Premier Rugby Sevens (PR7s) is the top annual North American men's and women's rugby sevens competition. The competition follows a touring model and involves 16 teams (8 men's and 8 women's teams) competing against each other across the country. The league was founded in 2021 and is officially sanctioned by

USA Rugby USA Rugby (officially the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugb ...

as the highest level of rugby sevens in the United States. The League is the first professional rugby union competition in North America to offer contracts to women.

History

Premier Rugby Sevens was launched in 2021 by CEO and Founder Owen Scannell. Former USA Men's XV head coach

Mike Tolkin Mike Tolkin is a rugby union coach who served as head coach of the United States national team from 2012 until 2015. He was the head coach for Rugby United New York for the Major League Rugby 2019 Season. He is the current General Manager of P ...

joined the league in 2021 as general manager. In May 2021, the league announced 10 ambassadors from the USA Men's and Women's Rugby Sevens teams would join, including

Perry Baker Perry Baker (born June 29, 1986) is an American rugby sevens player for the United States national rugby sevens team. With over 230 tries, Baker currently ranks first among Americans and third among all players in career tries scored in the Worl ...

Naya Tapper Naya Elena Tapper (born August 3, 1994) is an American rugby union player. She debuted for the in 2016. She was selected for the squad to the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup in Ireland. Like most of her teammates Tapper began her rugby career whi ...

Alev Kelter Leyla Alev Kelter (born March 21, 1991) is an American rugby sevens and rugby union player. Rugby career She won a silver medal at the 2015 Pan American Games as a member of the United States women's national rugby sevens team. She also made ...

, Danny Barrett,

Folau Niua Folau Niua (born January 27, 1985) is an American rugby union former player. He played fly-half for the United States national rugby sevens team from 2011 to 2022, and holds the U.S. record for most tournament appearances with over 65 caps. Earl ...

, Stephen Tomasin,

Kevon Williams Kevon Williams (born June 7, 1991) is an American rugby player who plays for the United States national rugby sevens team on the World Rugby Sevens Series. Williams is originally from Houston, Texas. He attended Westbury High School and college ...

Abby Gustaitis Abby Gustaitis (born May 9, 1991) is an American rugby union player. She debuted for the against France women's national rugby union team, France 2016. She was selected for the squad to the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup in Ireland. Gustaitis wa ...

Ilona Maher Ilona Maher (born August 12, 1996) is an American rugby union player. She debuted for the against Japan in 2018 in Paris, France. Rugby career Maher began playing rugby while attending Quinnipiac University; prior to college, she also played ...

and

Carlin Isles Carlin Isles (born November 21, 1989) is an American rugby union player who plays for the United States national rugby sevens team. With 202 tries, Isles is first for the United States in career tries scored, ahead of teammate Perry Baker. Isles ...

. Neither Maher nor Isles would compete in 2021. In August 2021,

announced that the league would be officially sanctioned as the highest level of rugby sevens in the United States.

2021

The league's Inaugural Championship took place at

AutoZone Park AutoZone Park is a Minor League Baseball stadium located in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, and is home to the Memphis Redbirds of the International League and Memphis 901 FC of the USL Championship. The Redbirds are the Triple-A affiliate of Major ...

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, on October 9, 2021. The League initially began with 10 teams with 6 men's and 4 women's teams. The

Experts An expert is somebody who has a broad and deep understanding and competence in terms of knowledge, skill and experience through practice and education in a particular field. Informally, an expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable s ...

, Loggerheads,

Loonies ''Loonies'' ( nl, Loenatik - De moevie) is a 2002 Dutch family film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise c ...

and Headliners would have a men's team and women's team competing in the two separate tournaments while the

Locals Locals Technology Inc., also referred to as locals.com, is a creator crowdfunding site cofounded by Dave Rubin and Assaf Lev. It started in 2019 and is based in Miami. The site was founded after Rubin and Jordan Peterson left Patreon in response ...

and

Team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson (academic), Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interde ...

would play with only a men's team entered into the competition. The women's Loonies coached by Olympian

Kelly Griffin Kelly Griffin (born November 7, 1986) is an American rugby sevens player and Olympian. As a member of the United States women's national rugby sevens team, she won a bronze medal at the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens, and a silver medal at the 20 ...

won the women's tournament, with standout play from

and tournament MVP and

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

international Delaney Aikens. The men's Experts won the Inaugural Championships behind performances from

and tournament MVP Logan Tago. Tago would go on to receive his first USA cap shortly after. The men's final was notably in that it was decided by a drop goal contest with a similar format to association football.

