Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

Just got this in my inbox and it is on Goff.
Rugby fans who wish to help support the USA women's team on their tour of the UK can buy raffle tickets through assistant coach Alex Williams.

The Eagles are in a financial crunch to finance their tour, where they will play the Nomads, England A, and England. This will be the only full national team activity for the WNT this year, and their first such games since the 2006 World Cup.

Tickets are $10 apiece (or 4 for $5). The grand prize is $500 cash, 1st Price is $300, and 2nd Prize is $200.

If you would like to purchase a ticket, email Alex Williams at wntfwdcoach@gmail.com with:

1) Your Name
2) How many tickets you want
3) Whether you wish to support a specific player

You will receive tickets emailed back to you, along with information on how to pay for them.

Drawing will be Friday, November 30.
You can select a specific player to support, or simply support the team in general.

OR

If you want to donate directly to the team, go here and specify Women's National Team.

A reader of this post had asked for an updated map with color coding for all the teams, and I think I have gotten it right. Let me know if I didn't because I did it really fast and may have made a mistake!

Also if you are interested, the map is "live" at Google Maps here. Some of the place markers are not on their specific location because otherwise some of them were stacked. They are spread outs o you can see them better.

**Thanks for all the comments my rugger friends, looks like I may have it all cleared up now! Is Keystone really in the Northeast and not Marfu? Weird...

So I was bored at work today, so I decided to Google my name. That didn't bring up much exciting things, so I added rugby on the end of my name - Wendy Young rugby.

I found some interesting results:

1) Your Scrumhalf Connection, my blog is listed of course!

2) USA Rugby - I'm in the pool! The USA Rugby Women's National Team Pool that is! I've known that I was in the pool since June 2007, but its just nice to see your name in print!

USA Rugby Women's National Team Pool

Not sure if you have read Goff either, but they are estimating the cost of the England Tour to be around $1500 bucks a player. This is a huge cost, but who can say no to a tour with the Eagles? I am a reserve, so no traveling for me unless someone gets hurt.

Stay healthy all you scrumhalfs, but just know that I will have my bag packed and ready to go in a heartbeat if you get hurt...but really, please stay healthy, I would never wish ill on you...

3) Womeneagles.com - has the rosters from the NA4 tournament where I played against Canada.

4) Austin Valkyries - My current rugby club.

5) Rugby Canada - Match report from one the NA4 games.

6) Strr.net - Society of Texas Rugby Referees, one of my match reports for refereeing.

7) and there is even more, but I am sure you are bored of it by now.

Sometimes the internet can be incredibly helpful, but these days we are almost chronicling our lives because of the internet. Google is amazing...but its scary what you can find!

Check out my roommate Ashley (Shalay) Mefford's photos on Dropkickphotos.com...they are pretty sweet!

Here are the links to the albums:

Amazons vs ORSU
Beantown vs Atlanta
Surfers vs Jazz
Mudhens vs DC
Beantown vs Jazz
Amazons vs NOVA
Philly vs N Shore
Keystone vs Furies
Berkeley vs Philly
Valkyries vs NOVA
North Shore vs Glendale
New York vs Keystone
Atlanta vs Surfers
ORSU vs Valkyries
Berkeley vs Glendale
New York vs Mudhens

If the gallery isn't open yet, be patient as she has been working late nights trying to get the albums up. Feel free to purchase her photos and throw her a buck or two!

Thank you Wendy for reminding us that we hadn't yet published the results of the USA Rugby South Women's DII Championships in Miami on Oct 6/7. Naples/Coconut Grove put on a wonderful event and I think a flamingolicious time was had by all. Thank you Raelyn and friends for your all of your efforts. The Don Shula was the bomb!

Here are the scores:
Game 1 - Naples/Coconut Grove def Nashville 44-5
Game 2 - Orlando def Memphis 51-0
Game 3 - Nashville def Memphis 15-8
Game 4 - Orlando def Naples/Coconut Grove 17-5

Congratulations to Orlando and Naples/Coconut Grove who move on to the National Women's DII Championship (www.wdiirugby.org). They will have the advantage of competing on USARS home turf in Sanford FL on November 10/11 against DII teams representing the MidWest, MidAtlantic, and Northeast territories. Rock their world ladies!

In an effort to continually improve this event, we would appreciate any feedback regarding the South DII Championships. We will use this to make next year's South DII Championship even better. Also, please remember that the bids to host next year's South DII Championship event (Oct 4/5, 2008) are due by Nov 17, 2007 to Gary Kent. If everyone wants to know where the tournament will be (more than a month ahead of time) get your bids in NOW!

(Emily, please post results to USARS web site where appropriate.)

Danita Knox
danita.knox@ge.com

NLD Campbell
FLAMINGOS!
ndenni01@flastatealumni.org

Host: Orlando WRFC , Orlando FL
Date: November 10/11, 2007
Tournament Director: Keith Station

Click here for directions and hotel information.

