64-639: The Southern California Rugby Football Union ( SCRFU ) is the Geographical Union (GU) governing body within USA Rugby that governs adult rugby union teams in Southern California , the Las Vegas metropolitan area , Arizona , and New Mexico . The SCRFU includes numerous men's and women's, leagues representing all levels of competitive play. College rugby is run by the college conferences and Youth Rugby
128-512: A geographic union: In June 1987, the position of chairman of the Board was added to the executive committee, and Bob Watkins was named to that position. Effective June 1989, that position was retitled Post of Past President, and remained an appointed post until the position was dropped in 1996. Effective January 1996, an executive vice president was added. Effective March 2000, the Vice President
192-541: A local area union of the Pacific Coast RFU, applied to become a separate territory. This was an impetus for others around the country to do the same, changing the make-up of USA Rugby, which now has seven territories (Pacific, Southern California, West, Midwest, South, Northeastern, and Mid-Atlantic). USA Rugby lobbied for several years for participation in the IRB Sevens World Series . It was finally awarded
256-424: A number of certification courses depending on the level of play. USA Rugby organizes amateur registered rugby teams into thirteen geographical unions at the senior club level. High school and youth teams affiliate with State Rugby Organizations while college teams register with either Geographical Unions or College Conferences. The current Geographical Unions are: The following states are not currently covered by
320-582: A regular event. The 12 invited teams all competed for the Shield, with the top three sides in that competition also earning core status for 2012–13. From 2013 on, the Hong Kong Sevens was played under the same 16-team format used in the rest of the series, with typically 15 core teams plus an invited team (for Hong Kong, usually the winner of the HSBC Asian Sevens Series) competing in the main draw of
384-636: A three-day event) is the most famous sevens tournament. The Hong Kong Sevens had 24 teams through the 2011–12 series, but has featured 28 teams since 2012–13, with 15 core teams and the winner of the HSBC Asian Sevens Series competing for series points. At the 2013 event, the remaining 12 teams were those in the World Series Pre-Qualifier; from 2014 forward, the remaining 12 teams are those in the Core Team Qualifier. In Hong Kong,
448-476: A truly global sport, one with widespread visibility and steadily improving standards of athletic excellence." New Zealand and Fiji dominated the first series, meeting in the final in eight of the ten season tournaments, and New Zealand narrowly won, overtaking Fiji by winning the last tournament of the series. New Zealand won the first six seasons in a row from 1999–2000 to 2004–05, led by players such as Karl Te Nana and Amasio Valence . The number of stops in
512-574: A vote on WR's 28-member Executive Council—the majority of votes are held by the 8 founding nations—although NACRA members collectively hold one vote on the Executive Council. In December 2011, for the first time, USA Rugby placed a representative on the 10-man executive committee. Bob Latham, in his role as chair of Rugby Americas North (RAN; known as NACRA before 2016), represents RAN on the executive committee. USA Rugby also has relationships with international multi-sport organizations. USA Rugby
576-480: A win, 2 for a draw, 1 for a loss, 0 for a no-show. In case teams are tied after pool play, the tiebreakers are: As of the 2009–10 series, four trophies are awarded in each tournament. In descending order of prestige, they are the Cup, whose winner is the overall tournament champion, Plate, Bowl and Shield. Each trophy is awarded at the end of a knockout tournament. In a normal event, the top two teams in each pool advance to
640-509: Is a fast-paced version of rugby union with seven players each side on a full-sized rugby field. Games are much shorter, lasting seven minutes each half. The game is quicker and faster-scoring than 15-a-side rugby, which explains part of its appeal. It also gives players the space for superb feats of individual skill. Sevens is traditionally played in a two-day tournament format. Currently, in a normal event, 16 teams are entered. World Rugby operates satellite tournaments in each continent alongside
704-902: Is a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee and interacts with the International Olympic Committee. USA Rugby also interacts with the Pan American Sport Organization, and rugby has been a sport at the Pan Am Games since 2011. USA Rugby generally earns between $ 8 million to $ 16 million in annual revenues, with the majority of the revenue coming from: (1) membership dues, (2) event revenue, (3) grants, and (4) sponsorship. Their principal expenses are: (1) High Performance, (2) Men's National Team, and (3) Marketing and Fundraising. In 2010, USA Rugby paid over $ 200,000 each to its CEO Nigel Melville and its then head coach Eddie O'Sullivan . As of 2012, Nigel Melville's compensation
