Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

Thank you Wendy for reminding us that we hadn't yet published the results of the USA Rugby South Women's DII Championships in Miami on Oct 6/7. Naples/Coconut Grove put on a wonderful event and I think a flamingolicious time was had by all. Thank you Raelyn and friends for your all of your efforts. The Don Shula was the bomb!

Here are the scores:
Game 1 - Naples/Coconut Grove def Nashville 44-5
Game 2 - Orlando def Memphis 51-0
Game 3 - Nashville def Memphis 15-8
Game 4 - Orlando def Naples/Coconut Grove 17-5

Congratulations to Orlando and Naples/Coconut Grove who move on to the National Women's DII Championship (www.wdiirugby.org). They will have the advantage of competing on USARS home turf in Sanford FL on November 10/11 against DII teams representing the MidWest, MidAtlantic, and Northeast territories. Rock their world ladies!

In an effort to continually improve this event, we would appreciate any feedback regarding the South DII Championships. We will use this to make next year's South DII Championship even better. Also, please remember that the bids to host next year's South DII Championship event (Oct 4/5, 2008) are due by Nov 17, 2007 to Gary Kent. If everyone wants to know where the tournament will be (more than a month ahead of time) get your bids in NOW!

(Emily, please post results to USARS web site where appropriate.)

Danita Knox
danita.knox@ge.com

NLD Campbell
FLAMINGOS!
ndenni01@flastatealumni.org

Host: Orlando WRFC , Orlando FL
Date: November 10/11, 2007
Tournament Director: Keith Station

Click here for directions and hotel information.

CIPP Deadline: October 1, 2007
2007 Guidelines

Seedings:
1. NOVA II (Mid-Atlantic)
2. Village Lions (Northeast)
3. Detroit (Midwest)
4. Scioto Valley (Midwest)
5. Albany (Northeast)
6. Harrisburg (Mid-Atlantic)
7. Orlando (USA Rugby South)
8. Naples / Coconut Grove (USA Rugby South)

Saturday:
Game 1 - Nova II versus Naples / Coconut Grove
Game 2 - Scioto Valley versus Albany
Game 3 - Village Lions versus Orlando
Game 4 - Detroit versus Harrisburg
Game 5 - Winners game 1 play Winners game 2
Game 6 - Losers game 1 play Losers game 2
Game 7 - Winners game 3 play Winners game 4
Game 8 - Losers game 3 play Losers game 4

Sunday
Game 9 - Losers game 6 play losers game 8 for 7th/8th place
Game 10 - Winners game 6 play Winners game 8 for 5th/6th place
Game 11 - Losers game 5 play losers game 7 for 3rd/4th place
Game 12 - Winners game 5 play Winners game 7 for 1st/2nd place

For more information contact: info@wdiirugby.org

So I have several trains of thought today about rugby, West rugby and Round of 16. After the rather anti-climatic weekend for West rugby and all the teams involved, I really think we have to face facts. What are those facts?

1) West Region Geographically:


We are a HUGE union with a HUGE geographic challenge. Any D1 team in the West that wants to play a highly competitive team (besides CO) has to drive over 6 hours or fly to a destination. I added up how much I spent on plane tickets and driving this year and it was well over $1000. This total does not include any out of state tournaments either, because we simply couldn't afford to attend!

Yes, this is a challenge with living in the West...but should that challenge by shunned off just because we live in the West? I think not, and the solution is not to move to another territory although that option is tempting! I think we should stick by our union and work to improve it.

We can work on building a D2 program so that teams that aren't ready to work towards D1 at least have a championship to play for, even if USA Rugby doesn't recognize it. We also need to start working on building youth/high school in all parts of the West. Colorado has a good program going and Texas is just starting one...these programs will do all good things and most importantly will bring rugby to our cities.

2) Current D1 West League Schedule:
I came to Austin right after the team's had decided to do away with the Best of the West Tournament. I really think this was a good test to try out, but I think we have found that it has not helped at all. I believe one of the main ideas behind the switch was guaranteeing high level matches throughout the year and not having a tournament style. I really think this idea was thought out and implemented well, but the end result was not what was desired. Teams are spending twice as much money and traveling way more.

Where before a team may travel to Seattle, New York or across the country, now there are no funds to do any kind of traveling besides the league matches. I believe this is a detriment to our teams and I wish the league schedule would return to the Best of the West format.

3) Result of all This:
So what is all this adding up to? The West will more than likely have two seeds challenged and will have one chance to challenge for a seed. If all goes well, we keep 3 seeds, if all hell breaks loose the West could end up without a seed. Not going to say it will happen, but lets keep an open mind here. The West is in some serious danger here, we could lose all our seeds and have to do something dramatic.

4) West Select Side
So we haven't even touched on the NA4 schedule that is going to be a financial burden and more on the unions now. Basically if you haven't heard (amazing how many teams haven't heard...) USA Rugby is placing more emphasis on the Women's National Team and the Territorial stuff leading up to it. They are doing away with the traditional ITT's or All Stars Tournament and moving towards the NA4 [correction...duh I am an idiot...they are having ITT's]. Check out these blogs from a few months ago for more details: NA4 Details & NASC to become NA4.

So the whole idea is that each territorial will have two "home" games (where is home exactly?) and one away game. These are set to happen in the Spring season and so most teams are assuming that League season should happen in the Fall season. The costs are tripling here if you aren't counting...the finances for this are getting scary. If I did the math really quickly for me personally I am counting:

2-3 West D1 League games (away)
2 West Select Side games(home)
1 West Select Side game (away)
1 NASC (away)

and if I go far enough...
1 NA4 Tournament
1-2 possible overseas tours while preparing for the Rugby World Cup

Scary stuff.