CIPP Deadline: October 1, 2007
2007 Guidelines

Seedings:
1. NOVA II (Mid-Atlantic)
2. Village Lions (Northeast)
3. Detroit (Midwest)
4. Scioto Valley (Midwest)
5. Albany (Northeast)
6. Harrisburg (Mid-Atlantic)
7. Orlando (USA Rugby South)
8. Naples / Coconut Grove (USA Rugby South)

Saturday:
Game 1 - Nova II versus Naples / Coconut Grove
Game 2 - Scioto Valley versus Albany
Game 3 - Village Lions versus Orlando
Game 4 - Detroit versus Harrisburg
Game 5 - Winners game 1 play Winners game 2
Game 6 - Losers game 1 play Losers game 2
Game 7 - Winners game 3 play Winners game 4
Game 8 - Losers game 3 play Losers game 4

Sunday
Game 9 - Losers game 6 play losers game 8 for 7th/8th place
Game 10 - Winners game 6 play Winners game 8 for 5th/6th place
Game 11 - Losers game 5 play losers game 7 for 3rd/4th place
Game 12 - Winners game 5 play Winners game 7 for 1st/2nd place

For more information contact: info@wdiirugby.org

So I have several trains of thought today about rugby, West rugby and Round of 16. After the rather anti-climatic weekend for West rugby and all the teams involved, I really think we have to face facts. What are those facts?

1) West Region Geographically:


We are a HUGE union with a HUGE geographic challenge. Any D1 team in the West that wants to play a highly competitive team (besides CO) has to drive over 6 hours or fly to a destination. I added up how much I spent on plane tickets and driving this year and it was well over $1000. This total does not include any out of state tournaments either, because we simply couldn't afford to attend!

Yes, this is a challenge with living in the West...but should that challenge by shunned off just because we live in the West? I think not, and the solution is not to move to another territory although that option is tempting! I think we should stick by our union and work to improve it.

We can work on building a D2 program so that teams that aren't ready to work towards D1 at least have a championship to play for, even if USA Rugby doesn't recognize it. We also need to start working on building youth/high school in all parts of the West. Colorado has a good program going and Texas is just starting one...these programs will do all good things and most importantly will bring rugby to our cities.

2) Current D1 West League Schedule:
I came to Austin right after the team's had decided to do away with the Best of the West Tournament. I really think this was a good test to try out, but I think we have found that it has not helped at all. I believe one of the main ideas behind the switch was guaranteeing high level matches throughout the year and not having a tournament style. I really think this idea was thought out and implemented well, but the end result was not what was desired. Teams are spending twice as much money and traveling way more.

Where before a team may travel to Seattle, New York or across the country, now there are no funds to do any kind of traveling besides the league matches. I believe this is a detriment to our teams and I wish the league schedule would return to the Best of the West format.

3) Result of all This:
So what is all this adding up to? The West will more than likely have two seeds challenged and will have one chance to challenge for a seed. If all goes well, we keep 3 seeds, if all hell breaks loose the West could end up without a seed. Not going to say it will happen, but lets keep an open mind here. The West is in some serious danger here, we could lose all our seeds and have to do something dramatic.

4) West Select Side
So we haven't even touched on the NA4 schedule that is going to be a financial burden and more on the unions now. Basically if you haven't heard (amazing how many teams haven't heard...) USA Rugby is placing more emphasis on the Women's National Team and the Territorial stuff leading up to it. They are doing away with the traditional ITT's or All Stars Tournament and moving towards the NA4 [correction...duh I am an idiot...they are having ITT's]. Check out these blogs from a few months ago for more details: NA4 Details & NASC to become NA4.

So the whole idea is that each territorial will have two "home" games (where is home exactly?) and one away game. These are set to happen in the Spring season and so most teams are assuming that League season should happen in the Fall season. The costs are tripling here if you aren't counting...the finances for this are getting scary. If I did the math really quickly for me personally I am counting:

2-3 West D1 League games (away)
2 West Select Side games(home)
1 West Select Side game (away)
1 NASC (away)

and if I go far enough...
1 NA4 Tournament
1-2 possible overseas tours while preparing for the Rugby World Cup

Scary stuff.

So those are the thoughts that are running through my head today...not very good stuff. I have been in the West Territory for almost 7 years now and it is becoming more and more daunting to play here.

Haha, I thought the title was pretty clever, hopefully you will too! I thought I would give a little tidbit about each game and it might be rugby related or not! Enjoy!

9:30am: Beantown vs KC Jazz 64 to 5
This game was the first game of the day and nerves seemed to be a factor for each team. The first twenty minutes were also helter skelter as the ball was a little wet from the dew on the ground. Beantown was the first team to calm down and start to control the pace of the game. They did a great job of pounding the forwards up and then sending the centers through the middle. Great game with the Jazz coming out pretty beaten up and defeated.

