Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

I can't believe it is almost MAY!!! This year is literally blazing faster than a burning fire...jeez.

Just got back from West All-Star Tryouts in Ft. Worth this weekend. Four teams attended the tryouts and they were in tournament form. Texas Rugby Union (TRU), Eastern Rockies Rugby Football Union (ERRFU), Heart of America (HOA), and Missouri (MRU?) attended and we played a round robin on Saturday.

Those that were selected were invited to a one-day camp on Sunday from 9am-1pm. There were FIVE people picked from TRU including myself! As soon as they release the list I will post it.

We are playing the Midwest All-Stars in Kansas City on May 20 and will attend the National All-Star Championships in Blaine, MN in June. Congratulations Ladies!!

• USA Rugby Teams Up With State Of The Art Sports Performance Center via Goff
  Impact Sports Performance is Colorado’s premier sports training facility. With experienced staff, a state-of-the-art facility, and evidence and research-based rehabilitation, Impact Sports Performance will help USA Rugby athletes reach the next level of competition. Its customized, sport-specific programs offer the cutting edge in athletic performance enhancement with an emphasis on injury prevention.
  
  The partnership between USA Rugby and Impact Sports Performance includes complimentary memberships for all USA Rugby National Team Players and a 20 percent discount on all regularly priced performance training programs for USA Rugby members.
  
  “Impact Sports is a tremendous high performance training center, truly state of the art,” USA Rugby’s V.P. of Business Development David Voth said. “The availability of the industries top people to support the efforts of our National Team Players and Coaches is a training advantage we needed to pursue. We are extremely excited that this partnership has reached fruition.”
  
  At Impact Sports, the comprehensive training methods are designed to provide optimal speed, movement, explosion, balance, power, functional strength, core stability and recovery. Along with its proven techniques, the professionals at Impact are also committed to evaluating and developing new training and treatment methods ensuring that you are getting the best program. Combine this with its outstanding rehabilitation outcomes and Impact Sports Performance is in a class of its own.
  
  “USA Rugby is a first class organization and we are extremely proud to partner with them especially during a World Cup year. We are excited to begin this great relationship and we plan to provide their athletes and entire organization with the best in high performance training that incorporates fitness, performance and rehabilitation,” Jamie Heiner, Director of Sports Performance at Impact Sports said.
  
  
  
  
• West League Matches Update
  
  The latest results of the West League Matches are in:
  
  Olde Girls 5 pts
  St. Louis Sabres 5 pts
  Black Ice 4 pts
  Austin Valkyries 4 pts
  Kansas City Jazz 4 pts (?)
  Boulder Babes 0 pts
  
  The next matches in the spring season are:
  5 May Black Ice vs. Glendale
  5 May Kansas City Jazz vs. Austin Valkyries
  12 May Black Ice vs. St. Louis Sabres

So I have more, but its finals weeks and I have four papers due and one final to take. ARGH!!!

The outpouring of support, love and discussion from this topic has been phenomenal. I think we have seen a few sides of this argument that should have been brought to light. In reality it wasn't a personal attack on Belmont, more of an open forum to bring some thoughts out into the open.

I posted every single comment that came along in my email positive or negative because the best part about blogs and writing is that it is our words. Sometimes the words come out the wrong way, but please stand by your words.

So some rugby news that I have been ignoring....oops:

• Goff Controversy - Against the Head
  This blogger brings up a valid point that I blogged about earlier. Goff is now ranking D1, D2 AND D3 Men's teams. Where is the love for the women? Check out her blog.
  
  However it does appear that they are covering the U19 Women's rugby in their off-line publication via the U19 Girls Rugby Blog. Don't be fooled though, the cover story features the MEN'S U19 team...check it out here.
  
  
• This weekend is West All Star Tryouts for 15s Senior Side, the tryouts will be held in Ft. Worth on Saturday & Sunday (Sunday is for those that have made the cut...)
  
  Schedule:
  9:30am ERFFU vs. TRU
  10:50am Missouri vs. Heart of America
  3:15pm ERRFU vs. Heart of America
  4:50pm TRU vs. Missouri
  
  *Games are 30 minute halves, ties are acceptable and there will be open substitutions.
  
  
• This weekend is also the West U23 All Star Tryouts in Austin, TX. If you are under 23 as of January 1, 2007 you are eligible to tryout. Please email Traci Schmidtke if you are interested.
  