So those are the thoughts that are running through my head today...not very good stuff. I have been in the West Territory for almost 7 years now and it is becoming more and more daunting to play here.

Haha, I thought the title was pretty clever, hopefully you will too! I thought I would give a little tidbit about each game and it might be rugby related or not! Enjoy!

9:30am: Beantown vs KC Jazz 64 to 5
This game was the first game of the day and nerves seemed to be a factor for each team. The first twenty minutes were also helter skelter as the ball was a little wet from the dew on the ground. Beantown was the first team to calm down and start to control the pace of the game. They did a great job of pounding the forwards up and then sending the centers through the middle. Great game with the Jazz coming out pretty beaten up and defeated.

10 am: SD Surfers vs Atlanta 5 to 20
I was touch judging at the 11:00am game so I don't really know what happened at this game, but I could hear the crowd yelling as big runs were made and big tackles were hit. The Surfers did very well over all in this game and their next game though. Atlanta didn't look as sharp as they usually do, but they had some big runs that resulted in big tries.

11 am: Nova vs TC Amazons 17 to 20
This game was incredibly tense and awesome to watch. I was touch judging, so the action was always right in front of me. The scoring was pretty much one right after another and it came down to the wire. Nova drove and drove but it seemed that penalties were really the downfall of this game.

11:30am: ORSU vs Minn Valkyries 17 to 7
I was still touch judging for this game so I couldn't watch any of it but the end...but I heard about it. Talk about a HUGE upset!?! Evidently Minnesota could never get anything rolling on offense and ORSU was firing on all cylinders. The 7 points that Minnesota scored was in the last few minutes of the game and ORSU controlled the game.

12:30pm: Philly vs N Shore 29 to 16
This game was the game I was looking forward to all day. I really thought Philly was going to be the sleeper that surprised everyone. They have been working hard to recruit good athletes and plenty of U19 & U23 players and that will pay off eventually. These two teams played a very physical match and it was thrilling to watch.

1 pm: Glendale vs Berkeley 0 to 58
During this game I was touch judging the 2pm fight, so once again I didn't get to see it. I did hear the crowd yell though when Berkely put a try in about 2 minutes into the game. Those that watched the game said that Glendale played hard but that they were shut down completely on defense and couldn't get anything going on offense. I had never seen the back line of Jaime Lange, Janay Lake, Lynelle Kugler etc and was excited to see it...but evidently they couldn't do much because Berkeley was so stifling on defense.

2 pm: Keystone vs Furies 14 to 0
This game was great because I had never seen Keystone play before. Keystone came out of the gate swinging and scored pretty quickly. DC never seemed to get anything rolling as they were constantly backed up and having to kick for touch. This game was also physical and the penalties were pretty constant as each team was fighting hard for points. DC never gave up but never could get in the try zone.

2:30pm: New York vs Mudhens 67 to 10
This was the last game of the day and as you can see from the score New York took care of business. They had a great wide game all day and utilized the tactical kicking with great precision. The Mudhens fought the whole game but couldn't contain New York's continuity and beautiful rucks.


Beantown vs Atlanta 45 to 0
Clearly Beantown had a handle on this game as they made quick work of Atlanta...the score says most of the game. What the score doesn't say is that Atlanta fought hard, but couldn't make it happen. Great game even with the score being what it is.

MN Valkyries vs NOVA 19 to 5
This game was one of the lower scoring games of the day, but was one of the most exciting of the day. The Valkyries clearly wanted to let everyone know that they were still one of the best teams in the Midwest and they played that way. Nova didn't give up though and was a thorn in their side the whole game. They caused knock on after knock on and almost had several beautiful tries.

Surfers vs Jazz 20 to 12
This game was one of my favorites of the morning...Since Belmont didn't have their internationals to help them win their league games, I believe the best team in the South was present. I was also extremely excited to hear that the Surfers did it with their own strengths and merits. The Jazz played very well but it got away from them in the last 10 minutes of the game. Making it worse, the Surfer suffered a sin bin and won the game with 14 players on the field.

ORSU vs Amazons 12 to 24
This game was played very smart by ORSU, they had seen the Amazons strong back line and clearly took note of it. They chose to keep the ball in the forward and to pound the ball down the field, slowly opening up things on the outside. But the Amazons were able to work around that and started working the ball up the middle as well and around the outside.

N Shore vs Glendale 49 to 12
This game was also highly anticipated for me as the West had already lost a match this morning and we were putting our hope on Glendale. The match was strong as Glendale had several great runs but couldn't keep N Shore out of the try zone.

Berkeley vs Philly 31 to 10
This game was one of the more highly anticipated in my opinion. Philly played hard and I thought they might have won if the game was only 30 minutes long. It wasn't a fitness issue, it was more a physical issue in my opinion. Berkeley rucked hard all day long and it was a physical match to say the least. Philly had several opportunities to score again but decision at the back of the ruck seemed to take to long.

Mudhens vs DC 7 to 41
I didn't see this game as I was watching the Berkeley vs Philly game, but the score pretty says that it was a blowout.

New York to Keystone 31 to 7
Again New York played the last game of the day and the crowd was pretty amped up on rugby at this point. Keystone came out to win and looked strong in the first 30 minutes but then they seemed to wither pretty quickly. New York kept pounding them in the forwards and used their brute strength to control the game.

**Pictures were taken by Ashley Mefford of the Austin Valkyries. She is still working on editing them, so keep checking back for more pictures and albums.

Sunday Oct 28, 2007:

Beantown vs Atlanta 45 to 0
MN Valkyries vs NOVA 19 to 5
Surfers vs Jazz 20 to 12
ORSU vs Amazons 12 to 24
N Shore vs Glendale 49 to 12
Berkeley vs Philly 31 to 10
Mudhens vs DC 7 to 41
New York to Keystone 31 to 7

Matchups November 9-11 Kissimmee, Fla.

