Players compete during the inaugural Siesta 7s Rugby Tournament. Photo by Dylan Campbell.

This past Saturday, May 16, was about as picturesque a day one can dream up on Siesta Key. The sun sat high, glimmering down onto the white sand beneath, the temperature creeping up into the mid-80s. The usual sounds filled the beach—children laughing, speakers blaring and…screaming men?

The screams—the majority of which were jovial, others more competitive—were courtesy of the men and women participating in the inaugural Siesta 7s Rugby Tournament. The tournament, hosted by Sarasota Rugby Club, brought hundreds of players and dozens of teams from around the state to play for bragging rights on the sand. Vendors of all sorts created a makeshift corridor in the sand, past which multiple sand “fields” served as the battleground for the day’s rugby gladiators.

“It’s incredible to see this turnout in the tournament’s first year,” says Gary Jones, president of the Sarasota Rugby Club. “The vendors have been a great support to us. The teams are all from Florida and for the youth—which is our passion at Sarasota Rugby Club—we have under 12, under 14 and under 16 age divisions.”

Rugby sevens, which is the format of the sport played in the Olympics, is a faster paced version of rugby union, which the Sarasota Rugby Club plays throughout the year. Instead of the usual 15 players per team, rugby sevens consists of two teams of seven players each, battling over two seven minute halves. The Siesta 7’s tournament took the high-intensity variant up a notch by considerably shrinking the field size and forcing the players to run barefoot through the ankledeep sand. “Sand is the equalizer,” says Jones. “However fast you think you are on the grass, you’ll wear out pretty quickly trudging through this beautiful white quartz sand.”

The most notable part of the tournament, however, was not the brutality of the sport nor the impressive feat of athleticism from the participants. Rather, it was the sense of community found off the sand “pitch.” Families with multiple generations of rugby players cheered on teammates, combatants became friends and strangers across the beach became sudden fans of the sport.

Players compete during the inaugural Siesta 7s Rugby Tournament. Photo by Dylan Campbell.

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