The “Rise of Rugby Sevens, Lions Legends’ Dinner” presented by the BABC Northern California, in partnership with Play Rugby USA (PRUSA) took place at the prestigious St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco on July 18^th, 2018. With a panel of some of the biggest names in British and Irish Lions history, the event brought together over 140 Bay Area rugby enthusiasts to hear the panel’s take on the rise of the game of rugby sevens, on the cusp of the biggest rugby sevens tournament in the world, the Rugby World Cup of Sevens, taking place in San Francisco on the 20^th-22^nd. The event also included a live auction, a reverse auction, and a round of heads and tails for various prizes kindly donated by sponsors, providing a unique fundraising opportunity for Play Rugby USA raising in excess of $45k.

To kick the evening off, guests were welcomed to the stunning St. Francis Yacht Club for some early drinks and a chance the chat to our Lions Rugby legends, Gavin Hastings from Scotland, Jeremy Guscott from England, Steven Ferris from Ireland and Darren Morris from Wales. The guests were also given the chance to look over the auction items up for grabs.

Once the guests were seated and dinner was well underway, Mark Griffin, founder of Play Rugby USA drew everyone’s attention to the big screens where a video was played highlighting the work that PRUSA does in promoting positive values and life-skills to children from underserved communities – using rugby as the vehicle to provide on and off the field lessons.

To kick off the fundraising aspects of the evening, an interactive game of Heads and Tails was played for the prize of a British and Irish Lions Jersey signed by our Rugby Legends. Not long after, 10 Play Rugby Balls, also signed by our Rugby Legends, reached $350 each in our reverse ball auction. Thanks, and congratulations to all the bidders.

We then held a live auction led by BAB Leap’s Stuart Bagshaw, which proved a hit with the dinner guests and included 6 high profile packages to be won.

First up was the Autumn International – England – Package which included; 2 tickets to England v Japan at Twickenham plus a signed England Rugby Jersey from the series. A package kindly donated by RBS and won by Preston Gordon.

The Sevens Heaven – Las Vegas – Package proved to be a hotly contested affair which on the night donor Jon Hinkin from USA Sevens generously doubled the package, allowing both Cyril Hackett and Rory Cameron to go away with two, 3-day Premier Lounge tickets to the USA sevens, two tickets to the USA Sevens Golf Tournament, two VIP tickets to the Parade of Nations opening Ceremony and two tickets to the Wrap Party.

Our mid-auction lot was the Ireland Champions – Package and was particularly popular amongst the large Irish contingency present at the dinner. The framed Ireland Jersey, signed by the 6 Nations Grand Slam Winning Team was coupled with Rory McIlroy’s signed pin flag from the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he won at 18 under par earlier this year to end a 26 tournament drought. Kindly donated by IRFU and Steve Ferris and won by Rob McCourt who was kind enough to gift the jersey to second placed bidder Rory Cameron for his birthday.

Continuing the 6 Nations theme, a Scotland Package, donated by Scottish Rugby, First Republic Bank, Gavin Hastings and Baxter Art went to auction winner Barry O’Brien. He will be heading to Edinburgh in the new year to go and watch Scotland play either Italy, Ireland or Wales in the 6 Nations at BT Murrayfield Stadium, as well as receiving Green Fees for two at the Royal Troon Golf Club to play alongside Scottish rugby legend Gavin. Barry also went home with a framed Scottish Rugby jersey signed by the 2017/18 and a limited-edition artist’s proof of the Royal Troon Golf Course by Graham Baxter.

The big-ticket item of the night was the highly sought after Rugby World Cup – Japan – Package. With thanks to Play Rugby USA, Japan Airlines and AIG for putting together an amazing package of 2 tickets to the Rugby World Cup final in Japan in 2019, and two business class tickets to Tokyo, along with a framed All Blacks Jersey, signed by the 2015 Rugby World Cup Winning team. A bid of $15000 had already been made prior to the auctioning, and the bidding war was fierce, with several parties interested in this incredible prize. The prize was eventually won by Rory Cameron, who generously donated the All Blacks Jersey back to the auction which then went to SF Builders’ Patrick Davin.

Our final auction item was a last-minute addition kindly donated by Cindy Basso and Jeff Eaton, they were kind enough to donate a 6 night stay in their 5-bedroom Lake Tahoe chalet, which was also won by Patrick Davin and concluded an extremely successful auction.

