Benidorm Sevens: Stunning Debut for Atlantis Women:

Atlantis Women Win Benidorm Sevens

(Atlantis tournament #26)
Tara Flanagan & Emil Signes
June 1992
JUNE 16, 2013
AUG. 23, 2017

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[Note of 2013, Emil: This description is reconstructed almost entirely from an article started by me and finished by Tara and published under her byline in the June 22, 1992 issue of Rugby. (I was coaching the German national team in the Rugby World Cup Sevens Qualifier in Sicily the following week and had to leave before the final day's competition.) Here is a link to an article in the UK magazine Rugby News.]

[Note of 2017, Emil: Update includes three items: 1. Mary Beth Spirk's basketball coaching record updated (>100 more wins); 2. a note that 1992's Tracy Henderson is today's Tracy Moens; 3. A link - below - to a partially written article, one of several I'm writing on our men and women's national sevens' teams. This one is about the men's Eagle sevens from 1986 to 1993, which includes their results at this 1992 Benidorm tournament (while the women's bracket of the Benidorm 7s wasn't for national teams, the men's bracket was ... the two teams bonded while there, and in some way we were like 2 branches of one large team).]

The two tourney winners: Fiji Men and Atlantis Women

An Eagle-laden Atlantis Women’s Invitational team, in their first-ever outing, swept the 1992 Benidorm 7s, winning all 6 of their games and outscoring their opponents 152-14.

In the final, Atlantis beat the Saracens of London, 16-4. The Saracens, a highly regarded team with a history of winning (1991 England Cup winner, 1992 England Cup runner-up, 1991 National Sevens winner, 1992 National Sevens runner-up), included 4 England internationals, a Welsh international, and a New Zealand international. The two teams had been on a collision course all weekend and were clearly the class of the tournament. Based on semifinal appearances, the Saracens were rated slight favorites.

Benidorm International Sevens

Benidorm is a tourist town (mostly Brits) on the Mediterranean in Southeast Spain. The Benidorm Sevens are actually held in the smaller town of Villajoyosa, about 10 miles to the south, but use the Benidorm name to attract English and other European teams.

The Benidorm Sevens have been in existence since 1987, and have grown in stature continuously since then. In 1988, a men's Atlantis side participated and narrowly lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual champion President's VII (London Scottish).

In 1992, Benidorm drastically upped its level by inviting several national teams, including Fiji, Samoa, the US, Spain, Portugal, Hong Kong, Tunisia among others. They also included, for the first time, a women's bracket.

A 12-team women’s bracket was part of the tourney for the first time. Participating teams included Atlantis, English teams Saracens, Blackheath, Waterloo,, and Ghouler’s Gorrilas; Swansea from Wales; Biggar from Scotland, well-rated Bona Nova from Barcelona, and four other sides.

Atlantis

Selection for the Atlantis side was limited by the fact that the US Women's Club Championship took place on that weekend, thus excluding players from the top eight US women’s teams. Nevertheless [as shown by the results] enough depth exists in the US women's program to field a championship team with the "also-rans."

The Team

Krista McFarren, New Orleans WRFC. A member of the Women's World Cup (WWC) championship team, Krista was one of only two players on the team with extensive sevens experience, gained while playing for the Maryland Stingers RFC. Krista was the team's captain and scored several tries.

Tara Flanagan, Rio Grande Surfers. One of the two self-proclaimed "Locks from Hell," Tara was one of the locks on the WWC squad, played Division I basketball, is a championship canoe racer, and was profiled in May 1991 Rugby. She was also the tour organizer, and kept hopes for the tour alive till support finally materialized one short week before the tour.

Tam Breckenridge, Rio Grande Surfers. The other "Lock from Hell" and also a WWC squad member, Tam was a member of a national championship UCLA basketball team of the late 1970s.

Chris Harju, Rio Grande Surfers. The fly half for the WWC team, "Rookie" was one of the tournament's leading scorers. She wowed the crowd with a right-footed conversion from the right touchline in an early match.

