home gold at the Rio Olympics earlier this month.

Viva 7s operates on touches rather than tackles with seven being the key number; seven players, seven minutes per half and seven touches to score before the ball has to be given to the opposition.

Earlier this year UOW Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings, CBE, provided funding to the UOW Rugby Club for the eight-week competition.

Viva 7s was a huge hit with UOW Colleges in 2015, with 150 players registered in last year’s competition and a number of international students taking part.