Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

from Chelsie Weathington via Your Scrumhalf Connection's email:

This fall the University of Texas Women’s Rugby Club is hosting a skills clinic for all college-age and under rugby women! Bryn Chivers, the current head coach of the National U20 Women’s Rugby team, along with his assistant Sue Oldenburg, have agreed to coach our clinic. These coaches have come to scout out the rugby talent in Texas, and I think we have got a lot to show them!

Day 1 of the clinic will focus of basic individual and team skills, and Bryn has some exciting drills in store that will show us a whole new look at the “fundamentals”. On Day 2 of the clinic we will play a few scrimmages. Please note that this clinic is not only for the players. Coaches are strongly advised to attend because we believe the coaches will learn some new and fresh ways to teach rugby. Our goal for this clinic is to raise the level of rugby play in Texas from high-school on up!

Cost
$10 per player, covers clinic and lunch (Must be paid when you check-in at the clinic)
Free for coaches
Extra $ for Clinic T-Shirt, Social etc. if desired.

Saturday October 11th
Check-In at Clinic 8:30 am
9:00am Clinic begins at the UT Austin IM Fields (Directions below)
12noon Lunch provided by Jason’s Deli (Vegetarian Meals available)
1pm Clinic resumes
4pm Clinic is done for the day
6:30 Social for all Invited (Location TBD)

Sunday October 12th
9:00am Clinic resumes with more focus on scrimmages/game play
1pm Clinic is Finished!

What to Bring
All players will need basic rugby apparel : T-shirt or Jersey, Rugby Shorts, Socks, Cleats( must be plastic studs), MOUTHGUARDS, scrum caps etc. Water/Gatorade will be provided but a water bottle is recommended to get refills.

Clinic Location
Whitaker Fields ( aka UT IM Fields)
Located on the southeast corner of 51st and Guadalupe Streets.

Host Hotel
La Quinta Inn
Austin Highland Mall
5812 I-35 North
Austin, TX 78751
Phone: (512) 459-4381

This hotel is nearby to the IM Fields and has offered us a block of rooms for clinic participants at $69/per night (this is discounted from $85 a night). We recommend that you book early because the rooms will go fast. When booking mention that you are with “UT Women’s Rugby” and are a skills clinic participant.

Social
Place: TBD
Saturday night at 6:30; just going out to eat and relax after a long day of rugby.

If you are with a team please send:
the number of players/coaches who will be attending the clinic as well as their names.
Also indicate if any vegetarian meals are needed.

If you are an individual/ high school player, please tell us your name and where you have played rugby and if a vegetarian meal is needed.

Please note that if you RSVP we will be ordering a lunch for you and expecting that you will come and pay.

Please give us as much notice as possible if you have a cancellation.

For any other questions or concerns you can contact Chelsie Weathington or Anna Kunkel

We hope that you all will attend!

Chelsie Weathington
Match Secretary
University of Texas Women’s Rugby Club

Saturday:
Orlando beat Charleston 89-0
Miami beat Memphis 34-12

Sunday:
Memphis beat Charleston 21-7
Orlando beat Miami 29-0

End rankings:
1 - Orlando
2 - Miami
3 - Memphis
4 - Charleston

Thanks to Katy B for sending in the results, send me any pictures or videos when you have a chance!

Click here for the original post where the seeds were announced.

When I first starting playing rugby in 2001, the teams in the best teams in the West were Austin, Dallas, New Orleans, and the KC Jazz. Since we were only 3 hours from Dallas, we often played the Debutantes, and they taught me alot of what I know today! They were a tough team but they were great friends and I treasure those memories.

So, I was very excited to hear that they were making a comeback and am proud to welcome the newest Texas team back to rugby! This is from Jecca a former University of Texas player who recently moved to Dallas, TX:

We are being sponsored by the Dallas Diablos Men's team and the website is www.dallasdiablos.org.

Practices are Mondays and Wednesdays at 6:45 at Griggs Park located at 2100 Clark St, Dallas, TX 75204 or 2200 Hugo St, Dallas, TX 75204 (it's right off of the highway and has both addresses listed for mapquest purposes). The first official practice is Sept 3rd (we've just been playing touch with the boys at Lake Highlands, which is where the boot camp will be).