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#1732859125989768-583: Is a rugby sevens competition that has been held every year in June since 2010. The tournament is the highest profile college rugby tournament in the U.S., and is broadcast live on NBC every year from PPL Park in the Philadelphia metropolitan area . Every year, the number of spectators increase, and in 2015 the College Rugby Championship broke an attendance record at over 24,000 spectators, which shows how
832-582: Is determined by points earned in each tournament. World Rugby introduced a new scoring system for the 2011–12 series, in which all teams participating in a tournament are guaranteed points. Initially, World Rugby announced the new points schedule only for the standard 16-team events; the allocations for the Hong Kong Sevens were announced later. A new scoring system was introduced in 2019–20 requiring teams to play for 7th, 11th and 15th places, previously teams had tied for 7th–8th 11th–12th and 15th–16th places. The points schedule used at each standard event until 2023
896-535: Is governed by Southern California Youth Rugby (SCYR). During the busiest part of the 15s seasons, southern California will have over 80 matches in a weekend. The current board of SCRFU is Geno Mazza (president), Patrick Rashidian (vice president), Kevin Holmquist (treasurer) and Bradley Davidson (secretary). The referee society associated with SCRFU is Southern California Rugby Referee Society (SCRRS). The oldest club in SCRFU
960-612: Is located in Glendale, Colorado . The U.S. men's national team , the Eagles, won the gold medal in Olympic rugby in 1920 and 1924. After that time, rugby in the U.S. stagnated while continuing to grow in other parts of the world. Beginning in the 1960s and continuing through the 1970s, the sport of rugby union enjoyed a renaissance in the US. This created the need for a national governing body to represent
1024-410: Is summarised below. From 2023–24 the following points schedule is used for each event: Tie-breaking: If two or more teams are level on overall series points, the following tie-breakers are used: The tour received 1,147 hours of air time in 2005–06; 530 of which was live, and was broadcast to 136 countries. By 2008–09, the hours of air time had increased to over 3,300, with 35 broadcasters airing
1088-553: Is the Eagle Rock Athletic Club (founded in 1937). The second oldest is the LARC (formed in 1958 as Universities RFC, before changing their name to Los Angeles Rugby Club in 1966). During the late-1960s and early-1970s, UCLA was the dominant college team in SCRFU, under the coaching of Dennis Storer, later the first Eagles Coach when USA Rugby was formed in 1975. The Santa Monica RFC became the dominant men's team in SCRFU throughout
1152-730: Is the head coach of the men's national sevens team . Sione Fukufuka was appointed as the Women's Eagles head coach in November of 2023. Emilie Bydwell is the head coach of the Women's Sevens team, who ranked 2nd in the world through the 2018-19 Women's World Rugby Sevens Series. USA Rugby became a member of the International Rugby Football Board in 1987. The worldwide body would become the International Rugby Board (IRB) in 1998 and World Rugby in 2014. USA Rugby does not hold
1216-793: The HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons , is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series , the competition was formed to promote an elite-level of international rugby sevens and develop the game into a viable commercial product. The competition has been sponsored by banking group HSBC since 2014. The season's circuit consists of eight tournaments held in five continents, generally beginning in November or December and ending in May or June. All tournaments feature
1280-500: The 2016–17 series , a dominant and consistent display by South Africa saw them reach the finals of the 2016–17 series rounds on eight occasions, winning five of these. As a result, South Africa were series champions with victory in the penultimate round in Paris. The season was a qualifier for the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens with the top four teams that had not already qualified, coming from this season. The teams that made it through to
1344-575: The 2010–11 academic year the NCAA has designated women's rugby an emerging varsity sport. USA Rugby is governed by an 11-member Board of Directors and four National Councils across Youth & High School, college, Senior Club and International Athlete, and its CEO is Bill Goren . It is a member of World Rugby through membership with Rugby Americas North , and a member of the United States Olympic Committee . The headquarters for USA Rugby