2022

The competition scaled to a three stop circuit in 2022, with tournaments held in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

, at

PayPal Park PayPal Park (formerly Earthquakes Stadium and Avaya Stadium) is a soccer-specific stadium in San Jose, California, San Jose, California, United States, and is the home of Major League Soccer's San Jose Earthquakes. The stadium is located on the ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, at

Audi Field Audi Field is a soccer-specific stadium in Buzzard Point in Washington, D.C. It is the home stadium for both of Washington, DC’s professional soccer teams, D.C. United in Major League Soccer and Washington Spirit in the National Women’s So ...

, and the 2022 Championship at

Q2 Stadium The Q2 Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium located in the North Burnet section of North Austin, Texas, United States. It is the home of Austin FC, a Major League Soccer (MLS) team that began play in 2021. The stadium hosted its first event on J ...

. The League scaled back to include only the men's and women's teams, with the

and

removed from competition. The parity between men's and women's teams led to the adoption of nomenclature of "franchises" with each franchise having a men's and women's team. The franchises would then compete for a United Championship which combined the results of the two competitions. The Headliners were the first United Champions and won the

Kathy Flores Kathleen Flores (February 7, 1955 – October 21, 2021) was an American rugby union player who was the head coach of the U.S. women's national team until January 2011 and the head coach of the Brown women's rugby team. Past coaching tenures incl ...

Women's Championship while the Loggerheads won the A. Jon Prusmack Men's Championship. Notable players appearing in 2022 included All Black Sevens star

Brady Rush Brady J. K. Rush is a New Zealand rugby sevens and rugby union player who plays for in the Bunnings NPC. His position is Wing or Fullback. Career Rush was named as a contracted player for the All Blacks Sevens squad in 2021. He was named in ...

, USA Rugby Stars

Alena Olsen Alena Olsen (born 6 December 1995) is an American rugby sevens player. She captains the Headliners women's team in the Premier Rugby Sevens competition. In 2021, Olsen and some of her teammates released a video that urged fans to sign the Global ...

Martin Iosefo Martin Iosefo (born January 13, 1990) is an American rugby union player who previously played several seasons with the United States national rugby sevens team. He now plays for the Seattle Seawolves in Major League Rugby (MLR). Early life Iose ...

, Matai Leuta and

Madison Hughes Madison John Hughes (born October 26, 1992) is a rugby union player who was the captain of the United States national rugby sevens team from 2014 until he stepped away from the team in late 2021. Hughes was named captain of the United States nati ...

Expansion

2023

The League announced in December 2022 that in 2023 it would expand into a conference structure and play a five-tournament circuit. Franchises would be split between the Eastern and Western Conferences, with tournaments alternating play each week between the two conferences. Each conference plays two weekends, with the top two men's and women's teams from each conference qualifying for the Championship weekend. Additionally, the 2023 expansion added regional names to the teams for the first time in league history. The rebranded Texas Team and

New York Locals New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

would rejoin the men's competition, and add women's teams for the first time. Additionally, the league announced that the Golden State Retrievers and the

Pittsburgh Steeltoes Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

would join the league as expansion franchises. On May 2, New Zealand Black Ferns star

Ruby Tui Ruby Tui (born 13 December 1991) is a New Zealand rugby union player. She competed internationally when the national rugby sevens team won the silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics tournament. She won a gold medal in rugby sevens at the 20 ...

announced that she had signed for the 2023 competition alongside her return to the Black Ferns Sevens team. The

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

subsequently announced that other

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

stars Stacey Waaka, Kelsey Teneti,

Tysha Ikenasio Tysha Ikenasio (born 13 September 1997) is a New Zealand rugby sevens player. Rugby career Ikenasio attended Sancta Maria College, Auckland, Sancta Maria College in Auckland and played netball and Touch (sport), touch rugby representatively. She ...

, Manaia Nuku, Rhodes Featherstone and Kitiona Vai would also be competing. Teneti would ultimately not compete due to injury and would be replaced by

Alena Saili Alena Saili (born 13 December 1998) is a New Zealand rugby sevens player. Saili joined the Black Ferns Sevens in 2017. She won a gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics and won a gold medal. Saili ...

. For the Eastern Conference, the Kickoff Weekend took place at

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

with the Conference Final held at Highmark Stadium in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. The Western Conference opened at TCO Stadium in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, while the Conference Final took place at

in San Jose. The Championship was held at

The Pittsburgh and Minneapolis events were the first ever professional rugby events in those cities. The Northern Loonies would win the women's championship while the Rhinos x SoCal Loggerheads would win the men's. The Rocky Mountain Experts would win the United Championship by virtue of being the only franchise to have both the men's and women's teams qualify for the Championship tournament.

