Canterbury of New Zealand, maker of official rugby products and a full collection of lifestyle wear is proud to announce their role as the official apparel sponsor and ball supplier for the USA Sevens Collegiate Rugby Championship.  Canterbury is also sponsoring the Canterbury Combine, a platform for high-performance college coaches to discover high school rugby talent.

The 2011 USA Sevens Collegiate Rugby Championship (www.usasevenscrc.com) brings together sixteen men’s and eight women’s college teams for two days of rugby competition.  The event will take place June 4^th and 5^th at Philadelphia’s PPL Park.

In addition to the Collegiate Championship play, high school rugby players in attendance are invited to demonstrate their aptitude through the Canterbury Combine, the first ever of its kind for the sport of rugby in the United States.  Players will be scored for their performance through a variety of drills and the results will be sent to over 40 high-performance college coaches.

Canterbury of New Zealand has provided all game balls for the Championship and has outfitted several of the teams participating in the event, including Boston College, Central Washington University, Penn State, Temple, LSU, Utah and Texas.  Canterbury also supplies uniforms to two of the premier women’s teams in the country—Penn State and Brown, both competing in the women’s bracket.  In addition, Canterbury has provided apparel for the USA Sevens event staff.

The Sevens style of rugby features seven players versus the traditional Rugby Union fifteen.  Sevens is a faster, more scoring-driven form of rugby that is now recognized as an Olympic sport, set to make its debut at the 2016 ceremonies.