Cup Semifinal: New York v. Beantown
Cup Semifinal: Berkeley v. Twin Cities

Plate Semifinal: Keystone v. Atlanta
Plate Semifinal: ORSU v. Philadelphia


Stay tuned for pictures, video and more in the next week or so!

MATCH SCHEDULE:

Saturday, October 27
9:30am: Beantown vs KC Jazz 64 to 5
10 am: SD Surfers vs Atlanta 5 to 20
11 am: Nova vs TC Amazons 17 to 20
11:30am: ORSU vs Minn Valkyries 17 to 7
12:30pm: Philly vs N Shore 29 to 16
1 pm: Glendale vs Berkeley 0 to 58
2 pm: Keystone vs Furies 14 to 0
2:30pm: New York vs Mudhens 67 to 10

Sunday, October 28
8:30am KC Jazz vs SD Surfers
9:00am: Beantown vs Atlanta
10:00am: NOVA vs Minn Valkyries
10:30am: Amazons vs ORSU
11:30a: N Shore vs Glendale
12:00pm: Philly vs Berkeley
1:00pm: Furies vs Mudhens
1:30pm: Keystone v New York

We arrived at Burr Field this morning with temperatures in the low 50's and a bit of dew on the ground. As you can see from my "mountain outfit" as my girlfriend called me...I was cold! But soon the sun came out from behind the trees and we had a BEAUTIFUL rugby day ahead of us.

The pitches were lined perfectly and the hard Texas ground was just begging to be touched by all the rugby glory out there. The first few games of the day were highly contested and were very intense. I touch judged two of the games today and played "trainer" for the rest. Need something taped? Wendy can do that!

Over all I think the first day or Round of 16 included some GREAT rugby and an even better crowd. Austinites were out in force and we appreciate the support from the local community here.

One of the great ideas coming from the tournament in my opinion was the "anti-bacterial stations" the Austin Blacks put together. See the picture on the right for a visual: basically its a bucket turned over, with a lovely white towel over it and two anti-bacterial bottles for our sanitation purposes. Cute right?

Also we the Austin Valkyries are pretty excited about the raffle we put together. The items are wide and varied from Mary Kay makeup to the sweetest All Black Jersey we have ever seen! Come on out and buy an armful of ticket...yes you can bring you lock's long arms...for $10.

Look for more results tomorrow afternoon.

I will be LIVE blogging from my Treo 680 this weekend, look for scores updates throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday.

"Reporting live from the Women's Round of 16 in Austin, TX Ms. Wendy Young..."

USA Rugby National Championships - Round of 16

MATCH SCHEDULE:

Saturday, October 27
9:30am: Beantown v Kansas City Jazz
10 am: S.D. Surfers v Atl Harlequins
11 am: NOVA v T.C. Amazons
11:30am: MinnValkyries v ORSU Jesters
12:30pm: Philly v Chi North Shore
1 pm: Glendale v Berkeley All Blues
2 pm: Wash. Furies v Keystone
2:30pm: New York v E.C. Mudhens

Sunday, October 28
8:30am Loser Game 1 v Loser Game 2
9:00am: Winner Game 1 v Winner Game 2
10:00am: Loser Game 3 v Loser Game 4
10:30am: Winner Game 3 v Winner Game 4
11:30a: Loser Game 5 v Loser Game 6
12:00pm: Winner Game 5 v Winner Game 6
1:00pm: Loser Game 7 v Loser Game 8
1:30pm: Winner Game 7 v Winner Game 8

SEEDINGS:

1. Northeast #1: New York
2. Pacific #1: Berkeley All Blues
3. Midwest #1: Minnesota Valkeries
4. South #1: Atlanta Harlequins
5. Northeast #2: Beantown
6. Midwest #2: Twin City Amazons
7. Mid-Atlantic #1: Philadelphia
8. Northeast #3: Keystone
9 . Mid-Atlantic #2: Washington Furies
10. Midwest #3: Chicago North Shore
11 . Mid-Atlantic: #3 NOVA
12 . West #1: Kansas City Jazz
13 . Southern Cal #1: (Belmont over Austin) San Diego Surfers
14 . Pacific #2: (ORSU over Scottsdale) ORSU
15 . West #2: (Jazz (W3) over Boston) Glendale
16. Pacific #3: (Mudhens over Wisconsin) Emerald City Mudhens

So this morning I created the first (to my knowledge) Rugby Blogger Tshirt! The cool thing about the online service I am using is that YOU (meaning YOU!) can customize the tshirt. Meaning, you change change the color of the shirt, the actual words on the shirt and even the type of tshirt. Pretty sweet!

To customize your own Rugby Blogger tshirt visit here: Rugby Blogger Tshirt
**Just click the gray customize button on the bottom right.

Check it out:



**The back of the tshirt has the logo from the top of my blog. See the zoomed in shot to the right of the tshirt.

So this morning I awoke to a very Harry Potter like day. You know the days that the book talks about where the wind is whipping everything about and the rain is relentless? A day where in the great hall, Dumbledore would have changed the sky to sunny and bright. Hey, by the way did you hear that Dumbeldore is gay? Who knew!

Anyways, loving the fallish weather and excited about carving pumpkins on Wednesday night! I know this may be hard to read for those of you that are experiencing snow and bitter cold, but it was in the fifties for the first time last night. I love this kind of weather and I love that it is the middle of October and we are just starting to get cold. LOVE IT!

So check out a few of the cooler pumpkin carvings...err pumpkin arrangements I found on the net:









Haha, after I had looked for a few pumpkin designs I liked, I came across this website: http://www.extremepumpkins.com. Very similar to Ace of Cakes (Extreme Cakes) on TLC where they light cakes on fire and reguarly have fireworks included. SWEETNESS!