  
• Via the U19 Girls Rugby Blog...some awesome video footage of their recent matches. For some reason the sound is a bit garbled, so beware that your speakers are turned down a bit.
  
  
• Satiated Beavers - Beaver Tour 2007
  The Beaver Tour is getting closer and closer...check out the most recent picture of our spiffy custom uniforms! Check out our website for a look at our itinerary and where we will be!
  
  Our Customer jerseys will have a beaver on the chest, short pocket and as you can see the socks have already been embroidered. Pretty HOTTT!!
  
  
• Level 1 Refereeing Class in Dallas
  June 3, 2007 following the Dallas 7's tournament there will be a level 1 ref clinic. Sweet!
  
  Email Chris Callan if you are interested.
  
  
• Wild West Rugby Fest
  December 1 & 2, 2007
  
  FORMAT: instead of our traditional one day social format we will now have a two day event where the ladies and competitive men will play two days and the men's social teams will still play Saturday only (3 matches guaranteed for everyone with the competitive clubs playing at least 4 matches and maybe even as many as six (if they make the finals).
  
  ALL HOOKERS MATCH: At 12 Noon. The creation lives on, now going on its fifth year. Like volleyball every player will play all 15 positions. Tight five players only and no kicking is allowed. We have had as many as 70 guys participate in past years. And its free!!
  
  PARTY: We are currently looking for a site as usual, but I am dropping a hint now, "its all good, but we may have something different/new up our sleeve". TBA- to be announced.
  
  
• Pictures!
  Check out some pics from the Division I Women's Collegiate Tournament last weekend in Florida.
  http://public.fotki.com/rugbrea/clemson-07/
  http://public.fotki.com/rugbrea/stanford

I think that is it for me this morning....have a fabulous day and keep training!

More and more details are coming out about this topic.

Check it out this is the information I have found while digging around on the Internet. I love the Internet, you can find ANYTHING!

WARNING: Austin has NOT decided to challenge yet, some of us want to, but most just want to forget this ever happened. The reason for this continuing discussion is to prevent this from happening again. Bending the rules may make you feel strong, but is it right? I and others are are hoping that this will help change some things so that this doesn't happen again.

Thanks for listening...

1) An email from a coach in the SoCal region:

2) And I was able to get all the rosters from Belmont Shore's THREE D1 matches for their league schedule. Basically their player eligibility may not be correct. It appears that some of their players did not play in TWO matches as required by USA rugby...If I am to understand this email correctly from Kasey Richer ( kaseyricher@yahoo.com):

Kasey

3) So I made a spread sheet from the three rosters from their D1 league matches...I also included roster for the Challenge Match. Some of it matches up and some of it doesn't. I received these match rosters from the Paul Ganey ( scrfu@earthlink.net) of the SoCal Union.


(*click on image to get a larger view.)

Thanks, and and some interesting conversations have come from this on Blondies log at http://saturdayrugbyday.blogspot.com

I think the point here is that we all want to play rugby...that's why we sweat it out through workouts, officer duties, fundraiser etc. We want this battle to be on the field not because our team scouted out some of the best international players out there and loaded our team.

I understand that their are rugby swapping programs where you can go and play for a different country and such, but would you be able to switch teams mid-season and play for Ireland's World Cup Team? I highly doubt it...

Austin opened the 2007 season a different team. We lost 8 veterans and longtime friends and mates. Life was calling them in the direction of family, work, opportunity and more. We understand that you had your time with the Valkyries and that time was over. That doesn't mean that you don't think often of us and visit us! The support last weekend in alumni, recently retired players and rugger huggers was awesome!

We are still standing though! We recruited and managed to keep our numbers at around 26, with common numbers at practice around 12. We rallied though...we did the right thing, we kept playing rugby and kept pushing together.

My point here is...we knew going into this season that our league schedule was changing, that we could possibly be challenged by the #20 seed and that we were a changed team. We took this CHALLENGE and faced it with integrity, honor and we did it together.

Saturday, April 21, 2007 the Valkyries faced their biggest challenge this season. A team that was undefeated in the Southern California Rugby Union in league play and a team that was harping for a USA Rugby seed. We knew this was going to be a huge challenge and so we prepared for it from Day 1. The day finally came after months of training and we fought long and hard...unfortunately we were outgunned and were beaten.

