"I got a full 40 minutes."

....literally. That is how much sleep I got last night.

Luckily on the plane I knocked out for a little bit but now it's time for more important things. I know that once I get off this plane things are going to be pretty hectic and busy, so now is the time to study up and mentally prepare myself as much as possible.

To start off, I found this great article about the difference between 7s and 15s; it's written by Mike Friday, a former Wasps rugby player and coach who has had some World Cup appearances. What's interesting is that I may have underestimated all this time the incredibly high level of smarts used in 7s. Not to say that 15s doesn't also require many tactics, but it makes sense that you need to amplify your awareness of the field, your teammates, your opponents, and of rugby in general because you have more responsibilities. It's also interesting to think about the pressure and the fulfillment that can come from playing 7s; with the heightened amount of individual responsibility, you accomplish many more things without necessarily being "hidden among the crowd," yet at the same time a single mistake can be extremely costly.
But I especially like how the article talks a lot about what you can take away from 7s and bring back into 15s. I'm not sure if this is as true the other way around. There are probably many things in 15s that you can learn and put to use in 7s, but I like the idea that 7s forces you to really capitalize on knowing the basics, such as passing, tackling, and spatial awareness, which will take you a long way when playing 15s.

Personally, I have always been a major contender for defense. Playing defense has almost always been my top priority while playing rugby. In many sports it's been said that "defense is the best offense," and I abide by that philosophy. I would rather make a billion tackles rather than score a billion tries. I think, though, defense is also what sounds the most unnerving for me in the upcoming tournament. One-on-one tackling, especially with highly experienced players, is very difficult! It also becomes more difficult when these experienced players know when and where to go and change directions in order to throw off a tackler. With more space to roam, offenders can get more creative with the ways they get by a tackler.

Brushing up on the legit rules of 7s rugby via reading the USA Rugby Refereeing Sevens Handbook also poses some interesting thoughts. They start out from the get go of identifying some of the main differences between 7s and 15s, which is obviously just as important to a referee as it is to a player or coach, and one point they make is that players have "speed, speed, and more speed...every sevens player is essentially playing the same position," which makes sense as to why 7s can be used so much in 15s. They also have a chart showing the varying fitness requirements in both games, and both charts are pretty much inverted. 15s rugby is about 75% medium speed and 25% maximum speed, whereas 7s is 75% maximum speed and 25% medium speed. I guess this inversion also makes sense when you look at the major differences in game time....can you imagine running at your own personal MAXIMUM speed for 60 out of the 80 minutes of a 15s game?!?! I mean, 15s doesn't really require that anyway but it's still a mind boggling thought. But with these charts, the handbook also provided a really great quote...me likey quotes:
"If you are not physically fit, you will not be mentally fit!"