Sevens is a variation of traditional rugby that features only seven players on each side the usual number is 15 and two halves of seven minutes each. The smaller teams create faster-paced and higher-scoring matches.
NBC Sports will broadcast the event, making it the first nationally televised collegiate rugby game.
Rugby Sevens will be an Olympic sport in 2016, and the Championship will showcase America's best collegiate players.
Sixteen colleges are registered in the tournament. Dartmouth is in Pool A, along with the University of California, Harvard University and the University of Notre Dame. The Big Green will take on the Fighting Irish in its opening match.
Dartmouth and Harvard are the only Ivy League participants.
Dartmouth gave the variation game a test run this past weekend, playing in an unofficial Ivy sevens tournament that included rival Harvard. Dartmouth was undefeated in the tournament and handily beat its Cambridge rival.
"None of us have really played before, so it was a nice introduction. It left a good taste in our mouth," co-captain Nick Downer '11 said.
Head coach Alexander Magleby said Dartmouth has some history playing sevens, and in that the 1960s and 1970s, rugby sevens was an intramural sport played among fraternities and dorms, particularly during the Summer term.
"We have had more national sevens team captains than any other institution," Magelby said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth. "There is a bit of legacy to build on."
The tournament comes after a disappointing Fall season and intense Spring preparation. The Big Green only graduated five seniors and is optimistic about next year, despite not having qualified for nationals in the Fall, Downer said. "We played close to 10 games this Spring, and we are reaching the back end of that, starting to prepare for the sevens tournament," Downer said.
The tournament is touted on the official website as a "showcase [of] the top college rugby players and future Olympians."
But co-captains Nick Downer and Chris Downer '11 see the tournament in a slightly less serious light.
"It should be a lot of fun," Nick Downer said. "The U.S. has a lot of athletes that haven't played rugby yet. Come the Olympics, if the U.S. prepares, we could be very good at sevens. Rugby hasn't really caught on yet."
Rugby and golf have been added to the 2016 line-up for the Rio de Janerio games. They are the first new additions since the triathlon and taekwondo were added in 2000.
With the championship a month away, the team is forming and preparing its smaller team to send to Columbus.
Magleby has experience with sevens and is a former sevens national team captain.
"We are still in the process of figuring out [who will be on the team]," Nick Downer said. "No one has any meaningful experience playing rugby sevens."
Part of the men's rugby team played a 15s match against the Boston Irish Wolfhounds in Boston on Saturday, winning 20-15.
"Playing against a men's team is much more physical than [a collegiate team]," Chris Downer said. "Winning speaks a lot to our players."
With the newfound Olympic endorsement of rugby and the possibility that it could give the sport new momentum in the United States, the captains said they do not think rugby is limited by its lack of varsity status.
"It all depends on how you approach the title," Nick Downer said. "We put in a lot of time. We are practicing 20 hours a week. We are a club sport, but we have great alumni support. Our facilities are second to none."
As an additional incentive for the competitors at the Sevens Collegiate Championship Invitational, Dallas Mavericks owner and HDNet chairman Mark Cuban has promised to award a sum of $20,000 to the winning program.
"The Collegiate Sevens Championship will be a stern test in a pressure-filled environment, just the type of place that Dartmouth students excel," Magleby said.