Elise Huffer, Peninsula Chaos. Inside center on the WWC team, Elise has an ability to slide through gaps, and was one of the team's leading try scorers.

Kathy Brown, University of Colorado Rainbows. An Eagle reserve center for the last two years, Kathy's speed was utilized at both wing and hooker.

Tracy Henderson [2017: Tracy Moens], New Orleans WRFC. A member of the first ever Women Eagles (1987 vs. Canada), Tracy is a defensive standout and was the number one hooker choice.

Sherri Hunt, Rio Grande Surfers. A scrum half/fullback with one Eagle match to her credit, Sherri played scrum half and prop in this tournament.

Julie Drustrup, Maryland Stingers. An up and coming center/fullback who played her first Eagle match this year, the 160-pounder was used as both prop and center.

Mary Beth Spirk, Maulie Maguires (Bethlehem, PA). The only player on the squad without any all-star experience, Mary Beth nevertheless probably had more sevens games under her belt than the rest of the team combined.

Furthermore, Emil Signes claims that if an Atlantis team doesn't have a player from the town Tony Ridnell once proclaimed to be "the sevens mecca of the US," there'd better be a good reason.

Another feather in Mary Beth's cap: the coach of the Moravian College women’s basketball team, she was Women's Division III Basketball Coach of the Year in 1992.* As the team's scrum half, she did a lot of the creating and regrouping work necessary to make seven players function as a team.

* As of 2013 Mary Beth has more than 450 wins and ranks in the top 20 winningest NCAA Division III coaches.
* As of the end of the 2016-17 season (the 25th anniversary of this first Atlantis team), Mary Beth's coaching record is 562-266.

May 1992: the first-ever Atlantis Women's team
Back: Tara Flanagan and Tam Breckenridge
Others: Emil Signes, Julie Drustrup, Mary Beth Spirk, Kathy Brown, Elise Huffer, Chris Harju, Sherri Hunt, Krista McFarren, and Tracy Henderson

Atlantis Numbers

I have given all Atlantis players numbers, chronologically then alphabetically. Each gender also has its own sequential number. This team's numbers (general, gender):

161, 1 Tam Breckenridge
162, 2 Kathy Brown
163, 3 Julie Drustrup
164, 4 Tara Flanagan
165, 5 Chris Harju
166, 6 Tracy Henderson [2017: Tracy Moens]
167, 7 Elise Huffer
168, 8 Sheri Hunt
169, 9 Krista McFarren
170, 10 Mary Beth Spirk

Practices

The team arrived in Spain Wednesday morning and had to play its preliminary matches Friday, so there wasn't much time for practice. After Wednesday afternoon's preliminary session indicated the squad's tendency to play 15s-style rugby, both Emil and Mary Beth wondered if the more patient, possession style of sevens could be learned before Friday's kickoff.

The team turned out to respond magnificently, intelligently and quickly, however, and by the end of the weekend played a style of sevens anyone would be envious of.

Although Emil acted as the team's coach, Eagle coach Steve Finkel also volunteered his time at one practice session, an occasion that was not only valuable but appreciated by all members of the team. On Sunday, Pacific Coast Women’s coach Franck Boivert journeyed down from France and assisted Atlantis in Emil’s absence.

Games

Atlantis 26 Bona Nova (Barcelona) 6.

The Catalan side held Atlantis to one try in the first half, and proved a formidable opponent. By the second half, however, Atlantis finally figured out the probe, clear pressure, move to space style of sevens and put Bonanova away handily.

1 Flanagan (try)
2 Henderson
3 Drustrup (try)

4 Spirk
5 Harju (3 conv)
6 Huffer (2 tries)
7 McFarren

Atlantis 26 Waterloo 0

Atlantis easily dominated this game, in which Julie Drustrup got to show her stuff with two long tries.