Let me know if there is anything else I can send to you! Thanks again! Oh, not sure if I mentioned it but I'm their recruitment person...any suggestions to build the ranks?


Thanks,
Jecca

Congratulations on the turnout for your Boot Camp in September, that crowd looks incredibly promising!

BEFORE the League Match there is a Bside match of Austin B vs Dallas. I believe the time is 1pm, but am not quite sure. Will update as soon as I know!

UPDATED -
Time: 12:30pm
When: Oct 11, 2008
Why: League Match 2008
Where: Burr Field

Directly after this game on the same field there will be a League Match between the Austin Valkyries and the St. Louis Sabres at 3pm.

We have all played touch rugby in one form or another, as warm-up, in a league, as a game at practice or as a drill during practice. While these short sessions seem to ramp up the energy on our team and is an excellent skill, I can't imagine just playing touch rugby.

This video is from the European Championships of Touch Rugby and is a semi-final match between Scotland and Wales. I can't imagine just playing touch and never getting to tackle, ruck or really lay someone out! But, it is a glimpse at the art form or rugby and it is quite pretty...

and to combat this video...check out my all-time favorite video of Extreme Rugby Hits:




Other Rugby Video Mondays:
9/30/2008: Philly vs Raleigh 9/20/2008
9/22/2008: Girls Play Too!
9/8/2008: Vassar Spotlight
9/2/2008: Funny Rugby Clips

Please keep sending me your favorite videos: yourscrumhalfconnection@gmail.com!

I just wanted to take a moment and congratulate my big brother and his wife on their new addition to their family. Piper Caroline Young is the 2nd grandchildren for the Young family and is the 22nd? great grandchild. She was born on September 1, 2008 and weighed 7lbs. 3 oz and was 18.5 inches in length.

Also, congratulations to Ainsley and your new baby sister!

from Nancy Campbell:

I am VERY excited to announce the teams in the 2008 South Women's DII Championships. The are being held in Memphis on this weekend, October 4 & 5, 2008.

Saturday
Game 1: 10:00am Charleston (Seed 4) vs Orlando (Seed 1)
Game 2: 12:00pm Miami (Seed 2) vs Memphis (Seed 3)

UPDATED: Sunday's Schedule:
10am: Memphis vs. Charleston
12pm: Miami vs. Orlando

Congratulations to Charleston for taking their rugby to the next level. Welcome to the Championships!

Nancy Campbell
USARS Women's Director

Sooo, its already October and that means that it is time to give something away another tshirt to my faithful readers! While the Valkyries were in Denver for our league matches I got stopped twice while I was wearing my shirt. Once by The Girl who was giggling at me because I had spilled my adult beverage on it...oops, never said I was smooth! The other person was a stranger who wanted to know if I blogged about rugby or played as well.

So I got to thinking, if you win my tshirt, its not really like you blog about rugby right? Or maybe you do, and that is awesome! (Make sure you tell me about your blog and I will link to you!) So I changed the design to be more fitting for the everyday rugger who loves to read rugby blogs!

Same deal as last time, either comment, email me or facebook me if you would like to be entered into the drawing. If you have already won before, please do not enter again!

Can't wait to see if you win the raffle? Purchase this tshirt ($15.95) or any of my other rugby shirts by visiting my Zazzle Tshirt Shop.

Love this ad:

In a few days voting registration will close, find where to register to vote by visiting maps.google.com/vote.

I ended up having to skip practice last night because of an impromptu conference call that was scheduled at the same time. While I was on the conference call I worked on the video from the Austin vs Glendale game. We thought we had only gotten about 15 minutes, but it looks like we got around 21 minutes before the battery died.

Thanks to Mary G. for taping and I wish I would have brought my extra battery! Argh! As always only long periods of time for penalties or injuries were edited out, other than that it is raw rugby.

Enjoy!

Austin Valkyries vs Glendale (Cup Match 2008) from Wendy Young on Vimeo.


Austin Valkyries vs Glendale (bonus video!) from Wendy Young on Vimeo.