Houston Tournament - Oct 13, 2007


Sorry this post is so late...been really crazy with work, rugby and school. But the good news is, I finished my math class (got an A!) and have finished out the semester. Overall the grades were MUCH higher than they usually are, so I am quite proud of myself. Only three (maybe four) semesters to go and I will have finally finished my Bachelor's degree. Considering I have hated school since I started it, this will be a big accomplishment in my life!

Anyways, so rugby...wow rugby, you consume my life, ruin my life, elevate my life...what to do with this love hate relationship? Maybe I will write more about that topic later!

So the majority of the Valkyries arrived in Houston Friday night and stayed at our teammate's parents house. The house was rather large and was decorated with many many elephants. Jake my dog, came with us and he had never experienced wooden stairs, so the first run up was pretty hilarious for those of us downstairs. He was slippin' and slidin' everywhere and almost fell a couple of times. He is still such a puppy, all gangly and silly. But I love him so much...I don't care if his legs are three times longer than his body!

So we slept pretty good as most people had a bed, couch or air mattress. This team is so smart, they invested in 5 air mattresses for the team, so we never are without comfort! The next morning we awoke and headed down into downtown Houston for the tournament. We knew this weekend was going to be a different weekend as were going to play all our Bside players and do what if situations. What if the starting flyhalf, scrumhalf etc goes down? So we were mentally prepared to maybe play out of position or to be on the sidelines for a half.

The first game was against the University of Texas at 9:45am. We played well as we outmatched them even with a few players out of position and a few of the more experienced girls on the sideline. We worked hard to try and remember that yes, we can run around them, but why not work on our game plan and work on the fundamentals? UT played very well though and were hard hitting in the scrum and the rucks. I believe this was the game where we took out the starting flyhalf and moved someone in to get some time there...always good to be prepared!

The second game of the day was against Texas State University...we won by several tries but again tried to focus on not running around people but active support with good decision making. In this game I believe we had the starting scrumhalf sit one half and then had some players moved around where they might not usually play. It is good to see the versatility of most players as they can be a forward, back, center, wing, hooker etc. Love those utility players!

Then we had a pretty long break for lunch and until our next game. A few of the Valks played for other teams as most of the teams only had a few subs. A few Valks and myself played in the SHSU vs TX State because HARC had loaned a few players and TX State was getting stomped all over. It was fun to play with a different team and I even played fullback for a few minutes. I never liked that position, I like to be close in to the action, hence being a scrumhalf! LOL.

* The picture is of the Valks that stayed after the tournament to get our 2nd place prize. Houston had taken a team picture earlier in the day and then blown them up and framed them. Great tournament prizes!

For the final we played A&M and the game was very evenly matched again. We stuck to our guns again all day and played the Bside girls again. Both teams played very well but A&M won with a buzzer try with no time to spare. Great game girls.

Good weekend in all, look forward to a similar tournament in Austin in the Spring...

Congrats to South Africa for winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup this weekend. We watched it in a bar with plenty of rugby folk...good times.

I will be blogging more tonight, been crazy busy! Look for the Houston Tournament results, High Desert results and more!

Also, I am working on the layout and am not satisfied with the large thighs (and by large thighs I mean because the image is so big...not because my 8man has large thighs!) in the picture above either...still working on a header. Ideas, thoughts...leave 'em in the comments.

Free the Grapes! is a national, grassroots coalition of consumers, wineries and retailers who seek to remove restrictions in states that still prohibit consumers from purchasing wines directly from wineries and retailers.

* Wisconsin Consumers: Click Here to maintain shipping!
* Ohio Wine Lovers: Click Here

Click here to send a message to your state legislators today!

Blog: Join the discussion

I found this site this morning after checking out woot.com. If you don't know what woot.com is, check it out...they sell really cheap stuff that is awesome! Yea not the best description I have ever come up with in my life, but kind of out of words this morning.

I know there are bigger issues in life, but the graphic was just kick a$$! Have a great weekend, GOOOOOO ENGLAND!

USA Rugby National Champships - Round of 16

SEEDINGS:

1. Northeast #1: New York
2. Pacific #1: Berkeley All Blues
3. Midwest #1: Minnesota Valkeries
4. South #1: Atlanta Harlequins
5. Northeast #2: Beantown
6. Midwest #2: Twin City Amazons
7. Mid-Atlantic #1: Philadelphia
8. Northeast #3: Keystone
9 . Mid-Atlantic #2: Washington Furies
10. Midwest #3: Chicago North Shore
11 . Mid-Atlantic: #3 NOVA
12 . West #1: Kansas City Jazz
13 . Southern Cal #1: (Belmont over Austin) San Diego Surfers
14 . Pacific #2: (ORSU over Scottsdale) ORSU
15 . West #2: (Jazz (W3) over Boston) Glendale
16. Pacific #3: (Mudhens over Wisconsin) Emerald City Mudhens

MATCH SCHEDULE:

Saturday, October 27
9:30am: Beantown v Kansas City Jazz
10 am: S.D. Surfers v Atl Harlequins
11 am: NOVA v T.C. Amazons
11:30am: MinnValkyries v ORSU Jesters
12:30pm: Philly v Chi North Shore
1 pm: Glendale v Berkeley All Blues
2 pm: Wash. Furies v Keystone
2:30pm: New York v E.C. Mudhens

Sunday, October 28
8:30am Loser Game 1 v Loser Game 2
9:00am: Winner Game 1 v Winner Game 2
10:00am: Loser Game 3 v Loser Game 4
10:30am: Winner Game 3 v Winner Game 4
11:30a: Loser Game 5 v Loser Game 6
12:00pm: Winner Game 5 v Winner Game 6
1:00pm: Loser Game 7 v Loser Game 8
1:30pm: Winner Game 7 v Winner Game 8

I will be working on the new layout for a few days...let me know what you think.