10 am: SD Surfers vs Atlanta 5 to 20
I was touch judging at the 11:00am game so I don't really know what happened at this game, but I could hear the crowd yelling as big runs were made and big tackles were hit. The Surfers did very well over all in this game and their next game though. Atlanta didn't look as sharp as they usually do, but they had some big runs that resulted in big tries.

11 am: Nova vs TC Amazons 17 to 20
This game was incredibly tense and awesome to watch. I was touch judging, so the action was always right in front of me. The scoring was pretty much one right after another and it came down to the wire. Nova drove and drove but it seemed that penalties were really the downfall of this game.

11:30am: ORSU vs Minn Valkyries 17 to 7
I was still touch judging for this game so I couldn't watch any of it but the end...but I heard about it. Talk about a HUGE upset!?! Evidently Minnesota could never get anything rolling on offense and ORSU was firing on all cylinders. The 7 points that Minnesota scored was in the last few minutes of the game and ORSU controlled the game.

12:30pm: Philly vs N Shore 29 to 16
This game was the game I was looking forward to all day. I really thought Philly was going to be the sleeper that surprised everyone. They have been working hard to recruit good athletes and plenty of U19 & U23 players and that will pay off eventually. These two teams played a very physical match and it was thrilling to watch.

1 pm: Glendale vs Berkeley 0 to 58
During this game I was touch judging the 2pm fight, so once again I didn't get to see it. I did hear the crowd yell though when Berkely put a try in about 2 minutes into the game. Those that watched the game said that Glendale played hard but that they were shut down completely on defense and couldn't get anything going on offense. I had never seen the back line of Jaime Lange, Janay Lake, Lynelle Kugler etc and was excited to see it...but evidently they couldn't do much because Berkeley was so stifling on defense.

2 pm: Keystone vs Furies 14 to 0
This game was great because I had never seen Keystone play before. Keystone came out of the gate swinging and scored pretty quickly. DC never seemed to get anything rolling as they were constantly backed up and having to kick for touch. This game was also physical and the penalties were pretty constant as each team was fighting hard for points. DC never gave up but never could get in the try zone.

2:30pm: New York vs Mudhens 67 to 10
This was the last game of the day and as you can see from the score New York took care of business. They had a great wide game all day and utilized the tactical kicking with great precision. The Mudhens fought the whole game but couldn't contain New York's continuity and beautiful rucks.


Beantown vs Atlanta 45 to 0
Clearly Beantown had a handle on this game as they made quick work of Atlanta...the score says most of the game. What the score doesn't say is that Atlanta fought hard, but couldn't make it happen. Great game even with the score being what it is.

MN Valkyries vs NOVA 19 to 5
This game was one of the lower scoring games of the day, but was one of the most exciting of the day. The Valkyries clearly wanted to let everyone know that they were still one of the best teams in the Midwest and they played that way. Nova didn't give up though and was a thorn in their side the whole game. They caused knock on after knock on and almost had several beautiful tries.

Surfers vs Jazz 20 to 12
This game was one of my favorites of the morning...Since Belmont didn't have their internationals to help them win their league games, I believe the best team in the South was present. I was also extremely excited to hear that the Surfers did it with their own strengths and merits. The Jazz played very well but it got away from them in the last 10 minutes of the game. Making it worse, the Surfer suffered a sin bin and won the game with 14 players on the field.

ORSU vs Amazons 12 to 24
This game was played very smart by ORSU, they had seen the Amazons strong back line and clearly took note of it. They chose to keep the ball in the forward and to pound the ball down the field, slowly opening up things on the outside. But the Amazons were able to work around that and started working the ball up the middle as well and around the outside.

N Shore vs Glendale 49 to 12
This game was also highly anticipated for me as the West had already lost a match this morning and we were putting our hope on Glendale. The match was strong as Glendale had several great runs but couldn't keep N Shore out of the try zone.

Berkeley vs Philly 31 to 10
This game was one of the more highly anticipated in my opinion. Philly played hard and I thought they might have won if the game was only 30 minutes long. It wasn't a fitness issue, it was more a physical issue in my opinion. Berkeley rucked hard all day long and it was a physical match to say the least. Philly had several opportunities to score again but decision at the back of the ruck seemed to take to long.

Mudhens vs DC 7 to 41
I didn't see this game as I was watching the Berkeley vs Philly game, but the score pretty says that it was a blowout.

New York to Keystone 31 to 7
Again New York played the last game of the day and the crowd was pretty amped up on rugby at this point. Keystone came out to win and looked strong in the first 30 minutes but then they seemed to wither pretty quickly. New York kept pounding them in the forwards and used their brute strength to control the game.

**Pictures were taken by Ashley Mefford of the Austin Valkyries. She is still working on editing them, so keep checking back for more pictures and albums.

