Kevin Bunce Sr., who has been keeping the ball rolling insofar as the Montauk Rugby Club is concerned, said over the weekend that his 7s squad has in the past year and a half either been a winner or a runner-up in a half-dozen U-23 tournaments.
The squad includes Anthony McGorisk, Nick Schaffer, Shane O'Dwyer, Joey Berti, Cole Shaw, Louis Bourie, Kevin Bunce Jr., Jacen Tuthill, John Rutkowski, Richie Maio, and Morgan Grant.
The goal, he said, "is to get enough guys involved so that Montauk can field a 15s side again. Besides the kids I've been working with, there are 10 or so who are playing in college now. So, we're hoping . . . maybe in two years."
In the meanwhile, the young 7s team, which trains two nights a week at East Hampton Village's Herrick Park, has been doing fine, "even though the main thing now is to get them experience. . . . We've got about 15 now who show up for tournaments, at least half of them from East Hampton."
Two weeks ago, Bunce's side placed second, as the result of a walk-off try, in the open division of the Suffolk 7s tournament that the Suffolk Bull Moose club in Farmingville played host to. "We haven't done worse than second in any of the tournaments we've played in in the last year and a half, since the last time I talked to you."
"The biggest tournament we go to is the Tropical 7s in Tampa in the spring," Bunce continued. "It's a first-class international tournament, on Easter weekend — there are teams there from New Zealand, South America, Canada, the Dominican Republic, the University of Alabama, Penn State, Army. . . . We played in a six-team round-robin. It was a big test. We lost to the U.S.A. Southern Regional team 19-10 in the final. It was a great game, super hard. We put ourselves into a lot of trouble right off when one of our guys hit the kickoff receiver in the air and got red-carded. We had to play with only six guys after that. And still, we hung in there. They were hitting hard, playing like the old Montauk sides used to. They were tackling everyone for the whole game, but it wears on you."
Bunce said, moreover, that "if we had wanted to win all these tournaments, we would have, but we're mainly interested in getting all of our players up to speed. We want them to enjoy the sport, and to stick with it. At our practices, we run tackling, contact, and passing drills. Sevens is a passing game, you know, so we do lots of passing and ball skills. We want them to understand their roles. We want them to play with confidence, and for that to happen, they have to be well prepared."
Bunce said that the days and times of the practices at Herrick can be ascertained through montaukpleiades on Instagram, or through montaukrugbyfootballclub on Facebook.
"This fall," he added, "we're going to play games on weekends in Farmingville. We'll play Suffolk's extras. Maybe it will be 15s, probably 10 on a side — five forwards and five backs. It's good of Suffolk in allowing us to come — there'll be seven games on seven weekends. So, we're getting there. We'll have some fun. We're keeping the flame lit."