Monies raised from the auction will enable Play Rugby to provide programming throughout their Fall season in Bay Area schools and after-school programs. James Weyers, Senior Director Development at Play Rugby commented, “we are so grateful to everyone who turned out and made the Rise of Rugby Sevens such a fabulous event and blown-away with the amount raised on the night. Thank you all, and especially the BABC Team, for your time, energy and generosity”. If you’d like to connect with James about volunteer or partnership opportunities with Play Rugby USA please email him at james.weyers@playrugbyusa.com.

After the auction finished, it was time for our Lions legends to take to the stage for the panel discussion section of the evening. The panel of legends, moderated by former USA Eagles Captain Dan Lyle discussed a number of topics, focusing on the development of the sevens game in recent years.

Our MC for the night Dan Lyle of AEG Rugby kicked off panel discussion by inviting the four rugby legends to the stage, Jeremy Guscott, Darren Morris, Stephen Ferris and Gavin Hastings.

After some classic rugby banter between the 4 legends on stage Dan began to get down to the nitty gritty of the discussion and started to pick the legends brains about all things rugby sevens.

The first question posed to the panel was the difference between the modern rugby 7’s game and previous years. Jeremy jumped on it to explain how the 7-a-side game used to just be a party for the players at the end of the regular season, and that it wasn’t taken seriously. He continued to speak on the difference in athleticism that the current 7’s players have and joked that when he was playing if you ran 50 meters to score a try you would ask to be subbed, whereas players nowadays run 80 metres and ask for the ball on the next play.

Gavin Hastings first question posed to him from Dan was a light-hearted pop at the USA beating Scotland a few weeks back in Houston. Gavin responded to Dan by congratulating the US team and was “delighted” that they got their win against a top tier country but expressed his disappointment that it was at the expense of his native Scotland!

Ireland have had a successful 2018 in Rugby union, but Dan wanted to get Stephen Ferris take on the 7’s game in Ireland. Stephen talked about the fact that both of the Irish sevens teams had kicked on massively this year and tipped both teams to be surprise packages at this year’s Rugby Sevens World Cup.

Dan posed the question to Darren Morris about Wales’ chances in the RWC7s as they have not been as successful as of late. Quick to remind Dan, Darren explained the caliber of players that Wales were bringing with them had plenty of experience to have a good tournament. Wales being former champions of the event, there was no backing down on that question by Darren!

Fiji being arguably the greatest 7’s nation of all time was a hot topic amongst the panelists, with Dan and the audience asking what sets them aside from other rugby countries. Jeremy explained that rugby sevens culture runs through the Fijian veins, and how they embrace their high risk running game. “The physicality of the Fijians and their running game suits this type of Rugby, that is why I believe they have had so much success”

Darren echoed Jeremys take on the Fijian teams highlighting their “unbelievable conditioning ” and referring them to the same as basketball players.

With Ireland having of their best seasons in the 15 aside game, Dan picks Stephen’s brain about their chances in the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. Stephen’s referred to the strength and depth that Ireland have in their ranks now and payed huge complements to the “best coach in world” Joe Schmitt.

When asked about the new knockout format, Gavin made a very simple reasoning as to why this RWC7s will be played as a straight knockout tournament. “To be world champions means winning every game you play and whoever is going to win it will have earned it” This sentiment was agreed with by the panel who all feel knockout rugby brings a buzz and excitement.

The discussion was rounded off at the end by a crowd member wanting to get Dans take on the USA chances this weekend in both the ladies and men’s events. He pointed out in previous seasons the US have been incredibly strong in areas of their game but sometimes can forget other aspects of their game. “If the US are going to have a shot they need to find an all-round balance to their game. If they can do that, they can beat any team on their day”

The rugby legends then put their own countries pride aside to give us their all-important predictions for the RWC7 ladies and men’s tournament.

Gavin Hastings – Fiji Men and Australia Women’s

Stephen Ferris – South Africa Men and Australia Women’s

Jeremy Guscott – New Zealand Men and Australia Women’s

Darren Morris – Fiji Men’s and New Zealand Women’s

Dan Lyle – USA Men and Australia Women’s

The event rounded out with the guests getting more time to chat to the legends, and enjoy the wonderful wines provided by Goldschmidt Vineyards.

Thanks go to our sponsors: Litmos, British Airways, Japan Airlines, SF Builders, Silicon Valley Bank, SVN QAV Associates, BAB Leap, Giants Enterprises, and First Republic Bank. Thanks also go to all of our donors: AIG, USA Rugby Sevens, Baxter Art, the IRFU, Scottish Rugby, and Goldschmidt Vineyards. Finally, thanks to 2020 Productions for providing our audio visual production, and to Jo Healey and the BABC Team for putting the event together.

Check out the video of the event, produced by 20/20 Productions:

Rise of Rugby Legends Dinner Highlights from BABC Northern California on Vimeo.