WE

Today is Blog Action Day! I didn't know it existed...but was excited to read about it and wanted to pass it on!!

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

Blog Action Day is about MASS participation. That means we need you! Here are 3 ways to participate:

• Post on your blog relating to the environment on Blog Action Day
• Donate your day’s earnings to an environmental charity
• Promote Blog Action Day around the web

And in Rugby NEWS:

NRU U19 Tryout This Weekend

Sunday October 21, 2007
Albany, NY
10:30AM - 4PM
Dick Green Field

Directions to the field can be found:
http://www.albanyknicksrfc.org/directions_DG.htm

Registration Fee
There is a $30 Player Registration Fee. Cash or checks made payable to Jenna Bussman will be accepted.

NOTE: **ALL PLAYERS MUST HAVE A COACHES RECOMMENDATION TO ATTEND THIS SELECTION CAMP.** Contact Jenna Bussman ASAP please provide names, school, positions and years playing, if known, for every player. All players should have insurance information and bring the signed waiver the day of the camp. Jenna's email is u19nrugirls@gmail.com

Coaches:
K.O. Onufry, former USA Women's National Team Member, and current NRU U19 All-Star Team Head Coach, will lead this event. Kevin O'Brien, former USA Women's National Team Coach and current NRU U19 All-Star Assistant Coach will also be in attendance. All coaches are invited and encouraged to attend this event with their players.

Best regards,
Jenna Bussman
NRU U19 Manager

More info can be found here.

A day in the Life of Amanda Ogle, FSU Women's Rugby

Thirty-two years ago, Women's Rugby Football Club was founded at Florida State University. Ironically, the club was not started by females, but rather the FSU Men's Rugby Club. The boys' team decided to create the organization as an attempt to meet girls.

Since their initial efforts to pick up ladies, the women's team has won the national championship four times, and the club's alumni have played for the United States national team.

"Rugby culture is just unlike any other. We meet so many different types of people out there on the pitch and from so many places in the nation. We will oftentimes even meet ruggers from abroad too," Women's Rugby Club Vice President and FSU senior Jocelyn Karpy said. "It really takes a fellow rugger to understand why we love to play as much as we do."

Read more here.

Glendale Rugby - Game Tape

Aren't we always looking for good women's rugby game tape? Well Glendale has all of their matches including their men's matches available for viewing. The most recent women's matches were Glendale vs St. Louis & Austin. Pretty cool! The commentators are also very good and do quite well at explaining the game and keeping up with the game.

Click here for the video link.

Rugby Research Project - Jaime Burke

Hello Women's Club Rugby Community,

I am currently working on a research project as part of my newly started PhD program exploring the most common traumatic injuries sustained during women's club rugby. I am surveying both current and past players to determine whether there is any link between position, years played, level of play, etc that impact the likelihood of someone suffering various types of injuries. It would be really helpful to me and my research if you would fill out the survey, whose link I have included in this email. It will take 5-10 minutes, depending on the
depth of your responses. All responses are completely anonymous.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=6axXQomV0CTw1QZrErG80A_3d_3d

Please pass this survey along to other club rugby players or to your respective teams.

Thank you for your time and help,

Jamie Burke - Berkeley All-Blues
University of New Hampshire
Department of Education

Rugby Magazine - Issue 12

Articles & Pictures Featuring:

Quarter-final reviews, Your guide to the Semi-Finals, Report from Marseilles
& Win the boots the pros wear!!


USA Rugby Coaching Clinic @ Jesuit College Prep in Dallas

The Texas Rugby Union (TRU) will pay the following re-imbursement for Early Registrants only. If you attend L1 at this clinic, then the L2 and L3 re-imbursements will be available once you complete those courses.

$30 for L1 $60 for L2 $90 for L3

An additional $40 re-imbursement is also available for those who take the TRU Referee Course which will have a nominal fee which will also be re-imbursable after the person has refereed 5 games.

*Individuals that do go on to Coach club can apply to the TRU for a Grant at some point later in time for the balance of the costs

Jesuit College Preparatory and the Dallas Rugby Football Club will be hosting the USA Coaching Development Program clinics that take the place of the previous coaching levels I, II, and III. The programs are Introducing Rugby and Developing Rugby Skills and are scheduled for Saturday Nov. 3 and Sunday Nov. 4, 2007 at Jesuit College Preparatory School in Dallas, TX

Register early and only pay $125 for registration:
Early Registration – 3 Fridays or 15 days prior to workshop 12 pm MT- $125
Registration - Ends 2 Fridays or 8 days prior to workshop 12pm MT - $175
Late registration - Ends 1 Friday or 1 day prior to workshop at 12pm MT - $225
Walk-In Registration – Day of workshop and strongly discouraged - $300

Registration is done online through USA Rugby at http://usarugby.learn.com. Once online at the USA site find the Coaches' Portal for registration.

Please sign up early as the clinics will be cancelled if there is not satisfactory attendance. Please take advantage of the local clinic and avoid long distance and travel costs at other locales.

If there are any questions, please email to amattacchione@jesuitcp.org or texasprop@hotmail.com for information or assistance.

Yours in Rugby,
Anthony Mattacchione
Assistant Director, Community Service & Social Justice Program
Varsity Rugby Coach / P.E. Instructor
Jesuit College Preparatory School
12345 Inwood Road
Dallas, Texas 75244-8094
http://www.jesuitcp.org/athletics/rugbynew/rugbymain.htm

I am so excited for this final, the host country against the defending champions. Who could have asked for more drama and excitement? Well maybe New Zealand...