Like my earlier post stated, we were singing this team's praises on Saturday at the drink up after the game. They were fit, fast and devastating in their game plan. The #10, #13 and #8 were brutal in their execution of plays, loose play and dynamic running. Soon after the game though we heard musing that some of these players were foreign and may have not been in the States very long.

Fortunately we had done our homework and knew that Belmont had a few foreign players that were supposed to be pretty good. Our scouting reports from other teams that had played them at Champagne Classic and in their own league matches warned us about them.

What we didn't know was the caliber of these players and the circumstances that involved them playing for Belmont:

#10 Justine Lavea -
http://www.rugbymuseum.co.nz/BFProfilee.asp?level1=All_Blacks&Level2=ABC&IDID=5121
http://www.universitysport.org.nz/wp-content/files/File/PolicyDocs/2006%20NZU%20Blues%20Awards%20Recipients.pdf

*Listed just a few websites here, but soon found out that she won Defensive Back and Offensive Back last year in Auckland.

#13 Manuel Huriana -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/5348678.stm
http://www.nzrugbyworld.com/article.aspx?articleid=2164

*Once again I found plenty of links referencing this player, most notably was Women's Player of the Year last year.

#15 Valuese Taliu -
http://www.planetrugby.com/Story/0,18259,3893_1686820,00.html
http://www.womensportreport.com/rugby199.htm

*Plenty of links here too...just chose two of the first ones on google.

I have many many issues here...and I have been chastised more than once for speaking my mind...so I will try and be fair. A couple of points here are:

Is this fair? Bringing players over from other countries to fill out your roster? As USA Rugby states:

When we were reviewing the USA Rugby regulations it stated that each player must have met these regulations to play in ANY USA Rugby match leading up to a National Championship:

3.3. Player Eligibility

The purpose of these regulations is to prevent club hopping and the importation of guest players late in the season to strengthen teams for the later stages of competition leading to a USA Rugby Championship Event – these additional regulations are that:

a) Player must be CIPP enrolled for the club, through initial enrollment or transfer, prior to the earlier of (i) playing in any match that in any way leads to a USA Rugby Championship Event and (ii) April 15th for men's competitions and October 1st for women's competitions.

b) Player must have played for the club in at least two (2) Competitive Matches after September 1st at least a week apart from each other prior to participating in a TU playoff or championship. In the event a TU does not hold a playoff or championship, the matches must be played prior to the date the team qualifies for a USA Rugby Championship Event.

c) The player must not have have played for any other club after September 1st in a match that in any way leads to a USA Rugby Championship Event.

My issue here is that it appears that Belmont did bring these players over to give them a leg up...they recruited foreign players for a few months so that they would be sure and secure a seed for their union. It is hard to go against the evidence that Belmont knew what they were doing. As it states in point b) up above "player must have played for the club in at least two (2) Competitive Matches," so these players had to be over for a certain amount of time.

Are we playing for the sport here or are we playing for the win? Do we want women's rugby to come to this? We have all witnessed men's rugby where this issue is becoming more and more prevalent. So if you can't win a match on your own guns, bring in the BIG guns right?

I'm having a hard time because I want to throw a temper tantrum...I don't know how else to say it...THIS IS NOT FAIR!!

Yeah, I know you found a loophole...I know what you did is technically within the rules...but have you ever heard of ethics?

And the other side of the argument is...should we be so greedy about our 3 seeds? I could go on and on...but this has been bothering me for days and I am tired of it.

We are still standing Belmont...thanks for challenging our hearts, minds and rugby spirit.

I URGE Belmont to show me that they didn't do this. I know it would make me, my team and the whole rugby community feel better.

Austin Valkyries vs. Belmont Shore 0-86

Ohio State vs. Penn State 5-19
Army vs. Chico State 20-10
Appalachian State vs. University of N Iowa 12-58
University of Virginia vs. UC Davis 27-29
Navy vs. Brown 41-10
UC Santa Barbara vs. New Mexico 28-10
West Chester vs. Clemson 48-12
Stanford vs. Texas A&M 52-24


Texas A&M vs. Clemson 43-10
Virginia vs. Applachian 55-5
Brown vs. UC Santa Barbara 46-31
Chico State vs. Ohio State 42-10


Stanford vs. West Chester 71-10
UC Davis vs. University of N Iowa 43-23
Navy vs. New Mexico 15-29
Army vs. Penn State 17-12


Stanford University vs. UC Davis
University of New Mexico vs. Penn State University

Congratulations Ladies!

