Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

Considered one of the largest and best run rugby events in the world, the Bud Light Can-Am Tournament was created in 1974 by the Mountaineers Rugby Club of Saranac Lake, New York. The inaugural event was an eight-team affair that quickly doubled and has mushroomed into a mid-summer tradition with 100+ teams converging on the Adirondacks.
The Bud Light Can-Am Tournament grew in size and stature, adding eight teams each year through 1987. The Can-Am committee then capped participation at 100 teams, making it one of the largest rugby tournaments in the world and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. There is competition in eight different divisions, including Women and Old Boys.

The 2009 competition will be held July 31 - August 2, 2009. Main playing fields are at the Saranac Lake Middle School, Saranac Lake High School and Lake Placid LAX Fields. The finals have traditionally attracted 3,000 spectators to the fields at North Country Community College in Saranac Lake. Admission to all games is free.

Anheuser-Busch and A&M Beverage of Malone, NY have combined to involve Bud Light as the title sponsor of the event. Other sponsors include Balls Out Rugby, Rugby America LTD, Nice N Easy Stores, Hyde Fuel Company and Spencer Boatworks.

Below is the scoreboard for the Women's portion of the tournament, for the full scoreboard go here.

Premier Games on Saturday and Finals At NCCC will be availible LIVE ON THE WEB...HERE!!!

CANAM PHOTO NOTE : This year Action Photos is focusing coverage on teams that pre-register and select from specific packages. Please click HERE for more info.

Thank to YSC Intern Ashley for letting us know about the upcoming Keystone Kicking Clinic!

Keystone Rugby Club will host its inaugural Kicking Clinic Sunday, August, 16^th. The clinic will be lead by Australian professional kicking coach, Damien Hill and Keystone coach, Peter Steinberg. Many aspects of kicking will be presented including: punts, spiral kicks, grubbers, drop kicks, place kicks for post and box kicks.

Keystone welcomes players of all skill levels to partake in the clinic as the techniques covered will be beneficial to players of all levels.

Damien Hill has 10 years of experience as the kicking and catching coach for teams including the Newcastle Knights NRL Rugby League Club.

In addition to coaching the 5^th ranked Keystone women, and the DI National Champions, Penn State Women’s Rugby Club, Peter Steinberg also holds the position of USA Rugby Attacking Skills coach.

Both coaches will be able to offer the players a wealth of knowledge and information which they can incorporate into their own kicking styles.

The clinic will be held at Friendship Field in Phoenixville, Pa. The cost is only $35/person.

When: Sunday, August 16, 2009
Time: 10:00am-3:00pm

To reserve your spot you can either email: fundraising@keystonerugby.org or pay on arrival with cash or check made out to Keystone Rugby Club.

Additional directions and information can also be found here.

Reposted from Olympic-rugby.org:

In part two of our Expert Opinions series we caught up with a USA based rugby expert, Wendy Young from Texas who lives and breathes rugby and writes a lively blog called yourscrumhalfconnection.com/

Wendy wanted to contribute to the sport that has given her so much and started out reading as much on rugby as she could, always disappointed that there was very little to read about Women's Rugby.

So in true rugby fashion she took the initiative and started her blog and was soon joined by her co-contributor and partner, mysteriously called ‘The Girl’. It is no surprise that Wendy – always on top of her game when it comes to the latest in rugby signed our petition as number 20.

Wendy is very close to cracking the USA Eagles women's team but of course took the time to give us her perspective on the Olympic rugby topic.

olympic-rugby.org: Hi Wendy! Cheers for chatting to us. How good do you think the chances are rugby will crack the Olympics?

Wendy Young: Everyone knows that rugby has some serious competition with other sports to gain admittance into the Olympics. I believe we are doing the right steps and hope with all of my heart that we will be granted the amazing honor of being a part of the Olympics. 7s really is a game that is extremely exciting and would easily be taught to viewers that were unfamiliar with the game. Traveling to San Diego 7s this year was an amazing experience and it really set the stage to what bringing rugby to the Olympics would be like.

Countries like England, France and New Zealand are accustomed to rugby on their home soil, but in the USA high level International rugby is only available to a few. To have high level International rugby available on television during the Olympics would be a dream come true!