Of course I am rooting for England, I watched with abated breath when Jonny kicked the winning points last year. What a hot rugby player and has always inspired my kicking game. Coincidence that we can both kick with left and right? I think not! Haha.

Dear Women’s Coaches and Club Representatives:

I am contacting you today with regards to an issue that has already been addressed with Traci Schmidtke (Austin) and Alena Kolarsky (HARC) in regards to a Girl’s Youth Rugby Skills Development Clinic. Hopefully you might have some interest from your team with regards to helping out or sending interested individuals to partake in this endeavor.

About 4 weeks ago the Texas Youth Rugby Association (TYRA) addressed the issue presented to us by USA Rugby with the non-existence of women’s high school and youth rugby teams in the State of Texas. Our brainstorming and vision lead us to develop and host a girl’s skills development clinic in conjunction with the USA Rugby CDP Clinic in Dallas on November 3rd and 4th. We have full support from USA Rugby and the clinic will take place from 9 am – 3 pm on that Saturday and we are trying to get as much interest as possible. With some support from TYRA, the USA Rugby Football Foundation and some generous donors we have rugby balls and t-shirts to give out to any High School or Junior High School girl who attends as well as some information about Rugby as an emerging sport and the possibilities in the area to play.

We hope that as many players and coaches from various clubs will be on hand to help out and show the girls that they too can play this game. We also want to show them that this is a game to be played in high school, college and beyond. What we would also ask is that your teams help out by donating their time or any rugby items that you might have on hand to help promote the clinic in your area as well as to be given to individual participants throughout the day for their participation and efforts. Other clinics are also being planned for the Austin and Houston areas.

Please remember that we are promoting this sport in local high schools and parochial programs and want to keep encourage the growth of Rugby that both the Texas Youth Rugby Association and USA Rugby have worked hard to achieve.

If you have nay questions or concerns please contact either Rick Marshall (TYRA President) rmarshall@energyexports.com or myself; we will try to get back to you as soon as possible.

Yours in Rugby,
Anthony Mattacchione
USA RUGBY Youth Development Network Member
Texas
amattacchione@jesuitcp.org
Toll Free: 1-877-527-2634 ext. 360
(972) 387-8700 ext. 360
(972) 387-1410 (Fax)

Explore USA Rugby through our website: http://www.usarugby.org

Dear teams,

My name is Jenn Degroot and I play for the Austin Valkyries. I am sure you guys are aware that the Women's Round of 16's Championship Tournament is coming to Austin October 27 & 28 and I have taken on the role of organizing volunteers for the event.

It's such an exciting opportunity to have this amazing rugby event in our own backyard. We, the Valkyries, are partnering with the Austin Black's men's team to put on the best tournament USA Rugby has experienced so we can be a venue for future rugby events.

As a part of the tournament we are in need of a number of individuals to volunteer their time to help at the tournament. Volunteering will entail tasks like ball running, assisting referees, running scores and paperwork and keeping the teams supplied with water for their sideline. We would greatly appreciate your participation in helping at this tournament. As a volunteer, USA Rugby will provide you with a Staff t-shirt and you will have the opportunity to watch rugby played by the best teams in the US. There will be two volunteer shifts; morning and afternoon. You can certainly volunteer for both or you are welcome to just watch some great rugby.

Please forward this information on to your teammates and compile a list of names and emails of all that would be interested in participating at the tournament. I would appreciate it if you could send me this list by October 15th, so that we can know how many volunteers we will have and because the tournament is quickly approaching. I will be sending more detailed information in the next weeks.

For the teams that have already expressed interest in helping out, thanks for being so prompt about it, if you could get me a list of names and emails that would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Jenn DeGroot

In case you were curious, National Seedings so far:

1. Northeast #1 - New York
2. Pacific #1 - Berkeley All Blues
3. Midwest #1 – TBD
4. South #1 - Atlanta Harlequins
5. Northeast #2 - Beantown
6. Midwest #2 - TBD
7. Mid-Atlantic #1 - TBD
8. Northeast #3 - Keystone
9. Mid-Atlantic #2 - TBD
10. Midwest #3 - TBD
11. Mid-Atlantic #3 - TBD
12. West #1 - Kansa City Jazz
13. SoCal #1 - TBD
14. Pacific #2 - ORSU
15. West #2 - Glendale Olde Girls
16. Pacific #3 - Emerald City Mudhens

I will be inputting scores as I get them this week...keep checking back for updates. Leave a score in the comments in you know it!

Scottsdale vs Belmont Shore 15 - 7
Kansas City vs Glendale 7 - 14
St. Louis vs Austin Valkyries 14 - 25
Maryland vs DC Furies 0- 3
Raleigh vs Philadelphia 10 - 73
Coast vs San Diego 0 - 31
Chicago vs North Shore 3 - 51
Wisconsin vs Minnesota 0 - 28
Fog vs Sacramento (Sunday)

Dartmouth A vs Vassar A 12 - 17
Darmouth B vs Vassar B 5 - 25
Northeastern vs Providence 17 - 3
Princeton vs Univ VA 30 - 0
UW-Milwaukee vs Eau Claire 54 - 14
Univ of Michigan vs Michigan State 15 - 27
Army vs Yale (Sunday)
BC vs UMASS
Brown Univ vs Radcliffe
Cornell Univ vs Binghamton (Sunday)
Eastern Illinois vs Ohio State
Hamilton College vs Geneso
MIT vs Bandeis
Univ of Florida vs Clemson CANCELLED
Univ of Oklahoma vs Univ of Texas CANCELLED
Univ of Virginia vs Univ of Maryland

Please leave your scores/results in the comments if I missed you!

