The Premier Rugby Sevens league in the USA, which I first reported on in May, has announced further details.
It will be fascinating to see whether Sevens can thrive in this completely new format. Never before has a fully professional league been attempted.
They don’t do the women’s game many favours, but we can enjoy the teams’ names that have been plucked out of the ether. The six are: Experts, Headliners, Locals, Loggerheads, Loonies and The Team.
Let’s take a pause as we recover.
Right, Sevens is meant to be fun, but will a professional version manage to keep a smile on its face?
The bad news is that only four of the six teams will offer a women’s version, an imbalance that is all too common in the sporting world. The last two in the list can provide only a men’s team in the initial stages. So the women will have a particularly hard job convincing a new public with only four sides competing at every tournament.
The Championship will open at the Autozone Park Memphis on 9 October. It has a seating capacity of 14,000.