OR: Very true. So, looking ahead, where do you think rugby will be in 2020, should it get included in the 2016 Olympics?

WY: If rugby is admitted into the Olympics I think we will see an explosion of rugby across the world. Countries that have had struggling rugby programs will suddenly see a boost as world leaders realize that rugby is an International sport! These leaders will want their country to be the most successful rugby team and this will further grow rugby. The world will see that rugby is truly an amazing sport that can benefit any city, team, or family.

OR: How do you think rugby in USA will change should the Olympic bid be successful?

WY: In the USA we are already making a HUGE push to grow youth rugby at all levels and I think the inclusion of rugby in the Olympics would only help this cause. States that were considering youth rugby programs would suddenly be able to see on an International stage that rugby is everything they need. It is dedication, team work, respect and community, everything that sports for youth should be!

OR: There are four exciting cities bidding to host the 2016 Olympics. Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago where would you most like to travel to, to watch Olympic rugby and why?

WY: Rugby in any of these places would be amazing, but I think realistically that Tokyo and Madrid have the best shots at 2016. Tokyo has been bidding on anything and everything as they love rugby and Madrid already has the facilities in place and could easily handle the responsibility.

OR: Thanks for sharing your insights! See you at the Games

If you have a comment join the discussion on Facebook - here

Thanks to Ashley for covering the upcoming City Based 7s this weekend!

7/30: Update from YSC Intern Ashley regarding the CBL Tournament:

The first City Based 7’s tournament was held this past Sunday in Phoenixville, Pa. Play kicked off at 11 am and even by then everyone involved knew the sun and heat would be undoubtedly be a factor with temperatures reaching the mid to high 80’s.

While all four teams played with both experienced and developmental sides, everyone had patches of brilliant play no matter how many years they had under their belts. The first game of the day between Philly and DC showcased just that. Both teams played very hard, and were able to string together series’ of good play, though it was obvious the little amount of time spent together as a team would affect the continuity of play. DC won the match scoring three quick tries, most of which came from them spreading the ball and beating the Philly defenders out wide.

There were equal moments of great defensive play and defensive breakdowns during the course of the day and every team saw their fair share of both. The veterans and experienced players definitely made their presence felt while they were on the pitch, but lack of team cohesion and the heat no doubt contributed to the spurts in which the teams’ succeeded.

Boston struggled and was the only team who that didn’t win any of their games despite the valiant effort put forth by their team. When stacked up against the other teams with more experience, their weakness on defense was exposed.

When advertising and recruiting for this pilot league, it was billed as a chance for players of all skill levels to play as well as a tourney in which the wins and losses didn’t matter as much as the effort put forth.

That supposed lack of pressure seemingly was enjoyed by both the players and coaches.

Despite every team having suffered losses, none of them seemed to ever let that get them down at all. The mood of both the players and coaches alike was very jovial and even carried onto the pitch where players (Read: Jen Sinkler and Phaidra Knight) were laughing and tackling each other at the same time!

DC emerged as the tournament winner, beating NY in the final 17-10. Philly won the semi-final match against Boston 43-5.

The next plan of action is to add more divisions to the league as well as games. With the success of this year, it’s very possible Sue Parker’s dream of expanding this league and adding a pathway to the national team will be a reality very soon.

From YSC: Thank you for the comments and I appreciate the tone of respect that I do see in the comments. Keep the good dialogue coming!

Sadly almost a month later the video of the USA vs Canada match is not uploaded. This is definitely a lesson learned as I should have simply brought my camera and recorded the match!

I want to encourage everyone to keep contacting USA Rugby about this video and also encouraging them to provide video of the upcoming Nations Cup. The email campaign that went out to Alex Williams, Nigel Melville and Sara John really was great and YSC wants to keep that positive kind of email and campaigning happening! Email Nigel, Sara and Alex today letting them know that you WANT and NEED video of the Nations Cup!

Nigel Melville, President of USA Rugby
Alex Williams, High Performance Director
Sara John, the Director of Communications
nmelville@usarugby.org
awilliams@usarugby.org
sjohn@usarugby.org

UPDATE: Nigel Melville wrote about our pleas for live video on his blog as well...what are your thoughts?