Congratulations and a big 3 Cheers for the Valkyries who demolished the St. Louis Sabres this weekend by a score of 25 to 14. I didn't take a huge amount of notes this time but will do my best to sum up the game.

17 Valkyries braved the University of Texas/University of Oklahoma traffic and headed to Dallas Friday night. Then that Saturday morning we flew on Southwest to St. Louis , MO. We had everyone show up on time for the flight and we had a good spot in line for the cattle drive that is Southwest's airline seating policy. We were all seated on the plane and ready to take off when the flight attendants noticed water pouring out of some of the passenger units above the seats. So we sat on the plane for about 30 minutes while they tried to assess the problem...all the while we are knowing that we HAVE to be in St. Louis as soon as possible! Finally they moved us to a new plane (fastest de board ever!) and they moved all our luggage and passengers over to the new jet. The pilots were very considerate and hurried the takeoff procedures, taxiing and even made up considerable time in the air. Finally we touched down in St. Louis an hour behind schedule.

After flying in Sat. morning for an afternoon game, the first 5 minutes were a little rough for a sleepy Valks team. St. Louis took the ball down the field early to score an initial 7 and take the lead while the Valks didn't seem able to tackle, ruck or play defense. Fortunately, the early shock woke up a team that had been working on these very skills with a single minded determination.

The team attacked the ensuing St. Louis possession with fierce pressure defense and strong rucking to regain possession and prevent the Sabres from entering the Austin half of the field. At approximately the 10 minute mark, Austin put together a series of two crashes off of two dominate rucks to set up a back line that was itching to display their talent. Bags (Meredith Bagley) , Roz (Rosalind Chou) and Kitty (Stephanie Dorsey) (Fly, Inside and Outside) earned a triple nomination for the Oscar award with their incredible performance in convincing the opposition that the ball was going either way outside or back inside on a crash. Fullback Heidi Whitman could have driven a Mack truck through the 15 meter wide hole created in the middle of the defense. Just to prove that she had the moves as well, Heidi proceeded to literally juke the St. Louis fullback onto her ass on the way to a center try (the girl fell over in her attempt to get into position to tackle and didn't lay a hand on Heidi). Austin tied the score on conversion by Scrumhalf Wendy Young.

Having reminded themselves that they had come to win, Austin proceeded to dominate the next 15 minutes of play with strong ball retention - setting the ball properly and rucking hard while the Sabres attempted unsuccessfully to poach - combined with crashing, supporting play from the backs. The backs truly shone in their own rucking efforts and illuminated an incredible inability of the opposing backs to ruck at all. After marching down the field, the scrummies pulled off a technically perfect slow ball roll from 5 meters out which they pushed all the way in and put down for a try.

My sincere apologies that I cannot name all five of the scrummies involved in the push and score (ball started with Traci Schmidtke, Rachel Kraft sealing the ball with Alex McCarthy, Ashley Mefford & Jennifer Degroot supporting). I would also like to point out the discipline of the scrum: the initial slow ball roll involved 3, Wendy called for 2 additional players to help and they crashed hard to create the strong push over while the other 3 forwards remained in perfect position to either join or crash as needed - awesome display of discipline and determination. At 20 minutes the score is Austin 12 - St. Louis 7.

At this point in the game, Austin has taken its first Cup match lead of the fall season and seems to have shocked themselves. As a result, the Valks proceed to lose the ball to a poach (lack of support for the ball carrier) and start sitting back on rucks and not attacking on defense. Within 2 minutes, the Sabres have pushed the Valks back 30 meters and then broken through several missed tackles to regain the lead at the 22 minute mark:
Austin 12 - St.Lo. 14

Having now been reminded that the game is actually 80 minutes long as opposed to 20 minutes, Austin rededicates themselves to hard hitting, hard rucking and supporting rugby. The scrum not only wins its own puts, but steals an opponent's put that shoots out under the flanker (Tiffany Hall). The backs start to dominate by crossing the gain line on every play with the wings coming in to support, pass and ruck like crazy. Austin drives all the way down into the try zone on strong crashing by scrummies and centers (many kudos to BK (Jennifer Degroot) and Roz (Rosalind Chou) for punishing punches and proper sets in the rucks) leading to 3 restarts for a ball held up, a ball touched down by St. Louis and a ball kicked for touch from in-goal.

The Valks finally put down another try by crushing the opposition in a ruck which causes the ball to squirt out the back. Apparently, the entire Sabre team missed this occurrence as Scrumhalf Wendy Young ran right by several opponents and leaped on the loose ball in the try zone. (I remember finding myself in the post position because I knew that they were going to attempt to kick, so it didn't matter who was at the post. Next thing I knew the ball had squirted back into the St. Louis try zone and I was throwing myself on the ball. The ref watched the whole thing and with a large grin on his face...granted me the try. I leaped up and couldn't believe I had such an easy try!!) At 35 minutes: Austin 17 - St. Lo. 14

HALFTIME

Starting the 2nd half with renewed determination and a hunger to prove itself, the Austin team came out and dominated. Fitness (or maybe just an acclimation to playing in 90 degree weather) began to show as a Sabre team with two sides and multiple subs began consistently giving ground to an Austin team that travelled with 19 and had several injuries and illnesses (I really think Jaspers (Jennifer Hansen) should have attempted to projectile vomit while running). A quick note on the projectile vomiting...in the rush to get to the fields and warm up, we were forced to stop at McDonalds for breakfast and that proved to be a VERY poor choice! Jasper and myself had the breakfast burritos and ended up with a slight case of food poisoning the rest of the day. We were often seen to the side of the field trying to make ourselves vomit so we would feel better. Not good at all! One more reason to never eat McDonalds.

