Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

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!