The big X above is a placeholder for the video, hopefully it will be posted as promised! When it is posted I will let you know the link ASAP. In the meantime you can check out the match report here and the audio here. Also make sure to check out the highlight reel from the USA A vs Canada A game on the Canada Women's Rugby site here.

Other Rugby Video Mondays:

UPDATE 7/26: Women's scores from Pitch a Tent 7s are available here.

This morning the 12 brave Satiated Beavers started the Satiated Beavers Tour 2009 to Pitch a Tent 7s on the Beaver bus (the other 5 Beavers are flying in on Friday night.)! The morning started at 4am from Austin, TX and the journey was set to take about 18 hours.

Tournament Information

What: Pitch A Tent 7’s
When: July 24th – 26th, 2009
Where: Lafayette, GA (30 minutes south of Chattanooga)
Who: Men’s and Women’s Social Division

Women's Teams

Beavers
Mockingbirds
Chattanooga
Memphis
Jacksonville
U. os Southern Mississippi
Atlanta
Charleston
Great lakes
St Louis,
S. Illinois University
Gainesville
Indiana
Augusta
GA tech
U. of Texas



YSC will be attending this tournament and will be video taping and providing scores as well! The Satiated Beavers are arriving by bus and by plane...whoop what an adventure!

**For a comprehensive list of 15s & 7s Rugby Tournaments, click here!!

If you would like your tournament to have LIVE SCORING on YSC, email me at scrumhalfconnection@gmail.com for more details.

Want instant score updates? Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and check the blog often!

The Pittsburgh Rugby Club would like to invite you to our 3rd annual Steel City 7's Tournament on August 1, 2009. We will have two divisions - one for men and one for women.

Entry Fees:
Men's teams
- $175 per Club
- $125 for a second team from same Club
- additional $25 per entry received after July 25th

Women's teams
- $125 per Club
- $75 for a second team from same Club
- additional $25 per entry received after July 25th

To reserve your spot, please pay via PayPal.

If you prefer to pay by check, please email Anthony Simasek with the following information:
- Team name and desired bracket (men, women)
- Your Primary Contact's Name, Address, Phone number & Email address

Checks can be made out to The Pittsburgh Rugby Club and sent to:
Pittsburgh Rugby Club
5627 Callowhill Street
Pittsburgh, PA. 15206

For more information, please contact:
Anthony Simasek
Pittsburgh Rugby Club - Steel City 7s Tournament Director
(C) 757-869-2302

Dan Talbert
Pittsburgh Rugby Club - Vice President
(C) 412-292-5756

**For a comprehensive list of 15s & 7s Rugby Tournaments, click here!!

If you would like your tournament to have LIVE SCORING on YSC, email me at scrumhalfconnection@gmail.com for more details.

Want instant score updates? Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and check the blog often!

from Nancy Campbell, South Director:

Attention all Lady Ruggers!

Grab your boots and shorts and get ready to play rugby in the Deep South Rugby Union.

There are two tournaments that have decided to make special offers just to the ladies. Yes, times they have changed!

Panama City Beach 7s
Date: August 29, 2009
Location: Panama City Beach, Florida
Tournament Contact: Mark Young

Deal Offered: NO ENTRY FEE FOR LADIES TEAMS! The request that this tournament has, is that teams please get rooms at the host hotel. If for economic reasons a team needs to consider a different venue, please contact Mark.

Battleship Rugby Tournament
Date: November 7-8, 2009
Location: Mobile, Alabama
Tournament Contact: Lars Granade

Deal Offered: Due to the changes made to the Women’s USA Rugby Schedule, we will offer women’s teams a full refund of their entry fee if they make the Championships. This will only be in effect for women’s teams that take advantage of the early entry fee offer of $325 before September 1, 2009.

**For a comprehensive list of 15s & 7s Rugby Tournaments, click here!!

If you would like your tournament to have LIVE SCORING on YSC, email me at scrumhalfconnection@gmail.com for more details.

Want instant score updates? Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and check the blog often!

from my inbox:

YSC,

It's that time of year again and Little Rock is hosting its annual Sweat 7s tournament. it will be held on July 25, 2009, at the Greater Little Rock Rugby Complex. This year brings a new level of competition as we are now part of the TOLA series. Entry fee is $200. Check out the flyer and hope you can make it.

