Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

I was playing around on Google Earth when I couldn't sleep last night and was able to locate a few fun places! Of course I found my home address, work and favorite bar...

I also found Burr Field, the rugby pitches in Austin! This image is from about a year ago as we now have three fields and another storage shed, but this program is pretty cool! (click on the image for a larger version.)


If you don't know what Google Earth is...you have to check it out. Its a program that gives you access to satellite images all over the world. You can even see places like Guam, Antarctica and more!! Have fun!

Guest Blogger #3 is Holly Iker representing the University of Oklahoma Roses and the Western rugby Union . This guest blogger is a very special one. She has served many functions in my life...teammate, coach, roommate, friend, legal advisor, and so much more.

One of my favorite memories of Holly is at the New Mexico High Desert Tournament about five years ago. Our team was backed up on the try-line and the ball carrier advanced toward me, even before I could start the tackle Holly picked me and the other girl up! The try was held up...she's awesome and has always had my back.

(The first picture is the Roses last year when we blew the hatch off the West, getting 2nd at Western Collegiates. The second pic is Holly and I watching a rugby match.)

THE IMPORTANCE OF REGISTERING WITH USA RUGBY (CIPP):

When you CIPP register with USA Rugby, you are automatically covered with third party liability insurance. This coverage provide two types of protection.

First, you are covered if you injure a third party during the course of a rugby match. For example, if you kick the ball into touch and it injures a spectator, you are covered.

Second, you are covered if you cause any third party property damage during the course of a rugby match. For example, if you kick the ball into touch and it damages the property of a spectator, you are covered.

It does not cover ANY intentional injury to persons or property.

It does not cover player versus player injuries.

This coverage is automatic for all clubs and individual members who are CIPP registered with USA Rugby and in compliance with the rules and regulations of USA Rugby. There is NO additional cost for this coverage.

It is important to remember that this coverage from USA Rugby does not provide any medical coverage. If you are injured, you must file a claim on your own medical insurance. You are required to have at least $100,000 of individual medical coverage when you register with USA Rugby.

Why should you care about this coverage? What are its benefits? If you are playing matches or practicing at a public facility, most places will require a certificate of insurance coverage BEFORE you can have any event. If you were required to obtain this type of insurance through a private insurance company, it would be at a substantial expense.

USA Rugby will provide up to 5 such certificates to each club. Additional certificates can be obtained from USA Rugby for a nominal fee.

Coaches, referees and administrators are also covered if an injured player tries to sue them for injuries sustained during a match.

If a player is not CIPP registered, they are not covered. If a non-CIPP player is allowed to play or if you play a team that is not CIPP compliant, you will most likely forfeit your coverage. Without this coverage, you could be held personally liable for any third party damages to persons and/or property.

When you are renewing your CIPP registration for the upcoming year, remember the insurance coverage you are being provided. When it seems like the cost of CIPP registering is always increasing, remember the insurance coverage you are being provided. It is worth it. How can you afford not to be CIPP registered?

For more information regarding the details of this coverage (policy limits, certificates, etc.), please contact USA Rugby directly or look at their website (www.usarugby.org).

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This guest blogger, Holly R. Iker, is a licensed attorney in the State of Oklahoma. This blog submission is intended for informational purposes only and should NOT be considered as legal advice. If you have any legal questions arising out of any rugby-related damages to persons or property, please consult an attorney.

2007 New Orleans Women's Rugby Club
The Halfmoons

invite you BACK!!!!!

The "Throw Me Somethin' Rugger!"
Mardi Gras Women's Rugby Tournament

February 17th and 18th, 2007
Gretna, LA

College and Club Brackets
Saturday Mardi Gras Parade Party

Host Hotels
Days Inn and LaQuinta
Westbank

$400/team

Email for more details-
Jennifer Doucette
jellifreak@prodigy.net

Help us rebuild New Orleans Women's Rugby...
one ruck at a time!!!!

My poor hand the night of surgery. I woke up to this horrid hard splint. I didn't even get to see my hand until yesterday.













The xray showing my screws!!















My hand right after the nurse took the hard splint off. The YES is from the day of surgery...yea they didn't even wash my hand! Gross!!













The scar...
Its hard to tell but it starts right below the knuckle and runs the length of the tape. DAMN GINA!!












And my tattoo...no one will see it for awhile now!















PINK is my new favorite color! And yes there are already dirty words, & dirty phrases on it. You could be the first to put a clean entry or draw the first dirty picture!

This came across the Oklahoma Rugby Alumni Listserv this morning. A newspaper in her hometown wrote this charming article. I know I have a pic of Jolene and I somewhere, if I find it I will put it up later. Enjoy!!

