Rugby explosion coming to Hawaii next year

American football can trace its origin back to rugby, including football’s huddle and break into the line of scrimmage correlating to an exploded scrum in rugby.

If organizers have their way next June, the explosion will be in the interest in the sport of rugby itself with the inaugural Aloha World Sevens Tournament at Aloha Stadium. The June 5-7 event features 16 men’s and eight women’s under-20 national teams from around the world, with a total of 65 matches played in what will be the largest junior tournament in the sport’s history.

Rugby returns to the Olympic Games in 2016 after an absence of nearly 100 years and "we think the timing is perfect for Hawaii to host this world-class event," AWS co-founder and tournament chair McKay Schwenke said. "We didn’t know that it would be an Olympic sport when we first started working on this six, seven years ago, but it’s worked out perfectly.

"Hawaii is a great destination for this."

The sport has a strong base throughout Polynesia as well as within the Polynesian communities in Hawaii. USA Rugby already has recognized Hawaii as a hotbed of talent, with a number of players dotting USAR competitive and development rosters.

"We have a huge fan base locally," AWS co-founder and president Reg Schwenke, McKay’s brother, said. "But we expect many rabid rugby fans to follow their teams here, people who will be first-time visitors, and we hope to give them an experience, the aloha experience, that goes beyond the tournament."

To that end, organizers have been working with the Hawaii Tourism Authority as well as the governor’s office as part of the Sports Development Initiative announced last week. AWS organizers already have plans in place for the "Ohana Festival" that will be held jointly with the rugby championship starting in 2015 and showcase the culture, arts and performing arts of the countries competing.

"We want this to be for families and the Ohana Festival to be free," said co-founder Carolyn Schwenke, whose background is in global business and event management. "We’re so excited about this. It’s sports that bring the family together. There’s nowhere in the world like ‘Aloha Land.’ Hawaii is the right place for this."

USA Rugby has sanctioned the event and approved it as an annual championship. The ASW is waiting on sanctioning and approval of the International Rugby Board to do the same, making it the official world championship.

"We plan to make Hawaii our permanent home," Reg Schwenke said.

AWS organizers are including two exhibition matches featuring U-20 all-star teams from Oahu against the neighbor islands. There also will be six keiki (under-10) exhibition flag rugby matches.