Feel free to email either myself bwalas1120@att.net or John Keller kellerjohnr@uams.edu

Breean


Teams

Women's
Little Rock
Fayeteville
Dallas
ASU

Men's
Arkansas
Gryphons
Dallas
Pirates
Memphis
Oklahoma City
Little Rock

Not confirmed
Shreveport
Springfield
El Azul
Bentonville Blues

This tournament is proud to be part of the TOLA Sevens Series.

• 8/1/09 - 7's by the Sea - Corpus Christi, TX (TOLA Series)
  Contact: James Rangel: Email James

• Aug 8- Horseshoe 7s & TOLA Finals (Shreveport)
  Contact: Drew Tomsak: Email Drew

**For a comprehensive list of 15s & 7s Rugby Tournaments, click here!!

If you would like your tournament to have LIVE SCORING on YSC, email me at scrumhalfconnection@gmail.com for more details.

Want instant score updates? Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and check the blog often!

from my inbox:

This weeks video is the final from Bloodfest 7s. It was a repeat of last years final as the Satiated Beavers (Austin Valkyries) battled again against the Phatties (Texas A&M). Check out the match and links to other game videos are below as well.

I have just heard the harrowing news that USA was beaten badly by England in the U20 Nations Cup Final...final score was 110 to 0. I am currently waiting on more details and will update soon...see below for the update on the game, the only team that has issued a release is England. UPDATE 7/21: USA Rugby has issued a press release, read it below.

Canada and Wales had a thrilling Consolation match with Canada overcoming Wales 12 to 10. Congratulations goes to England, you played a great tournament and congratulations to all the teams that participated!

Thanks to Randy L. for letting me know the scores from the USA vs Canada game! USA defeated Canada 38 - 20 and England defeated Wales 29 to 3 (Thanks for the score Alex W.!).

Update from Bryn Chivers:

U20 Nations Cup Day 9
Just realized that there are details about the tour that I’ve left out. We practice at the fields at RAF Halton and the first couple of days we had the England Women’s 7’s team on the field next to us as they prepared for the European 7’s Championships in Hanover, Germany. Since then we have been on our own with the exception of the people who walk their dogs around the outside of the fields. Today a little black dog named Lola joined practice after she had spent twenty minutes trying to catch seagulls. She was a sweet pooch but her owner described her as “having a mind of her own, the little sod” =)

We have our own locker room at the small stadium and it’s nice that the players can change out of their wet clothes for mealtimes. The weather is strange. Today it was sunshine followed by torrential rain for fifteen minutes and then sunshine for the rest of the day. Weather has been in the mid sixties most days and the evenings have been nice and cool. The dorm has nice duvets and so the combination of two-a-days, cool evening breezes and a warm comforter has made for great sleeping. Talking of sleeping, we’ve introduced a one hour rest period in the middle of the day where the players have to be off their feet. They can sleep, read, listen to their ipod but they can’t walk around…….most seem to choose sleep.

So the day was our usual pre game practice day and the team spent time working on new combinations and tightening up some loose spots. Last session today produced some great rugby as the improved communication produced a higher level of confidence. They finally looked like they had played together for a while.

Had dinner, went back to the Orphange and the jersey ceremony was at 8:30 tonight. They know twenty-five players won’t go into twenty-two shirts but it’s always tough. Here is the squad for the game against Canada.

USA U20 WNT Team vs Canada
1 Wendy Sherman, Colorado State
2 Katie Hathaway, Norwich
3 Rachel Sommer, West Linn OR
4 Katie Humphrey, Kent WA
5 Maggie Reidy, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
6 Erin LeGate, Maryville
7 Jozy Gessner, Summit, CO
8 Candace Barley, Maryville TN
9 Brittany Houston, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
10 Sadie Anderson, Penn State
11 Morgan Rovetti, Brigham Young
12 Lisa Henneman, Seattle Women (Captain)
13 Brooke LeGate, Maryville, TN
14 Erica Cavenaugh, University of Virginia
15 Jessica Sexaur, Army

16 Tyra McGrady, Indiana University
17 Erica Lane, Chico State
18 Mallory Ives, Colorado State
19 Cat Parkhill, University of Minnesota
20 Brittany Woodard, Virginia State
21 Katie Johnson, Hopkins, MN
22 Amelia Villines, Stanford

Updates from Canada Women's Rugby site:

Rugby Canada is pleased to announce the 22-player roster to compete with the U.S.A. today at the U20 Women's Nations Cup hosted in England. The two teams will go head-to-head later today as the Canadians look for their first win of the competition.

