Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

Northeast Women Only All-Stars at Cape Fear
partial repost from Goff

July 4, 2008 - The Cape Fear 7s have often been used as a warmup tournament for women's territorial teams. This year that's not quite what's happening. The women's competitive bracket includes two USA Developmental 7s, under the name Atlantis, plus two area clubs.

But one territory is there, defending national champs the Northeast. Head coach Chris Ryan doesn't have all his horses there - he is likely expecting the likes of Phaidra Knight, Tyshawn Henry, Jen Sinkler, Jenna Flateman, Yancy Graf and Ines Rodriguez all to be available for the 7s NASC.

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**I have been scouring the internet for results from the tournament, but have only found results for the men. Leave results, links to picutres etc in the comments, or email me!

For a listing of 2008 7s Tournaments with results etc., check out this post.

CAPE FEAR EXCHANGE
from Hail Pelicus
Report by Tom Zanarini:

Just wanted to thank the Society for sending me to Cape Fear. I had a great time, got some good matches and was able to watch some of the higher level refs perform. The heat wasn't too bad, just made me remember playing 15's in Austin in September and April.

I had four matches on Saturday mixed up between Social, Women's Club, Women's Premiere and Men's Club. The Women's Premiere was NOVA v. Northeast Selects, a very fast paced match with great athletes. NOVA won by three tries which the Northeast coast tried to explain to me that they were all due to missed calls on my part. Right. Pat McNally was on hand to give me some pointers which I was able to execute in the next matches.

One match that I was really looking forward to was the Cape Fear II v. Kenyan Exiles II. The Kenyan I team played the Cape Fear I right before, but the Kenyans were traveling light and ended up forfeiting my match. So, that sucked. David Von Kolnitz managed to tweak the schedule and got me another match right after so I did my four and ran touch for a couple.

The banquet was quite entertaining and Zinzan held court. I got two dings, one for not producing a yellow card after awarding a penalty try for a professional foul. Cherry Point were behind by 21 and we were into full time with a penalty awarded to CP. They kicked ahead to chase for goal and an AHO (Appalachian Honors Society) player grabbed the kicker's jersey with no other defenders chasing. I awarded the penalty try, took the conversion then called full time. I truly feel foolish about that since Dave busted me about the exact same thing in Chico. Sorry! I also forgot a Hawaiian shirt for the banquet. I did get out of paying that fine due to my permanent Hawaiian shirt ink which I had to present to the court. I was wearing my 2008 Pacific Coast Referee shirt and instead of donning the offending jersey I offered it to Zinzan as payment. He told me after that it made his night because he never got a PC jersey or polo when he was a Grizzly and said he wouldn't ever ask for one, but would take one as a gift. So, karma I suppose.

Sunday was another early and on time start. I had Camp Lejeune v. Washington Irish social div. quarter-final. An entertaining match that the Irish ended up running away with in the second half. The military sides were running shallow, Fort Bragg had to forfeit all their matches because most of the team were on recall and couldn't leave base. It was nice to see the Marines and Army playing nicely together. Great athletes that chased hard all match but didn't have the rugby skills or practice to compete with the Irish. My second Sunday match was the Women's open semi with Raleigh Venom v. Maryland Stingers. Raleigh routed the Stingers on Saturday but were a bit gassed on Sunday. The match was 5 all at the half. The second 7 was a different story. The Venom finally found their winger on the outside and it was breakaway tries for the rest of the match.

I ran touch for a couple more matches then had to leave for the airport. I'm glad I got there early since my flight was delayed for 2 hours. A thunderstorm in Atlanta put Delta in a tailspin of delays. The cold Yuenglings at the airport bar made the wait considerably less painful. My connection in Atlanta was delayed as well and pushed my arrival time in SF to 12:20am, twenty minutes past the last Marin Air Porter Shuttle. My wife is on vacation back in Plymouth, MA so I am fortunate to have one good friend in Mill Valley, to whom I owe a steak dinner. 1:30am in bed, 6:30am wakeup call and the coffee is extra strong this morning!

SERRS were great hosts and helpful at every turn. The tournament is very well organized, four fields well marked and in excellent condition. I hope this exchange remains on the NCRRS calendar for other referees to experience.

7's is starting to grow on me and I'm looking forward to this Saturday in Palo Alto.