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#17328591259891408-551: The Core Team Qualifier. With the promotion place now determined at the Hong Kong Sevens, the London Sevens returned to the traditional 16-team format in 2013–14. The 2024 Rugby Perth Sevens features nine men’s and six women’s rounds over six months. The calendar includes stopovers in many of the usual destinations, from London to Langford, plus three new cities (Malaga, Seville and Toulouse) to replace traditional hosts Australia and New Zealand. The Hong Kong Sevens (an anomaly as
1472-598: The Cup competition. The four quarterfinal losers drop into the bracket for the Plate. The Bowl is contested by the third and fourth-place finishers in each pool, while the Shield is contested by the losing quarterfinalists of the Bowl. A third-place match is now conducted between the losing Cup semifinalists in all tournaments; this was introduced for the 2011–12 series. In 2012–13, the season-ending London Sevens expanded to 20 teams, with 12 competing for series points and eight involved in
1536-534: The PRO Rugby competition, and overspending by the high performance department. With RIM's financial performance continuing to deteriorate, in August 2017, Lewis proposed what was effectively a vote of no confidence in the board, this time getting seven votes and a similar number of abstentions. RIM's product “The Rugby Channel”, which was supposed to be a money maker for USA Rugby, finished 2017 with $ 4.2 million in losses for
1600-516: The Series began offering full-time contracts to their players. These annual salaries can range from €18,000 to €100,000. England offers among the more generous salaries, ranging from an estimated €25,000 to over €100,000. New Zealand has a graded system with salaries ranging from €23,000-plus to about €52,500 for its four top earners. The basic salary for Scottish sevens players ranges from €22,500 to €40,000. The Australian sevens players are estimated to be on
1664-481: The Sevens World Series which serve as qualifiers for Series events; in 2012–13 they also determined the entrants in the World Series Pre-Qualifier, and since 2013–14 determine the entrants in the Core Team Qualifier. In each tournament, the teams are divided into pools of four teams, who play a round-robin within the pool. Points are awarded in each pool on a different schedule from most rugby tournaments—3 for
1728-421: The Shield was awarded for the first time in 2010. Originally, the six pool winners of the Hong Kong Sevens, plus the two highest-finishing second-place teams, advanced to the Cup. In 2010 and 2011, a different system was used: In the transitional year of 2012, the Hong Kong Sevens was split into two separate competitions. The 12 core teams competed for the Cup, Plate and Bowl under a format similar to that of
1792-641: The United States have placed in the top three for several seasons but have not won the series title. The International Olympic Committee 's decision in 2009 to add rugby sevens to the Summer Olympics beginning in 2016 has added a boost to rugby sevens and to the World Sevens Series ; this boost has led to increased exposure and revenues, leading several of the core teams to field fully professional squads. The first international rugby sevens tournament
1856-417: The United States won the 2015 London Sevens to finish the season in sixth overall; Kenya won the 2016 Singapore Sevens, and Scotland won the 2016 London Sevens. Prior to the 2015–16 season World Rugby did a comprehensive review of all nine tournament hosts and adjusted the schedule, dropping two sites ( Japan and Scotland ), and adding three sites ( France , Singapore and Canada ) to the calendar. In
1920-581: The United States. On June 7, 1975, four territorial organizations (Pacific Coast, West, Midwest, and East) gathered in Chicago, Illinois, and formed the United States of America Rugby Football Union (now known as USA Rugby). USA Rugby then fielded its first national team on January 31, 1976, in a match against Australia in Anaheim, California , which Australia won, 24–12. In 1993, the Southern California RFU,
1984-551: The World Cup via this method were Canada , Argentina , Scotland and Samoa . The World Series will consist of 8 scheduled tournament stops from the 2023–24 season , which generally fall in the same order and timeframes. From 2020 to 2022, however, several of these events had to be cancelled due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic . A group of core teams, currently 12 in number, is announced for each season based on performances in
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2048-507: The World Rugby Hall of Fame: To date, 68 individuals and three teams who have made a lasting impression on rugby in the United States, have been inducted into the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame. For full bios of all the inductees and for more information about the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame, visit: usrugbyhalloffame.org. USA Rugby oversees coaching and referee development of the game. USA Rugby requires coaches and referees to register and complete