After suffering two defeats in their opening matches to England and Wales, respectively, Canada is hungry for a result in their final game of the preliminary round. On Saturday, July 18th, 2009, Canada is ensured a spot in the consolation finals before the championship match is played to conclude the tournament.

U20W ROSTER VS. U.S.A. – JULY 15th, 2009
Asya Bartley, Nepean, ON, St FX, Barrhaven Scottish
Lauren Tagg, Coquitlam, BC, Heritage Woods Secondary, Burnaby Lake
Julie Emmerson , Moncton, NB, St. FX, Moncton RFC
Jesse Olynyck, Kamloops, BC, University of Victoria, University of Victoria
Jamee George, Brandon, MB, St. FX, Brandon Barbs
Stephanie Mackinnon, Rothsay, NB, St. FX, St. John Trojans RFC
Jill Maclaren, Ottawa, ON, St. FX, Ottawa Irish
Tyson Beukeboom, Uxbridge, ON, Uxbridge SS, Oshawa Vikings
Megan Hamm, Aldergrove, BC, UFV, Abbotsford
Jenn Skilnick, Saskatoon, SK, University of Saskatchewan, Wild Oats RFC
Magali Harvey, Ste-Foy, PQ, St. Lawrence, Club de Rugby De Quebec
Genevieve Ahart, Champion, AB, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge RFC
Brittany Orr, Fort Macleod, AB, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge RFC
Amanda Lalonde, Edmonton, AB, Grant MacEwan College, St. Albert Rugby Club
Kayla Moleschi, Williams Lake, BC, Columneetza Secondary, Columneetza Cougars

REPLACEMENTS:
Chelsey Minter, Sidney, BC, University of Victoria, James Bay
Jessica Jacobs, Caledon, ON, Mayfield Secondary School, Brampton RFC
Kayla Mack, Saskatoon, SK, Wild Oats RFC
Mackenzie Higgs, Aurora, ON, University of Guelph, Aurora Barbarians
Amanda Thornborough, Brandon, MB, University of Manitoba, Brandon Barbarians
Alex Hendricks, Lamond, AB, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge
Lyndzi Anderson, Barrie, ON, University of Western Ontario, Toronto Irish

U20 Nations Updates

Day 1 in England, Day 2, Day 3

Day 4 (USA vs Wales/England vs Canada)

Day 5, Day 6 (USA vs England/Canada vs Wales)

Day 7, Day 8

Day 9 (USA vs Canada/Wales vs England)

USA vs Canada Highlight Reel

U20 Nations Cup Consolation: Canada vs Wales and U20 Final: USA vs England

All,

We are about halfway through the TOLA Sevens Series and again I wanted to thank you for your participation! Even if your team is not doing TOLA this year, keep in mind that if a tournament is part of TOLA you can almost guarantee that more women's and men's teams will be going to these tournaments!

• 7/18/09 - Tornado Alley 7's - Norman, OK (TOLA Series)
  Contact: Ken Forehand: email Ken

• 7/25/09 - Sweat 7s - Little Rock, AR (TOLA Series)
  Contact: John Keller: email John

• 8/1/09 - 7's by the Sea - Corpus Christi, TX (TOLA Series)
  Contact: James Rangel: Email James

• Aug 8- Horseshoe 7s & TOLA Finals (Shreveport)
  Contact: Drew Tomsak: Email Drew

Ranking	Team	Total points
1	Beavers	13
2	Mockingbirds	8
3	Glendale	7
4	Phatties	6
5	St. Louis	5
6	Dallas	5
7	Beavers 2	4
8	Arkansas	3
9	Texas Tech	1
10	Oklahoma	1
11	HARC	1
12	Freemartinis	1
13	Memphis	1

Please make plans to attend the final tournament on August 8 as this is where trophies etc will be handed out! Please keep this tournament in your travel plans! For more information on TOLA, check out the website here.

Thank you,
Wendy