Other Recent Videos:
9/30/2008: Austin B vs UT
9/30/2008: Austin B vs Texas A&M
6/25/2008: Satiated Beavers (Austin) vs HARC
6/25/2008: Satiated Beavers (Austin) vs Little Rock
6/25/2008: Satiated Beavers (Austin) vs Phatties (Texas A&M)

If you would like to subscribe to my Vimeo Channel and be updated when I upoad new videos, make sure to join my Channel.

Or you can follow me on Twitter and get up to date alerts of when I blog about rugby or my life!

BOULDER, Colo. – Following the footwork and skills camp in Little Rock over the weekend, USA Women’s Sevens Team Coach Julie McCoy has named her final squad set to compete at the upcoming Rugby World Cup Sevens Qualifier in the Bahamas on October 25-26.

The team of 12 athletes, plus two traveling reserves was chosen from an initial pool of 21 athletes who assembled at the Greater Little Rock Inc. Rugby Complex to undergo fitness testing September 26-28. Saturday's work was spent on attack, and the players spent Sunday working on defensive footwork and tracking drills with USA Defensive Specialist Coach Peter Baggetta. The weekend culminated in four seven-minute scrimmages used for selection purposes.

"Overall, I thought the squad fitness was good, although there is room for improvement, as the numbers are non-peaking," Coach McCoy said. "We are working hard together on the principles of Sevens, practicing the fundamentals and adding pressure to the group.”

“So far the athletes are showing great mental strength and responding to the challenge with great maturity and poise – I also have a great staff and consider myself a very lucky coach to have such great support," she added.

Upon final evaluations from the Women’s Sevens coaching staff, the following players were named to represent the USA at the NAWIRA (North America West Indies Rugby Association) regional World Cup Qualifier:

Kirsten Ahrendt (Keystone RFC)
Ida Bernstein (Keystone RFC)
Ellie Karvoski (Little Rock RFC)
Phaidra Knight (New York RFC)
Pam Kosanke (Chicago North Shore RFC)
Teena Mastrangelo (Chicago North Shore RFC)
Christy Ringgenberg – Captain (Minnesota Valkyries RFC)
Ines Rodriguez (Keystone RFC)
Jen Sinkler (Keystone RFC)
Lindsey Stephenson (At-Large)
Jess Watkins (Stanford University)
Kelly White (Belmont Shore RFC)

Reserves:
Tyshawn Henry (New York RFC)
Melissa McKibben (Kansas City RFC)

Also present at the camp were:
Amy Daniels (Beantown RFC)
Yancy Graf (Beantown RFC)
Alison Price – inj. (New York RFC)
Jenn Starkey - inj. (NOVA RFC)
Donna Thomas – inj. (Little Rock RFC)

Non-traveling reserves:
Lauren Rosso (Keystone RFC)
Heidi Whitman (Austin RFC)

USA Women’s Staff includes: Head Coach Julie McCoy, assistant coaches Chris Ryan and Drew Fautley, Team Manager Sadeana Green, General Manager Tristan Lewis and physios Dr. Lisa Bartoli and Michael Moses.

The team next assembles in Miami, Fla. from October 18-22, before heading to the Bahamas for the Sevens WC Qualifier on October 23. The USA Women must finish among the top two places out of their North American and Caribbean competition to qualify for the Rugby World Cup Sevens.

Given the team qualifies, the U.S. Women will train together in Little Rock starting in mid-January and spanning through the end of February before McCoy names the final squad for the IRB Rugby World Cup Sevens, which will be held in Dubai from March 5-7.

Women’s Sevens Team Schedule

U.S. World Cup Qualifying Assembly, Miami, Fla., October 18-22
U.S. World Cup Qualifier, Nassau, Bahamas, October 23-27
IRB Dubai Sevens, Dubai, UAE, November 22 – December 1
U.S. Sevens Testing/Skills Camp, Little Rock, Ark., January 16-18
U.S. Sevens Residency Training, Little Rock, Ark., January 30-February 9
IRB USA Sevens, San Diego, Calif., February 9-16
U.S. Sevens Residency Training, Little Rock, Ark., February 16-23
IRB Sevens Rugby World Cup 2009, Dubai, UAE, March 1-9