2112-470: The World Rugby Sevens Series under previous formats. With 15 core teams, there was generally only one invited team at each 16-team tournament. Before 2012–13, when there were only 12 core teams, four places at each tournament were usually available to invited teams. Key : * indicates a tied placing In 2019, World Rugby announced a plan to create a second-tier competition that would allow
2176-719: The annual USA Sevens tournament, beginning in 2004 with Los Angeles as the venue for the initial USA Sevens tournaments. In summer 2006, the tournament was moved to Petco Park in San Diego. Since 2010, the tournament has been held every year at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas Valley and has been broadcast live on NBC . USA Rugby is a Founding Sports Partner of the Sports Museum of America , joining more than 50 other single-sport Halls of Fame, national governing bodies, museums, and other organizations across North America, to celebrate
2240-486: The best thirteen sevens teams, with the addition of three invited teams, from their region to compete in a similar style format to the Sevens Series for the potential of gaining promotion to the World Rugby Sevens Series and becoming a core team. This breaks from the usual format of promotion and relegation in the sevens series. From 2013–14 series to 2018–19 the promotion/relegation was as follows: From 2020 to 2023
2304-637: The club space. The Club National Championships in early June along with the Club 7s National Championship in mid August. Rugby Super League , organized and sanctioned by USA Rugby, was the premier national level of men's club competition in the US. It was founded in 1996, but ended play as of 2012 following the Great Recession . Following the demise of the Super League, the Pacific Rugby Premiership
2368-400: The components that generated the majority of revenue: New Zealand - £54m, Scotland - £39m. Notes: In a February 2017 assembly, Board Chair Will Chang called for a vote of confidence in the board from USA Rugby's Congress, which passed by a vote of 43–1. Steve Lewis, the sole Congress member who voted no confidence in the board, cited three issues — RIM's performance, the sanctioning of
2432-563: The history, grandeur, and significance of sports in American culture. Opened in New York City on May 7, 2008, the Sports Museum of America showcases USA Rugby in its Hall of Halls Gallery, in return for their support of the creation of the nation's first all-sports museum experience. In 2014, USA Rugby created Rugby International Marketing, a for-profit company that is responsible for promoting
2496-632: The inaugural event in 1993, along with rugby joining the Commonwealth Games program in 1998. The first season of the World Sevens Series was the 1999–2000 season. At the Series launch, the chairman of the International Rugby Board, Vernon Pugh, described the IRB's vision of the role of this new competition: "this competition has set in place another important element in the IRB’s drive to establish rugby as
2560-510: The mid-1970s and early-1980s. USA Rugby USA Rugby (formally the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd. ) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States . Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugby." USA Rugby is responsible for the promotion and development of the sport in the U.S., and promotion of U.S. international participation. USA Rugby
2624-596: The naming rights to individual tournaments, while retaining its name sponsorship of the overall series. A renewed, 4-year deal was announced before the 2015–16 Series , this deal was also expanded to include the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series . In the year after the International Olympic Committee announced in 2009 that rugby sevens would return to the Olympics in 2016, most of the "core teams" on
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2688-470: The popularity of the sport is expanding. State Governing Bodies are responsible for developing an administrative structure with the objective of promoting the development of youth rugby within their state. They are also responsible for day-to-day governance, including organizing league structures, collecting dues, implementing a state championship, and conducting rugby outreach. USA Rugby has 44 state rugby organizations. The following have been inducted into
2752-502: The post-bankruptcy phase. USA Rugby is responsible for organizing the various US national teams: The Professional Rugby Organization, known as PRO Rugby , was an American professional rugby union competition that played in 2016. This was the first professional rugby competition in North America. PRO played only the 2016 season, before it ceased operations as of January 2017. Major League Rugby , another professional competition,
