On the Dignity Well being Sports activities Park concourse, a bunch of males sat with drinks in hand, laughing and soaking within the ultimate day of the Rugby Sevens World Championship. Their journey from Cornwall, in southwest England, to Carson spanned 5,408 miles, all for the only function of cheering on Britain.
Donning customized button-up shirts with matching shorts, they proudly identified the emblems pressed onto their kits — symbols of residence. Their outfits featured a Union Jack, a basic Cornish mining engine home and scones topped with jam first, then cream — the one correct method, they insisted, whereas chastising anybody who did it in a different way, very similar to their insupportable cousins from the neighboring county of Devon.
The getaway to L.A. wasn’t a lot a deliberate tour because it was a sequence of cellphone calls between seven childhood associates, all contingent on getting approval from their wives. Sadly, the group was greeted with back-to-back dreary, overcast afternoons as a substitute of the trademark California sunshine. Nonetheless, the climate didn’t dampen the enjoyable.
“That’s what we like about sevens — it goes all day,” mentioned Jason Penprase, referring to the raucous environment and speedy tempo. “It’s good that we actually get to see nations that you wouldn’t necessarily associate with rugby. … You get to see other nations come forward and play. … It’s got to be good [for the games]. You’re trying to make it a worldwide sport.”
At its core, rugby sevens combines the vibe of a European music competition and Halloween, with the high-impact, frenzied vitality of an NFL Sunday. As matches ran concurrently, followers from locations as far-off as New Zealand flocked to the 27,000-seat stadium in Carson. The outcome was a vibrant melting pot of cultures, with the two-day match offering a preview of what to anticipate when rugby takes the highlight on the 2028 Summer time Olympics.
This yr’s match, which featured New Zealand successful the ladies’s title and South Africa the lads’s crown, marked the primary time the championship was held on American soil. The occasion served not solely as an Olympic preview for followers, but in addition as an expertise for the gamers.
Samantha Sullivan of the USA shakes arms with followers after a loss to Canada within the third-place playoff on the rugby sevens world championships at Dignity Well being Sports activities Park on Sunday.
(Jack Megaw / AEG Rugby)
For U.S. ladies’s nationwide participant Nia Toliver, who grew up simply miles from Carson in South Central L.A., the chance to compete for a bronze medal close to her hometown allowed her mom, siblings and associates to witness her journey up shut.
“I played rugby in Japan for a couple of years, and they weren’t able to come in and see me play out there, so to have them finally come to a game, and the world championship at that, just means so much,” Toliver mentioned.
Toliver and her teammates are on the forefront of rugby sevens’ rising nationwide publicity within the U.S., constructing on the momentum from the nationwide crew’s fascinating bronze-medal run on the Olympic Video games in Paris. Having witnessed the game’s development since starting in highschool over a decade in the past, Toliver was excited by the weekend turnout and the potential for even bigger crowds in 2028.
“I’m imagining you’ll be like this for, like, 100 fold,” Toliver mentioned with a smile. “Because when people showed up in Paris, it was ridiculous. So I’m imagining L.A. just spilling out. … It’s so easy to fall in love with, it’s like there’s no reason for you not to watch.”
Preventing for a bronze towards Canada, the U.S. fell quick in a 27-7 loss, leaving Toliver deflated. She stays decided, nevertheless, to compete for a medal within the Olympics. She was named rookie of the yr after the season-ending match, and she or he might be in line to steer the nationwide crew in three years.
“Once in a lifetime, it’ll be full circle for me,” Toliver mentioned of the prospect of taking part in within the Olympics.
Very similar to the Olympic Video games, merely being current meant every thing for some international locations, and nowhere was that extra obvious than with Kenya and its followers. Tons of of supporters, outfitted with African drums and miniature flags adorned in black, purple and inexperienced, claimed a piece of the decrease bowl, changing into the match’s most boisterous group. Their chants of “Let’s go Kenya!” and “Kenya, aye!” in Kiswahili crammed the stadium with vibrant vitality.
“It’s not about winning or losing, it’s just about that happiness,” mentioned Ng’ang’a Njenga, who traveled from Seattle. “We come straight from third-world countries, and when we come and gather like this, have fun, enjoy.”
Armed with a drum by his aspect, Njenga was wearing a leopard-print Kenyan garb, with a mohawk painted half white and half black, in honor of Lwanda Magere, a Kenyan folks hero whose powers lay within the shadows.
Aaron Cummings of the U.S., high, competes for a line-out towards George Ooro Angeyoof of Kenya throughout the Rugby Sevens World Championships on Could 4, 2025.
(Jack Megaw / AEG Rugby)
Njenga was among the many many who led the drum part, spilling out from the stands, joined by males’s nationwide gamers Denis Abukuse and Vincent Onyala. Collectively, they led the cost, dancing in circles to the rhythm of the drums.
“We love this,” Njenga added. “That emotion, like life, can be good. Let’s be happy. It’s not about winning or losing in life.”
Gamers mingling alongside the walkway, having fun with the festivities, have been a standard sight. Followers requested Kenya ladies’s captain Grace Adhiambo Okulu for selfies and autographs as she cheered on the lads’s nationwide crew.
“We really work hard to come into L.A. and the experience you’re getting from everyone. It’s a blessing,” Okulu mentioned. “Rugby would be fine if the Kenyans were not here. It’s an amazing thing that the Kenyans are here, and definitely they’re not only supporting Kenya, but any team that is playing.”
The occasion was not with out criticism from followers like Penprase, who stayed in Lengthy Seaside along with his mates. He identified the problem of getting round L.A., with fixed Uber rides required because of the metropolis’s restricted public transit choices.
Moreover, some U.S. followers took difficulty with the setup, which featured two pitches — one contained in the stadium and one other on its outskirts. Followers famous that they missed a males’s matchup on the second pitch due to the setup. A number of pitches are anticipated for use throughout the Olympics, in distinction to the single-stadium setup at Stade de France final yr.
Regardless of a couple of kinks that may want ironing out, simply over 27,000 followers visited over the weekend, in line with officers. With rising pleasure amongst attendees, many are already looking forward to the 2028 Video games.
After attending the Paris Video games, the Cornishmen are probably eyeing a return flight to LAX in three years, pending the approval of their wives, after all.
“Never say never — you never know,” Penprase mentioned, hopeful that the subsequent journey would carry extra sunshine.