Team support and strong rucking led to a 20 minute mostly offensive possession in the St. Louis end of the field. Some important notes: when the opposition did gain the ball, they never kept it long...we won every scrum down and Krafty had two excellent pick and pops...the backs and loosies had an incredible 50 meter run/pass/run/pass...etc. support down the sideline (Kudos esp. to Kitty (Stephanie Dorsey), Lisa (Lisa Huoy) and Jaspers (Jennifer Hansen)) and at one point after a knock by Austin (rare, but it happened) I personally stood at the gain line for the scrum down and watched as our defense from scrum to wing pushed them back 20 meters and finally regained possession.

From this point on, St. Louis seemed to be losing steam. Both the scrummies and backs were attacking and gaining ground with every play and Austin won just about every set piece. A great line out combo of Shalay (Ashley Mefford) throwing to T Hall (Tiffany Hall) jumping retains Valk possession while the lifters also manage to position Tiff to steal several Sabre balls. The backs are punching through or passing out and rucking hard when caught leading to ground gained at every opportunity. At approximately 20 minutes after having been set up by strong rucks, Fullback Heidi Whitman took the opportunity to embarrass the Sabre back line and put down the fourth try of the day. (This try came off of a beautiful scrum by the scrummies and an 8 man pop from Jaspers to me to Heidi. The hole between the flanker and the wing was like the red sea! Heidi threw a shoulder move into her sprint which juked the defense and touched it down easily. Austin 22 - St.Lo. 14

The remainder of the game went pretty much the same way: Austin dominated in every phase and remained down in the opponents end of the pitch. With 2 minutes left, the Valks opted for a penalty kick (Wendy Young) leading to a final score of Austin 25 - St.Lo. 14

here's to line outs to the back pod, backs running hard and tries touched down.

here's to pick and goes with support, hooking up with the back line and tries touched down.

here's to T to A with an X or two thrown in for fun, and tries touched down.

here's to being aggressive on defense and tackling low, turnovers and tries touched down.

here's to squeeze, sink, e-ngage hitting, and tries touched down.

can you feel it?

I refereed my first match on Saturday! My roommate and I both traveled to College Station, TX to referee our first matches! She refereed the UT Grads vs the College Station B side men's game and I officiated over the Rice A side vs Texas A&M B side women's match.

It was AWESOME! The first ten minutes was total chaos, at least in my mind. :) The game was moving along but I found myself in the way and second guessing myself. Towards the twenty minute mark I realized that I just needed to calm down and do what I know to do! After I calmed down I felt much better and I felt like I was able to positively manage the game.

My "adviser" if you will, Chris was giving Meg and I tips and guidelines based on our performance and it was really helpful. He really explained a lot of the finer points of where to stand, tone of voice, whistle volume and more. He even nicknamed me "smiles!"

So for my first match to officially referee, a SUCCESS! Chris said that Meg and I did fabulous jobs and made big improvements after halftime. It was especially hard for me to adjust as I am SO used to approaching every ruck as a scrumhalf...I was often too close and in the way. I had to think the whole time I was approaching, get to the side the ball is on, get to the side! It was a ton of fun though! I can't wait to referee my next match!

So today I am working on the bible for the St. Louis match and I am really excited about this match. We have been working really hard in practice the last two weeks and have been non=stop talking about rugby! The House of WAM (where I live) is always abuzz with rugby...its awesome!

The image at right is a Google Maps image where you can see the Gateway Arch! Look closely, its the silver part, the shadow is more discernible than the actual arch. Pretty cool!

So we play the St. Louis Sabres on Saturday (Oct 6, 2007) and most of the team is flying in Saturday morning. We did this because most of us paid over $250 to fly to Denver two weeks ago, so we needed a cheap alternative. Most of us got flights to St. Louis for under $175...not bad! So we will see how a Friday night drive to Dallas and EARLY flight to St. Louis works.

So as a result most of the team is staying Saturday night and I have been checking out food places, bars etc downtown...so we an experience a bit of St. Louis while we are there. Have any suggestions of somewhere to eat or drink? Leave it in the comments!

I was selected as a reserve for the USA Women's National Team that is traveling to ENGLAND in December...more info to come soon.

I will post the list as soon as it is published publicly...

DC vs Philadelphia 5 - 8
NOVA vs Raleigh 51 - 3
Belmont Shore vs San Diego 19 - 17
Scottsdale vs Coast 15 - 0
Mudhens vs ORSU 8 - 49
Twin Cities vs Wisconsin 74 - 0
Fog vs Sacramento no results
Minnesota Valkyries vs Chicago North Shore no results

Dropkick Photos has a few photos from past 2007 D1 League Matches as well. Check it out here.


Brown Univ vs Vassar 36 - 21
Colorado vs Northern Colorado 20 - 0
Cornell vs SUNY (Sunday) 64 - 3
Florida vs Florida State 36 - 0
Navy vs Air Force 32 - 12
Penn State Univ vs JMU 31 - 0
Ohio State vs WVU 14 - 0
Syracuse vs Univ of Buffalo (Sunday) 0 - 34
Texas A&M vs Rice 85 - 0
UMASS vs Army 10 - 27
West Chester vs Princeton 17 - 0
Dartmouth vs Northeastern (Sunday)
Hamilton College vs Buffalo State
MIT vs Framing ham (Sunday)
Princeton vs West Chester
Providence vs BC
UW-Milwaukee vs Vernon Harlequins
Univ of Florida vs Florida State Univ
Univ of Michigan vs Bowling Green
War of the Roses Tournament (Norman, OK)
Yale vs Radcliffe

Check out dropkickphotos.com for the 2007 All MN Tournament College games.

Please leave your scores/results in the comments if I missed you!