ELLENSBURG, Wash.—Central Washington men's rugby is set to participate in the USA Rugby College 7s National Championship, Saturday and Sunday at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga.
 
All of this weekend's matches will be either streamed live on Peacock or viewed on CNBC. Sunday's championship round will be televised by NBC.
 
"What a great experience for our student-athletes playing on national television," CWU head coach Todd Thornley said. "They have worked hard over the last two and a half weeks to make the transition into a tactically very different version of the game. If we work hard off the ball for each other and focus on the basics of the game, then we have a chance of going deep into the tournament. I'm excited to see how we go."
 
Playing in the D1A Men's Gold Division, the Wildcats will face three games of pool play on Saturday, when they square off against Texas A&M, Ohio State and UCLA. The top eight teams will advance to Sunday's single-elimination Cup championship, while the next four teams will participate in the Bowl championship.
 
After a long and physical 15s season which saw the Wildcats advance to the quarterfinals of the D1A national championships, Central will have to get used to a different style of rugby this weekend.
 
"For sevens we need to adjust to the increased high intensity running load our athletes will experience during a typical tournament day," Thornley said. "Also, our core skills of catch, pass and tackling are put under the microscope as one inaccuracy in those areas quite often results in points for the opposition."
 
A 7s tournament is played on a regulation field with half the players. Teams will play two, 7-minute halves with just a two-minute halftime.

"Sevens advocates for a lot more ball in hand, long range tries while also having moments of massive physicality," Thornley said. "Basically, it's all of the highlights from 15s packaged into 14 minutes of non-stop action."
 
The Wildcats will bring the following players to the National Championship: Alex Cleary (captain), Sam Dwyer, Drew Farrington, Marques Fuala'au, Conner Grande, Mitchell Hirose, Kye Jones, Campbell Robb, Oscar Treacy, Jack Tregoning, Tiai Vavao, and Noah Wright.
 
 
SATURDAY SCHEDULE
vs. Texas A&M, 10:00 a.m. EST (Peacock TV)
vs. Ohio State, 12:04 p.m. EST (Peacock TV)
vs. UCLA, 4:45 p.m. EST (Peacock TV)