So my team is awesome. Really. Last night after a few of them read my blog they decided to have a H2O boat race after practice.

It was really fun! For those of you that don't know what a boat race is...its really simple. You get in teams and you are racing each other. A beverage is chosen (usually an adult beverage) and all the cups are filled to the same height.

Drinking commences when one person (not with a team) drinks their cup and usually they *flash* the crowd (we did it without flashing) and the teams begin drinking. The person in front must finish their cup before the person behind them can start and so on.

There is usually lots of spillage *cheating* but lots of swallowing and gurgling. Its a blast!

So we did it with water and it was really fun! Keep hydrating ladies, its going to be in the high 80s tomorrow!

I am a strong believer in hydration. As I prepare for the Valkyries challenge match against Belmont Shore this weekend...this point of importance has become forefront in my mind.

I played at the University of Oklahoma for five years, a hot, dry...and HOT climate you might say. Especially during the summer months, the AC was always blowing! I have always loved drinking water (yes straight from the tap!) and never had a problem hydrating before games.

So when I moved to Austin, TX last July I thought I was good to go! HA, my first game I started overheating and remember seeing three of my flyhalf. I just threw to the middle one...haha. So I had to revamp my strategy a bit for the even hotter and dry Austin heat. I just realized that some of my readers are probably cursing me right now as they still have snow, sleet and general crappy cold weather! Sorry! Austin has been in the 80's for weeks now...already packed all the winter gear up!

Anyways, so I was thinking of my hydration strategy...and wondered if other players have their strategies or just try to remember to drink water. I know some of you are probably thinking...strategy? Is she nuts? Maybe I am, but now I don't overheat when its over a hundred degrees outside!

Basically if I know I have a game on Saturday or a tournament, I start drinking more and more water starting Wednesday. I would say on a normal week, and a normal day I drink 6-8bottles (I re-use my Vitamin Water bottles...they are 20 fl oz) easily. Yesterday I kept a tally and I drank 8 of these bottles at work and at least 3 while at home last night. Today I have drank 8 bottles already and plan to drink more before practice and before bed.

My strategy for Friday is to drink as much water as I can...my pee should be clear and copious (thanks Mark!). Fridays I usually move to a nalgene bottle too, as I get tired of filling up the smaller bottles. Friday night I usually start drinking a bit of Gatorade because by Friday I am so tired of water I have to change it up to keep the hydration going.

Saturday varies if the match is in the morning or the afternoon. But basically I keep drinking until I am almost sick of drinking...and I haven't had a problem yet!

Does anyone else obsess about hydration like I do? Do you have a strategy? Or do you just drink tons of water the night before your match? Do you drink water, sports drinks or anything else?

Please check this out...AMAZING!

http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=?view=XXX_09NNN/

Here is a small sampling...

Ben Franklin, 2007
8.5 feet wide by 10.5 feet tall in three horizontal panels

Depicts 125,000 one-hundred dollar bills ($12.5 million), the amount our government spends every hour on the war in Iraq.

WRU Women DI Schedule

24 March St. Louis Sabres 24-14 Boulder Babes
31 March Austin Valkyries 5-18 Black Ice Austin

1 April Austin Valkyries 20-0 Boulder Babes
14 April Glendale Olde Girls 39-0 Boulder Babes
21 April St. Louis Sabres Kansas City Jazz

5 May Black Ice Glendale Olde Girls
5 May Kansas City Jazz Austin Valkyries
12 May Black Ice St. Louis Sabres

22 Sept Black Ice Kansas City Jazz
22 Sept Glendale Olde Girls Austin Valkyries
22 Sept Boulder Babes Kansas City Jazz

6 Oct Kansas City Jazz Glendale Olde Girls
6 Oct St. Louis Sabres Austin Valkyries

13 Oct Black Ice Boulder Babes
13 Oct Glendale Olde Girls St. Louis Sabres

The standings are updated by .PDF usually the Tuesday after the matches take place. Check out the link here.