Harlequins Cup 7s kicks off the West club 7s qualification season Saturday in Irving, Texas.

9 teams are expected to compete in the qualifier bracket: Dallas Harlequins, Quins B, Fort Worth Elite, Glendale, Woodland Exiles, Kansas City Rogues, Kansas City Blues, Denver Barbarians and the Austin Huns.

The top four finishers from the 2010 tournament are back; the Barbos are defending champs, the Quins are looking to improve on their second-place finish a year ago, and the Blues and Rogues are again looking to score precious points.

Perhaps the most noteworthy newcomer is Glendale. Fresh off a DI 15s title campaign, the Raptors have revamped their 7s program. They took last summer off, but have hired former 15s and 7s Springbok Andre Snyman as their 7s coach and put together a formidable roster.

The most recognizeable name on the roster is Ata Malifa, the capped 7s Eagle. Dewon Reed has been with Glendale’s 15s team for years, but played 7s with the Barbos. He’ll be in Glendale blue in Dallas. Former Aspen 7s captain Spencer Scott is now a Raptor, and he’s a big addition. Cristian Sarmento, who spent the 15s season with the Barbos, is back with Glendale for the summer.

The host Quins have also overhauled their 7s team. Zac Mizell and Gonzalo Ruiz return from last summer, as does scrumhalf Dylan Carrion. Carrion is expected to miss the first qualifier due to injury, however.

The connection Dallas has made with Arkansas State, with Mizell, his brother Jake and Carrion all going to school in Jonesboro, has paid off this summer, as fellow Red Wolves Paul Benade Shaun Potgieter are playing for the Quins.

But the most notable addition is Hunter Leland, the honorable mention USA Rugby All-American from Texas A&M. He and Eric Luikens, the star of the Texas Longhorn 7s team that participated in the CRC, will add a jolt of speed and skill to an already impressive Quins team.

The defending champs should again challenge for the Quins Cup, despite losing some playmakers. Expected back are Maximo DeAchaval and Ben Haapapuro, who combine for maybe the best restart tandem in the country.

However, Taylor Howden has moved to Long Beach, Calif. to play for Belmont Shore, and as mentioned earlier, Reed is with Glendale. The Barbos will also be without the services of Mark Bokhoven, who is recovering quickly from injury but has a personal obligations keeping him from being in Dallas.

The two Kansas City teams, Rogues and Blues, should be competing for qualification points, as both have won social tournaments this summer; the Blues cashing in at Tulsa’s Parrothead 7s and the Rogues taking Fountain City 7s in Kansas City. The Forth Worth Elite and Austin Huns are also expected to be competitive.

RUGBYMag.com’s Pat Clifton will be on the ground in Dallas, and you can follow him on Twitter (@Pat_Clifton) for live scoring updates. You can also check quins7.com and the Harlequin 7s facebook page for updates.

USA Rugby announced the formation of the first women’s DI college conference, following in the footsteps of its male counterparts. Within the Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference, the 16 teams are divided into three divisions and represent seven of last year’s DI national championship participants.

The North Division groups former Nor Cal (Stanford, UC Davis, Chico State, Cal) and Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Oregon State) teams into a league. Oregon and Oregon State benefit greatly from the expanded competition, considering their former league consisted of a home-and-away series to determine which team moved onto regional playoffs. But even big dogs like Stanford are enthusiastic about the expansion.

“We are excited about joining the North Division for next season,” Stanford assistant coach Heather Smith said. “It offers us a more competitive league schedule. In addition, this league allows us to play our traditional rugby rivals in Chico State and UC Davis, as well as battle our Pac-12 rivals in Cal, Oregon, and Oregon State ... and eventually Arizona State, Colorado and UCLA through cross-division play.”

Each division is responsible for its own schedule. The East division (Air Force, Women’s Cougar Rugby, Colorado, Colorado State, New Mexico) will play in the fall, while the North and South (Arizona State, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, Claremont) divisions will play in the winter. Currently, crossover games aren’t mandated, and the playoff structure has yet to be determined.

“How we address crossover games and our league playoff structure will be greatly influenced by the decisions made in the coming weeks by the Women’s Competitions Committee,” Smith said. “If the committee makes the round of 16/8 regional, like D1 Men, then a combination of automatic seeds and one playoff weekend for at-large bids would make sense. This is a union of 16 teams from five LAUs and three territories. We represent seven seeds from 2011 Nationals. Hopefully the committee will honor that.”

In addition to the Oregon schools, Women’s Cougar Rugby stands to benefit greatly from the restructure. Instead of playing local DII and U19 squads during its buildup to nationals, WCR will face the ultra-competitive teams from the Eastern Rockies union. The South division’s Claremont Colleges has bumped up from Southern California’s DII, while former DI Nor Cal teams UC Santa Cruz and Sacramento have opted to return to DII play.

“Having the top teams in the west connected in this way is important since we are so geographically spread out,” Smith said. “It definitely will help to grow the game on this coast to have our schools, coaches and players connected. It should also allow Ellen Owens, as West Women's Rep, to set a foundation and help other teams move up to D1 level in terms of organization and level of competition. Hopefully we'll see schools from Washington State in our league at some point.”

Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference
North Division: California, Chico, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UC Davis
South Division: Arizona State, Claremont Colleges, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara
East Division: Air Force, BYU, Colorado, Colorado State, New Mexico