2816-402: The previous season. Each core team has a guaranteed place in all of that season's events. The core teams have been selected through a designated promotion/relegation process since the 2012–13 season. A new system from the 2023–24 season, will see 12 core teams, with up to 4 being relegated each year. Key: * indicates a tied placing Non-core teams are also invited to compete in every season of
2880-634: The same 12 teams. Teams compete for the World Rugby Series title by accumulating points based on their finishing position in each tournament. The bottom four teams play a repechange tournament against the top four teams of the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series . New Zealand had originally dominated the Series, winning each of the first six seasons from 1999–2000 to 2004–05, but since then, Fiji, South Africa , Samoa and Australia have each won season titles. England, Argentina and
2944-495: The series after taking home the 2008–09 title. In the 2009–10 season, Samoa who finished seventh the previous year shocked the world – led by 2010 top try-scorer and World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year Mikaele Pesamino – by winning four of the last five tournaments to overtake New Zealand and win the series. The number of core teams expanded from 12 to 15 for the 2011–12 series . Qualification for these places
3008-407: The series in 139 countries and 15 languages. Broadcast time increased further in 2009–10, with 3,561 hours of air time (1,143 hours live) carried by 34 broadcasters in 141 countries and 16 languages. In 2010–11, 3,657 hours of coverage were aired (1,161 hours live), with the same number of broadcasters as the previous season but six new countries added. For that season, Sevens World Series programming
3072-410: The series varied over the seasons, but experienced a contraction from 11 tournaments in 2001–02 to 7 tournaments in 2002–03 due to the global recession . In the 2005–06 season Fiji clinched the season trophy on the last tournament of the season finishing ahead of England. New Zealand regained the trophy in 2006–07 season in the last tournament of the season. South Africa was the next team to win
3136-470: The sport of rugby. USA Rugby is governed by its board of directors and its congress. The board is composed of 11 members: 4 independent directors, 4 international athletes, and 3 representatives from USA Rugby's National Councils across Youth, college, and Adult Club. Board members as of 2020 were: Scott Lawrence began his tenure as head coach of the men's national team in January of 2024. Simon Amor
3200-418: The style of promotion/relegation was as such: From 2024 onwards the style of promotion/relegation will be as such: The World Series results are sometimes used as a qualifier for other tournaments. For example, the top four teams of the 2014–15 series automatically qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Similarly, certain teams from the 2016–17 series qualified for the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens. Summary of
3264-412: The top four teams qualifying to the 2016 Summer Olympics , with Fiji, South Africa, New Zealand and Great Britain all qualifying through. The 2014–15 season and 2015–16 season were won by Fiji – the first time a team other than New Zealand won back-to-back season titles – led by 2015 and 2016 season Dream Team nominee Osea Kolinisau The two seasons also yielded teams winning their first tournaments –
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#17328591259893328-418: The top six placegetters for each series: Tally of top six placings in the series for each team, updated after the most recently completed 2022-23 season (obtained by summing the placings of each team as recorded in the above table of results by season). Summary of the top six placegetters for the regular season (since 2024): List of legs won by each team since 1999. Updated on 5 May 2024. Rugby sevens
3392-423: The tournament. In line with changes which began at the start of the 2016–17 World Rugby Sevens Series , the duration of the Cup final was reduced from 20 minutes to 14 minutes in 2017. In that season, the number of trophies was also reduced to two; the main Cup contested by the top eight teams from the pool stage, and a Challenge Trophy contested by the bottom eight teams from the pool stage. The season championship
3456-474: The venue in the 2012–13 season, giving the tour an event on each continent, but when Argentina joined the Rugby Championship those plans were shelved. With the same schedule, New Zealand again were the winners over South Africa. They took it again in 2013–14 with Spain the first team to be relegated after finishing last during that season with Japan replacing them. Heading into the 2014–15 season ,