Sunday Oct 28, 2007:

Beantown vs Atlanta 45 to 0
MN Valkyries vs NOVA 19 to 5
Surfers vs Jazz 20 to 12
ORSU vs Amazons 12 to 24
N Shore vs Glendale 49 to 12
Berkeley vs Philly 31 to 10
Mudhens vs DC 7 to 41
New York to Keystone 31 to 7

Matchups November 9-11 Kissimmee, Fla.

Cup Semifinal: New York v. Beantown
Cup Semifinal: Berkeley v. Twin Cities

Plate Semifinal: Keystone v. Atlanta
Plate Semifinal: ORSU v. Philadelphia


Stay tuned for pictures, video and more in the next week or so!

MATCH SCHEDULE:

Saturday, October 27
9:30am: Beantown vs KC Jazz 64 to 5
10 am: SD Surfers vs Atlanta 5 to 20
11 am: Nova vs TC Amazons 17 to 20
11:30am: ORSU vs Minn Valkyries 17 to 7
12:30pm: Philly vs N Shore 29 to 16
1 pm: Glendale vs Berkeley 0 to 58
2 pm: Keystone vs Furies 14 to 0
2:30pm: New York vs Mudhens 67 to 10

Sunday, October 28
8:30am KC Jazz vs SD Surfers
9:00am: Beantown vs Atlanta
10:00am: NOVA vs Minn Valkyries
10:30am: Amazons vs ORSU
11:30a: N Shore vs Glendale
12:00pm: Philly vs Berkeley
1:00pm: Furies vs Mudhens
1:30pm: Keystone v New York

We arrived at Burr Field this morning with temperatures in the low 50's and a bit of dew on the ground. As you can see from my "mountain outfit" as my girlfriend called me...I was cold! But soon the sun came out from behind the trees and we had a BEAUTIFUL rugby day ahead of us.

The pitches were lined perfectly and the hard Texas ground was just begging to be touched by all the rugby glory out there. The first few games of the day were highly contested and were very intense. I touch judged two of the games today and played "trainer" for the rest. Need something taped? Wendy can do that!

Over all I think the first day or Round of 16 included some GREAT rugby and an even better crowd. Austinites were out in force and we appreciate the support from the local community here.

One of the great ideas coming from the tournament in my opinion was the "anti-bacterial stations" the Austin Blacks put together. See the picture on the right for a visual: basically its a bucket turned over, with a lovely white towel over it and two anti-bacterial bottles for our sanitation purposes. Cute right?

Also we the Austin Valkyries are pretty excited about the raffle we put together. The items are wide and varied from Mary Kay makeup to the sweetest All Black Jersey we have ever seen! Come on out and buy an armful of ticket...yes you can bring you lock's long arms...for $10.

Look for more results tomorrow afternoon.

I will be LIVE blogging from my Treo 680 this weekend, look for scores updates throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday.

"Reporting live from the Women's Round of 16 in Austin, TX Ms. Wendy Young..."

USA Rugby National Championships - Round of 16

MATCH SCHEDULE:

Saturday, October 27
9:30am: Beantown v Kansas City Jazz
10 am: S.D. Surfers v Atl Harlequins
11 am: NOVA v T.C. Amazons
11:30am: MinnValkyries v ORSU Jesters
12:30pm: Philly v Chi North Shore
1 pm: Glendale v Berkeley All Blues
2 pm: Wash. Furies v Keystone
2:30pm: New York v E.C. Mudhens

Sunday, October 28
8:30am Loser Game 1 v Loser Game 2
9:00am: Winner Game 1 v Winner Game 2
10:00am: Loser Game 3 v Loser Game 4
10:30am: Winner Game 3 v Winner Game 4
11:30a: Loser Game 5 v Loser Game 6
12:00pm: Winner Game 5 v Winner Game 6
1:00pm: Loser Game 7 v Loser Game 8
1:30pm: Winner Game 7 v Winner Game 8

SEEDINGS:

1. Northeast #1: New York
2. Pacific #1: Berkeley All Blues
3. Midwest #1: Minnesota Valkeries
4. South #1: Atlanta Harlequins
5. Northeast #2: Beantown
6. Midwest #2: Twin City Amazons
7. Mid-Atlantic #1: Philadelphia
8. Northeast #3: Keystone
9 . Mid-Atlantic #2: Washington Furies
10. Midwest #3: Chicago North Shore
11 . Mid-Atlantic: #3 NOVA
12 . West #1: Kansas City Jazz
13 . Southern Cal #1: (Belmont over Austin) San Diego Surfers
14 . Pacific #2: (ORSU over Scottsdale) ORSU
15 . West #2: (Jazz (W3) over Boston) Glendale
16. Pacific #3: (Mudhens over Wisconsin) Emerald City Mudhens