1 Breckenridge
2 Brown (try)
3 Hunt (try)

4 Spirk
5 Harju (try, 3 conversions)
6 Drustrup (2 tries)
7 McFarren

Atlantis 24 Blackheath 4

Blackheath actually went ahead early in the game, and threatened again within the first three minutes, but once Atlantis got their offense to calm down, the rest of the game was easy.

1 Breckenridge
2 Henderson
3 Flanagan

4 Hunt (try)
5 Harju (4 conversions)
6 Huffer (try)
7 Brown (2 tries)

Quarterfinal: Atlantis 36 Swansea 0

Atlantis was so finely in tune by this time, that at halftime (with the score 24-0), the team was instructed not to score anymore, but to spend 7 minutes working on its swivelling technique. Nevertheless, it twice became virtually impossible not to score, and thus two tries were score in the second half.

1 Hunt (try)
2 Henderson
3 Flanagan (try)

4 Spirk
5 Huffer (try)
6 Drustrup (2 tries, 6 conversions)
7 Brown (try)

Semifinal: Atlantis 24 Bona Nova 0

Atlantis easily handled the Spanish side, whom they had topped earlier in pool play. Despite the inconsistencies of a Spanish referee, an easy win was recorded and Atlantis retired to the shade to await the 6 P.M. final.

1 Breckenridge
2 Brown (try)
3 Drustrup

4 Spirk (try)
5 Harju (4 conversions)
6 Huffer (try)
7 McFarren (try)

Final: Atlantis 16 Saracens 4.

The key to Atlantis winning the final was to starve the ball from England flyhalf Karen Almond, the Saracens’ offensive standout and team leader.

Relentless defensive pressure by Spirk on internationally acclaimed scrumhalf Emma Mitchell, and further pressure by Harju and Huffer made good ball (or any ball) a rarity for Almond and the Saracens. The Saracens’ only try came in the last 30 seconds of play.

Atlantis’ wing Krista McFarren scored two tries to lead the victory, center Elise Huffer tallied one, and Harju added two conversions.

1 Flanagan
2 Henderson
3 Drustrup

4 Spirk
5 Harju (2 conversions)
6 Huffer (try)
7 McFarren (2 tries)

Atlantis &
Saracens after women's 1992 Benidorm final

Atlantis and Saracens following the final
Tournament Organizer Ignacio Davila is at left

Postscript

[Note of 2013, Emil: The 1992 Benidorm Sevens were club side for women, but for men they were national team events. I haven't included the men's writeup here, because this is an Atlantis site. The women of Atlantis and the men of the US traveled together, practiced at nearby sites, and attended social events together. I've very surprised that I don't have a joint picture for the two, but it seems as though there were very few pictures from this tour. The men, incidentally, were tournament runners-up to Fiji.]

[Note of 2017, Emil: over the last couple of years I've been trying to update the US national 7s teams records, for at least the first couple of decades. A brief but incomplete article on the US men's performance in Benidorm may be found near the end of the article on the US men's 7s - 1986-1993)].

US men, Runners-Up to Fiji at 1992 Benidorm Sevens

There were also several noteworthy events off-the-field. One was a bus trip and extended lunch to a pub in rural Spain in which the Atlantis women, the Eagle men, and Fiji participated. The afternoon was punctuated by a couple of hours of beautiful singing from the Fijians, and most of the Atlantis players got their photos taken with Waisale Serevi, sevens player extraordinaire; some even danced with him.

For details regarding the "bus trip from hell" or the "kangaroo court to end all kangaroo courts" you are requested to ask one of the participants.

Sponsorship

The tournament organizing committee provided all internal transportation from Madrid as well as room and board. Matt Godek provided entire kits for the team – gratis. Other contributors included George Henderson, Liz Goldenberg, John Redmond, and George and Jean Yasso.

Nevertheless, because of the uncertainty of the sponsorship, it was not certain until three days before whether the Atlantis women could go.

Rugby Tours. Maru Mejias of Rugby Tours was one of the key players in making the tour possible. A native Spanish speaker, she not only acted as a liaison with the tournament organizers, but also was able to find excellent airfares.

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