3520-497: The year. On March 31, 2020, the board of USA Rugby voted to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a result of "insurmountable financial constraints" in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic crisis. On August 31, 2020, the Delaware Bankruptcy Court approved USA Rugby's plan to reimburse its bankruptcy debts owed to creditors over five years effective the following day, allowing the governing body to exit bankruptcy and enter
3584-427: Was $ 250,000. USA Rugby experienced a financial crunch in 2016–17, due to the bankruptcy of kit sponsor BLK and currency exchange rates that affect grants received from World Rugby. USA Rugby lost more than $ 4.4 million in 2017, and $ 4.2 million in 2018. Most of the losses were attributed to USA Rugby Partners, formerly known as Rugby International Marketing (RIM), which was the majority owner of The Rugby Channel which
3648-603: Was available in 332 million homes worldwide, with a potential audience of 760 million. The International Rugby Board reached a 5-year deal with HSBC in October 2010 that granted them status as the first-ever title sponsor of the Sevens World Series. Through the agreement, HSBC acquired title naming rights to all tournaments in the World Series, beginning with the Dubai Sevens on 3 December 2010. HSBC has since sub-licensed
3712-707: Was formed in 2013, and began play in 2014 as the top level of men's club competition in the U.S. The USA Rugby club structure sees the United States divided into two leagues: West and East. Within each league there are four conferences, with the winners of each conference's division advancing to the league semifinals, and the two league champions competing in the national championship. East: Atlantic North, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Southern West: Pacific North, Pacific South, Frontier, Red River USA Rugby hosts 5 total championship competitions annually. The Men's Division 1-A, Women's D1 Elite, Spring College, Fall College and College 7s Championships. The Collegiate Rugby Championship
3776-601: Was founded in 1975 as the United States of America Rugby Football Union, and it organized the first U.S. national team match in 1976. Today, USA Rugby has over 130,000 members, the largest segment being college rugby with over 32,000 members. USA Rugby oversees 1,200 high school teams, 900 college teams, 700 senior club teams, and 400 youth teams. It administers all United States national teams: senior men's and women's teams, sevens teams for both men and women, and under-20 national teams for both sexes. The organization also sponsors college rugby for both sexes, although since
3840-557: Was founded in late 2017. It began play in 2018 with seven teams, and has expanded to 12 teams as of the 2024 season. Premier Rugby Sevens , a professional rugby sevens competition, was officially sanctioned in 2021 and has played two seasons thus far in 2021 and 2022. While not yet professional, the top domestic competition for women's rugby in the US is the Women's Premier League (WPL) with 10 teams. The league completed its 10th season in 2020. USA Rugby hosts two national championships in
3904-593: Was held in 1973 in Scotland, which was celebrating a century of the Scottish Rugby Union . Seven international teams took part, with England defeating Ireland 22–18 in the final to take the trophy. The Hong Kong Sevens annual tournament began in 1976. Over the next two decades the number of international sevens competitions increased. The most notable was the Rugby World Cup Sevens with Scotland hosting
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#17328591259893968-416: Was played out at the 2012 Hong Kong Sevens . Canada (returning to core status for the first time since 2008), Spain and Portugal joined the 12 core teams for the next season. The Japan event also made a return for the first time since 2001 (lasting until 2015). New Zealand continued their dominance by finishing on top. Argentina was originally planned to begin hosting a tenth event with Mar Del Plata
4032-501: Was replaced with Athlete Vice President. Effective April 2004, the President title was replaced with chairman, and an USARRA Representative was added. Effective July 14, 2006, the governance was changed to a model with a board of directors nominated and approved by a congress. The governing body of USA Rugby opened a national office on June 3, 1988. The office has been headed by: IRB Sevens World Series The SVNS , known as
4096-509: Was sold in 2018 to FloSports. In early 2020, with the outbreak of coronavirus , USA Rugby filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to develop a financial restructuring plan. USA finished the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process as the Delaware Bankruptcy Court approved USA Rugby's debtor plan and the sport's National Governing Body. On September 1, 2020, USA Rugby was reorganized and started paying back creditors. USA Rugby annual revenues are below, along with
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