Competitive Format

The league has played single day tournaments since inception, with men's and women's matches interchanging throughout the day. In the 2021 and 2022 seasons, all teams in the league would be onsite and play group stage matches with results determining participants in the final. The 2022 season had the first two tournaments determine the seeding for the knockout round championship. In 2023, franchises were split between the Eastern and Western Conferences, with tournaments alternating play each week between the two conferences. Each conference plays two weekends, with the top two men's and women's teams from each conference qualifying for the Championship weekend. The league eliminated group stage play and instead moved to a knockout only format with semifinal matches leading into consolation and finals. Points are allocated based on finish, with the two conference kickoff weekends would award 13, 6, 3, 1 points for 1st through 4th place, respectively while the conference finals would award 19, 11, 5, 2. Teams would also be awarded points for finish in the Championship weekend for purposes of determining the United Championship winner.

PR7s teams

Map

Current teams

Timeline

DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:25 Period = from:2021 till:2023 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:200 left:0 bottom:55 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:black fontsize:M from:12/25/2021 till:01/05/2022 text: Reduction to 4 Teams bar:1 color:white fontsize:M from:01/05/2022 till:12/15/2022 bar:1 color:black fontsize:M from:12/25/2022 till:01/05/2023 text: Expansion to 8 Teams bar:1 color:white fontsize:M from:01/05/2023 till:12/15/2023 bar:2 color:powderblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2021 till:12/31/2021 text: Locals bar:2 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2023 till:end text: New York Locals bar:3 color:powderblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2021 till:12/31/2021 text: Team bar:3 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2023 till:end text: Texas Team bar:4 color:pink fontsize:M from:01/01/2021 till:12/31/2022 text: Loonies bar:4 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2023 till:end text: Northern Loonies bar:5 color:pink fontsize:M from:01/01/2021 till:12/31/2022 text: Headliners bar:5 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2023 till:end text: Southern Headliners bar:6 color:pink fontsize:M from:01/01/2021 till:12/31/2022 text: Loggerheads bar:6 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2023 till:end text: Rhinos X SoCal Loggerheads bar:7 color:pink fontsize:M from:01/01/2021 till:12/31/2022 text: Experts bar:7 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2023 till:end text: Rocky Mountain Experts bar:8 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2023 till:end text: Golden State Retrievers bar:9 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2023 till:end text: Pittsburgh Steeltoes ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2021

Broadcast

United States and Canada

The 2021 championship matches of the tournaments were aired live on

FS2 Fox Sports 2 (FS2) is an American sports-oriented pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. The channel is based at the Fox Sports division's headquarters on the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City ...

in the United States, and

TSN TSN may refer to: Science and technology * Translin, DNA binding protein involved in microRNA function * Taxonomic serial number, a stable and unique taxonomic serial number issued by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System * The Science Netwo ...

in Canada. Preliminary matches were aired on FoxSports.com and TSN.ca. All matches from the 2022 Championship were aired live on

Fubo Sports Network FuboTV Inc. (stylized as fuboTV) is an American streaming television service serving customers in the United States, Canada, and Spain that focuses primarily on channels that distribute live sports. Depending on country, channels offered by Fubo ...

. In 2023,

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...

and

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...

televised portions the 2023 Championship season, with live programming on

FS1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by the Fox Sports (United States), Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed (TV network), Speed on August 1 ...

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known as ...

and

Tubi Tubi is an American over-the-top content platform and ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox Corporation. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In January 2021, Tubi reached 33 million monthly ...

. The championship finals were aired live on FS1.

Europe

DAZN DAZN ( "da zone") is a global sports entertainment platform. Different to traditional linear and satellite broadcasting, DAZN is an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service meaning that it is delivered directly to viewers via the internet. The ...

would acquire the broadcast rights for Europe in 2023.

League champions

In 2022, the league named its women's and men's championship trophies after

and A. Jon Prusmack, respectively.

Men's Final

Women's Final

United Championship

Awards and honors

Women's Finals MVP

* 2021: Delaney Aikens * 2022: Grace Kukutai * 2023:

Men's Finals MVP

* 2021: Logan Tago * 2022: Brock Ian Gallagher * 2023:

Branco du Preez Branco Bewinn Nazeem du Preez (born 8 May 1990) is a former South African rugby union player, playing with the South Africa national rugby sevens team. He is a utility back, but usually plays as a scrum-half for the Blitzbokke. Du Preez retired ...

Women's Defensive Player of the Year

* 2023: Manaia Nuku

Men's Defensive Player of the Year

* 2023: Craig Hunt

Women's Comeback Player of the Year

* 2023: Neariah "Nene" Weathers

Men's Comeback Player of the Year

* 2023:

Ben Pinkelman Benjamin Joseph Pinkelman (born June 13, 1994) is an American professional rugby union player who plays as a forward for the United States national sevens team. Early life Pinkelman began playing rugby while he attended Cherry Creek High Schoo ...

Women's Rising Star

* 2023: Monique Coffey

Men's Rising Star

* 2023: Chris Aurich

References

External links

* {{Women's rugby union Rugby union leagues in the United States Women's rugby union competitions in the United States Women's rugby union leagues Sports leagues established in 2021 2021 establishments in the United States Professional sports leagues in the United States