World Cup (of rugby) storms S.F.

Unlike soccer, the United States is a player in the world of rugby sevens — which, unlike the 15-man game, features only seven-a-side in matches that last less than 20 minutes. The USA Eagles are ranked No. 5 in the world and are coming off their biggest tournament win when they captured the Las Vegas leg of the 10-stop HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series back in March.

The Americans feature not only a pair of local products — Pacifica’s Danny Barnett and East Palo Alto’s Folau Niua — but also the reigning World Rugby Men’s Sevens Player of the Year in Perry Baker and the 2017-18 try-scoring leader in Carleton Isles, two of the fastest players in the world, making the United States one of the most explosive teams in the tournament.

The best finish the Americans have had in six previous World Cup is 13th, accomplished in the last three World Cups. 

The rest of the world rugby powers will be in attendance as well. South Africa is the No. 1 seed in the world and captured the title of the recently completed Sevens World Series. Reigning Olympic champion Fiji, which suffered a bit of a hangover following its historic win in Rio, is back, ranked No. 2. Rounding out the top five are New Zealand, England and the United States.

Unlike many world tournaments, this edition of the Rugby World Cup will not have group play. To win the championship, a team has to win four or five matches in a row, depending if a team had a first-round bye or not. A loss, however, does not end a team’s tournament. In this rugby tournament, and like many others, there are different “levels” of finals. In the case of the World Cup, there are three: Bowl, Challenge and Championship. A loss in the first round drops teams into the Bowl bracket; a loss in the second round sends teams to the Challenge bracket, while second-round winners move into the Championship bracket, which crowns the world champion.

But a team is never actually eliminated from the tournament. Each of the playoff brackets offers consolation matches as well, meaning teams are playing throughout the weekend.

Friday’s action kicks off just after 1 p.m. with Tonga taking on Kenya and finishes with the host Americans playing the winner of Wales-Zimbabwe just after 9:30 p.m. The U.S match is a culmination of 16, first-day matches.

The tournament continues with 12 more matches on Saturday, beginning just before 12:30 p.m. and finishing up around 4:30 p.m. If you’re not rugby-ied out by then, Sunday ends with a bang of 24 matches, including the championship match at right around 5:45 p.m.

If that isn’t enough, the third edition of the Women’s World Cup will be held at the same time. The top 16 teams, of which the U.S is ranked No. 3, begin play at 10 a.m. Friday when Fiji and Spain hook up. The round of 16 games will be followed by the first rounds of the Challenge and Championship bracket play and culminates Saturday with the final rounds of the brackets.

By the time both men’s and women’s tournaments are finished, 84 games will have been played.

But what is really going to make the tournament a must-attend event is the festive atmosphere that will envelop San Francisco and, to a larger extend, the Bay Area as rugby fans from around the world gather. Rugby fans have adopted the spirit of the game of rugby, one that dictates teams compete as hard as they can against each other on the field – and then get together for a post-game party, leaving any animosity on the field.

In my limited experience, rugby fans embrace the camaraderie. There is little hostility among different team’s fans and while there is cheering and good-natured trash talk, it rarely devolves into anything more than that. It’s not uncommon to see fans of two different teams root their hearts out for their team and then turn around and head to the concession stand together.

Combine world-class athletes with a festive fan experience and it adds up to a great weekend in San Francisco. Even if you know nothing about rugby, the party at the AT&T Park is something you should experience at least once. And who knows? Maybe you learn a thing or two about the sport at the same time.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117.