USA Rugby has approved the awarding of a seed to the National Club 7s Championships of a team from Hawaii.

Clubs from Hawaii, spearheaded in part by Sialofi Fuatogi and Hawaii RFU President David Ma'afu Wendt, had contacted USA Rugby asking to be awarded a seed to the national championship. A quicker way to the national event could have been by having Hawaiian teams register through the Pacific Coast RFU or the Southern California RFU. However, going that route would have meant a team would have had to travel from Hawaii to the mainland for a qualifier, and two or three weeks later, to San Francisco for the national event.

That was financially onerous on an up-and-coming, but not particularly wealthy, region. So USA Rugby’s Club Strategic Committee approved a spot for Hawaii, and their best team will get the 15^th seed at the National Club 7s Championships.

Who lost a seed as a result? Well it appears that the Pacific Coast, which could have argued for three seeds at the national tournament after a PCRFU team won the title and their other team won the Bowl with a 5-1 record, but they have only two.