Five teams from the FloRugby women’s club 7s power rankings will face off at the Cape Fear 7s this weekend in Wilmington, NC, with a chance to show who will separate themselves as true contenders and who are just beating up on their local competitors.

The two-day tournament, which kicks off Saturday, is not a national qualifier. However, it will be a telling preview for what might go down at the Club 7s National Championships on August 11-12 in New York.

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Two-Side Debate

Scion and American Pro Rugby Training Center (ARPTC) are the No. 1 and No. 6 teams, respectively, in the FloRugby rankings. Both have entered two teams in the tournament. Will this Cape Fear battle help the coaches solidify their starting rosters going into Nationals? Or could this be the year when one program puts out two sides that can actually contend nationally?

This season, ARPTC has assembled talent from all corners of North America, including from Maine, Mexico, California, and Georgia—namely players from Life University in Atlanta. In its first national qualifier, ARPTC put out two teams and placed first and second at the BloodFest 7s in Austin, Texas.

Proving Ground    

Watch out for the No. 8 Atlanta Harlequins and No. 11 Berkeley as both look to win the women’s elite bracket and climb the rankings. NOVA out of Virginia is ranked 12th, but its only losses have been to Scion. Cape Fear would be the tournament to prove the strength of the Mid-Atlantic Conference and boost NOVA up the list.

The Wild Card    

The wild card has to be the Atlantis U23 team because the success of a select sevens squad always depends on how the players jell. The squad was stacked at the New York 7s in November and made its money off the restart kick. If Atlantis can dominate the possession battle as it did in New York, it will be hard to beat. Atlantis' deep talent pool will have to formulate chemistry quickly to beat the women’s teams that have several tournaments under their belts.