My blog has moved!

You should be automatically redirected in 6 seconds. If not, visit
http://scrumhalfconnection.com
and update your bookmarks.

Read my latest posts!
Jan 8, 2009

Hibernaton is over...Lets get back to Rugby!

So the winter months are coming to an end for most of the country...ok, so maybe just for us in the South! I don't know how you Northern countries train in the Spring, it must be freezing and horrible weather to boot!

Anyways, The Girl and I have started back in the gym and we are loving it! It is amazing how you take some time away from the gym and instantly it's not a horrible torture device that it can become during rugby season. Another thing I am looking at is the Spring and Fall schedules for my team and I am excited but dreading it as well.

If you haven't heard, USA Rugby is changing the way the Women's program will be formatted. The Internets have been abuzz: K-train posted about the new Super League, Blondie posted about the D1 Super League as well, but there has been no official announcement yet from USA Rugby.

So just glancing at my Club schedule, All-Star Schedule, proposed D1 schedules and any USA Rugby WNT events that a player may be invited to...we will all be putting out more money than ever before to play rugby. Even if you do not play All-Star or WNT events, you will still potentially be paying more than ever. I am going to try and estimate the costs with a few different scenarios for you now:

Women's Super League (also being called Premiership League)

Most of us think the teams will be Beantown, Berkeley All-Blues, Keystone, Minnesota Valkyries, New York, ORSU, Twin City Amazons, and Washington Furies

I am not sure if they will play each other once or if they will have 3 away and 3 home matches. Will it be pool play or regional play? Another consideration is will "home" really be a home match or will it be a location half-way between? Then there is the Championship, where will it be located?

Looks to be about 4-5 tickets at the least and 6-8 at the most including a USA Rugby Championship.

D1 Club League

Guessing the teams will be Seattle Breakers, Emerald City Mudhens, San Franscisco Fog, Chicago Northshore, Chicago, Glendale, Black Ice, Austin Valkyries, Kansas City Jazz, St. Louis Sabres, Boulder Babes, NOVA, Philadelphia, Raleigh Venom, Maryland Stingers, Boston, San Diego Surfers, Belmont Shore, Scottsdale Lade Blues, Atlanta and Coast? Not sure if I got everyone, and keep in mind that some of these teams could elect to participate in the new D2 League.

I know the West is still hashing out how we will handle our Central Region. I think that is what we are being called now instead of the West, the West Region (west coast) and East Region (east coast) have also been created. But it appears that it could be similar to the Premiership League, and it looks like each Region gets to decide their format, be it pool play, tournament style, league matches etc.

Looks to be about 4-5 tickets at the least and 6-8 at the most including a USA Rugby Championship.

D2 Club League

Current teams are Orlando, Detroit, Village Lion, Brandywine, Providence, Miami, Cincinnati and Chesapeake. I would guess that there are about 15-20 more D2 teams that will participate, but I am not positive on that number.

I would imagine that this would be a similar format to the D1 League with Regions etc and each Region would decide their format. Imagine the costs will be similar to the Premiership and D1 setup...4-5 tickets at the least and 6-8 at the most including USA Rugby Championship.

All-Star Play (think it is being called Territorial Union Season)

To begin the All-Star season you have to make the team and most teams select from either a Camp or some sort of Tournament etc. From what I have heard they are then recommending 3 warm-up matches and then NASCs (National All-Star Championships).

Same deal here, "home" matches depend on your territory, for instance the West will more than likely be having a match in Glendale, CO, Tulsa, OK and Atlanta, GA. Since I live in Austin...none of these would be a "home" match for me, if you live in Kansas, not a "home" match...get the drift?

I would guess it will be 3-4 tickets at the least and 4-5 (Camp or Tournament, 3 warm up matches and NASC) tickets at the most.

Women's Nation Team Events

I wanted to include this in the estimates because I think it is important to realize how much a player actually pays to play rugby if they participate in Club, All-Star and WNT events. It is already an investment if you just play club, but if you do more than Club it gets really expensive. Anyway, here is a glance at the current schedule:

February 26 – March 1: WNT Combined Camp, Clermont, Florida
June 20 – 28: CANAM, Glendale, Colorado
August 15 – 30: Nations Cup, Toronto, Canada (exact dates TBD)
December: Possible Test matches in Florida (confirmation TBD)

This looks like 3-4 tickets for most players...on top of Club, and All-Star play.

Summary & Notes

I think the new re-structuring is awesome, yes it will be a shake-up and will incur more costs, but I think the overall change is well thought out and needed. The difference between the top 8 teams and the rest of the country is very obvious. An quick example of this was when Glendale traveled to Round of 16 and had to play New York. Of course we all wished Glendale well, but the reality was that they would more than likely would lose. So at that point it all became about winning the next match against whoever it would be so that they could keep their seed. The Tournament became more about surviving than playing rugby and that is a shame.

Club = 3-8 tickets
All-Stars = 3-5 tickets
WNT 3-4
Total = 9 at least 17 at most

Lastly, I mean absolutely no disrespect to USA Rugby, Alex Williams (HP) Manager or the Competitions Committee, I think the endeavors they are putting in place are hard focused on success. The road may be tough this year, but the following years will be better than ever thanks to your efforts!