Rugby: Why our Jolene is set to star in Oklahoma..
Belfast Telegraph (Online newsletter from Jolene's hometown)

HAVING come up through mini rugby at Chambers Park, Portadown, Jolene Cloughley has now taken her skills and experience to the US where she is working as a Rugby Development Officer in Oklahoma.

Jolene, who is a third year student at the University of Ulster at Jordanstown, has been in the states since the summer after she applied to various rugby clubs offering to play for their teams and develop rugby at their youngest levels.

After seeing her impressive CV the University of Oklahoma contacted Jolene offering her to become a member of Oklahoma Rugby Inc by volunteering as a Development officer and coach for 12-18 year old girls in the town of Norman, Oklahoma.

She has also since being playing for the Oklahoma Roses Women's Squad as outside centre.

Jolene has an impressive rugby career having Captained Ulster U17 2000-2002, played for Ulster U19 in 2003 and played in the Ulster Senior Squad from 2004-2005.

Over the past few months Jolene has had a very busy schedule, travelling the States to tournaments in Texas, Arkansas and New Mexico State to name but a few, and her team has had great success.

When she is not travelling, her time is taken up with a tough gym regime, as well as coaching and training.

Jolene is thoroughly enjoying her time in the US and the challenge of playing rugby with a few variations: "The game of rugby in the US mirrors rugby in Northern Ireland except for a few things. I have only seen one team play by mauling! Our coach concentrates only on rucking."

She has also been working hard to recruit players for a new Oklahoma Girls Team in the town of Norman in Oklahoma. She has even been allocated her own bank account for the girl's team for which she is head coach. The New Year looks set to remain as busy as ever, as Jolene will be coaching rugby at Youth Camps for children from ages 5 to adolescents up to 18 years old.

Meanwhile, Ballyclare RFC Primary 6 mini-rugby side are really looking forward to this Saturday when they will run out at Ravenhill at half time during Ulster's Magners League clash at Ravenhill.

The Ballyclare mini rugby team will play Greystones from Co Wicklow.

Ballyclare has had close links with Greystones for the past 20 years and the two clubs usually play each other annually at the same level of senior rugby.

Greystones are bringing a 30-man squad this weekend and will stay at Dunadry. On Sunday they will provide three teams for a P6 tournament at Ballyclare's Cloughan Grounds against both Academy and the local club.

Kick-off is 10.30am.

The squad which will play at Ravenhill is: David Gilmour, James Reid, Richard Love, Johnny McAteer, Michael Stevenson, Andrew Rankin, Conor Cambridge, Matthew Robson, James Douglas and Andrew Blair.

Equal amount for all has generated a lot of complaints, discussion
By Jordan Burke

OREM — In an effort to be fair, Utah Valley State College student leaders and administrators decided earlier this year to give all extracurricular clubs the same amount of funding. UVSC women's rugby team, in green and yellow, now receives as much money as the men's team.

So has the outcome been fair? The answer depends on whom you ask, but the move has generated quite a bit of discussion at UVSC.

Until this school year, UVSC used two funding tiers for its club sport teams — they had extramural clubs, which received funding from the school to pay for uniforms and coaches, and the intramural clubs, which didn't receive funds from the school and scraped by to pay for costs.

The rest of the article is here.

Coming from a college club that doesn't get equal funding...this is exciting! I hated that the men get more money than we did every year also. Great job ladies!!

I subscribe to the NASA Image of the Day on my Google Home...and this image came up the other day. Pretty sweet!

Members of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs, also known as the "Mercury 13"), these seven women who once aspired to fly into space stand outside Launch Pad 39B near the Space Shuttle Discovery in this photograph from 1995. The so-called Mercury 13 was a group of women who trained to become astronauts for America's first human spaceflight program in the early 1960s. Although FLATs was never an official NASA program, the commitment of these women paved the way for others who followed. Visiting the space center as invited guests of STS-63 Pilot Eileen Collins, the first female shuttle pilot and later the first female shuttle commander, are (from left): Gene Nora Jessen, Wally Funk, Jerrie Cobb, Jerri Truhill, Sarah Rutley, Myrtle Cagle and Bernice Steadman.

Image credit: NASA

I know a few people have already blogged about this video, but I thought it was awesome!!! The lineout in the middle of the interview was cute as well!! (Blondie and The Bubble)

Check it out here.

Wendy-

Thanks for posting the story about FSU. I wrote to one of my coaches, Colleen Fahey, to send her the link and she forwarded it on to some old girls and do you have any idea of who just wrote to me about it???!!!??!!! Kathy Flores just shot me an e-mail saying that what I wrote was awesome!!!!!!! I have met Candi once or twice also, but never Kathy. Ok, so thanks.

Rosalind

**The original post can be found here.