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These videos are from Sept 20, 2008 and are from the a Collegiate Round Robin that Austin B participated in. Videopgraphers were myself, Tiffany H., and Rachel K., thanks for the help ladies!
Austin B vs. UT
Susan sent in the link to this video for Rugby Video Monday, it is Philly vs Raleigh from two weekends ago (9/20/2008) and is a great highlight reel. WOW, that Philly scrum was driving them backwards! Looks like Philly defeated Raleigh 48-5 in this match.
I was going to take a few days to write about the painful experience that has been Austin vs Glendale this year, but the comments on my last post have gotten a little crazy! The point of that blog was not to stir up controversy or badmouth a team, if you read it that way, read it again and really read it this time.
A lot of injustices were done by Glendale and before you think I am just ripping Glendale, keep reading! Austin made a few mistakes as well. Glendale should have come to Austin when they were scheduled. As we all know, Austin was cleared of ANY weather concerning Hurricane Ike and the match should have continued as scheduled. Glendale should have also made more of an effort to come to Austin on a rescheduled date. Austin should have stuck to their guns and not agreed to move their match or accept to play Glendale in Colorado. Austin should have been more vigilant in what was best for their team, not convenient.
The West perhaps has made the most mistakes here, one single person made the decision to cancel this match and started this firestorm. It was not taken to the West board, or Competitions Committee, unfortunately one single man made this decision. On top of that, the West failed to appoint a fair and neutral referee, they also failed to appoint Assistant Referees that were certified and not from either team. In all, the West in general fails because they allowed ANY of this to happen.
However, I think we should turn the tables on this and try to put a positive spin on all of this...what can we learn from this?
- Home games should not be taken for granted, and teams should not lose their home field advantage if at all possible.
- Rescheduling the game should not be a hardship on either team if at all possible, but Friendlys and Tournaments should be canceled in order to play a League Match.
- Referees should be completely neutral and possibly brought in from other territories. IE: if Glendale is playing KC, have a ref from TX or Missouri.
- Assitant Referees must be in attendance and certified referees and not from either team.
- Safety is always a concern, but what constitutes a National Weather Emergency or Natural Disaster?
- Who really has control over this league? Bill Haffner or the West?
What other concerns do we have? Do you experience similar problems in your Union? Have anything to say positive or negative (lets try to be positive!) please leave it in the comments.
If we can't expect each other as teams to hold each other accountable for our actions, than how can we expect the West or USA Rugby to be held accountable as well?
This is a BIG weekend in West D1 Women's Rugby!! The games this weekend could literally almost decide who will be representing the West at Round of 16s.
Saturday, Sept 27, 2008 -
Austin vs Kansas City Jazz at 11am at Infinity Park
Austin vs Glendale at 4:30pm at Dick's Sporting Good Park
Sunday, Sept 28, 2008 -
Austin vs Boulder at 12pm at Pleasant View (followed by Austin B vs Black Ice B)
Current Standings are:
Past Results:
March 1 - Glendale vs Boulder 33-5
March 29 - Sabres vs Glendale 5-9
April 12 - Austin vs Jazz 29-17
April 19 - Black Ice vs Glendale FORFEIT
April 19 - Boulder vs Sabres 0-60
May 17 - Sabres vs Black Ice 38-7
Sept 13 - Jazz vs Sabres 10-0
September 20 - Jazz vs Black Ice 50-11
The remaining games for the West D1 season are:
Oct 4 - KC Jazz vs Boulder (in Kansas City)
Oct 11 - Austin vs St. Louis Sabres (in Austin)
Oct 11 - Boulder vs Black Ice (in Boulder)
Good luck to all this weekend!
The International Rugby Board has unveiled England as the chosen nation to host the 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup.
UPDATE: Match was successfully rescheduled, for details check out this post.
Everyone come take a ride on the Merry Go Round...remember when you were a kid and you would sit in the middle of it and your best friend would spin and spin until you couldn't take it anymore? You would try to get up after it stop moving and you would feel nausea and pukey, its all you can do to hold the vomit down...That's pretty much a description of the 2008 West League Match season, specifically the match details vs Glendale. Here is a quick summary of our the Austin Valkyries Merry Go Round ride:
Hurricane Ike moves towards the Texas coast during the week before our League Match. There are broad reports of it being the worse storm to possibly hit Austin since 1961, so the Valkyries begin to make preparations in case the storm does hit or impacts us. Typically storms are forecast to hit Austin and surrounding areas, but usually the storms move around and do not hit Austin. True to that fact Hurricane Ike did not hit until early Saturday morning and the only affected areas were surrounding Houston and Beaumont.
During all of weather drama on Tuesday and Wednesday the Valkyrie Officers and Coaches have been in close contact with the Glendale Coach and Match Secretary. On Tuesday evening both teams decide to give the storm 24-48 hours in order to gauge safety and weather conditions. The storm continues to move Northeast during the next 24-48 and weather predictions only have a risk of high winds and 80% chance of rain for match day.
However, everything begins to shift dramatically Thursday morning when our Coach receives an call from Bill Haffner that there are concerns about safety and weather conditions for this match. Our Coach and Officers spend most of their workday on Thursday working with Bill and Glendale trying to keep the match on. We had requested further information on Hurricane Ike and received a report from OEM (Austin Office of Emergency Management) at 5:15pm saying all will be clear and safe. We also requested a report from FEMA and the National Weather Service and received their report at 6:30pm that Austin was OFF the "cities at risk" list. Our coach called an emergency meeting with the Austin Blacks at Burr field at 7pm and received permission to play in wind or rain at Burr Field. We also reserved a back-up field in case there was a large amount of rain. At 7:30pm our coach called the Glendale coach and confirmed that "the game was ON" - at 9pm confirmation of match and details were sent to West, TRU, Referee and both teams that the game is ON and will be played.
The Valkyries believe all is well and we continue our match preparations in case there are problems with the Hurricane. Friday morning at approximately 9am we receive an email from Bill Haffner that the game has been cancelled and we must reschedule with Glendale. Our coach quickly calls Haffner and the discovers the reason for canceling the match (given verbally over the phone) was "the storm may hit later and prevent travel out of Austin Saturday night." After pouring a stiff drink and buying pack of cigarettes, our Coach attempts to work within new template that implies "What Glendale wants, Glendale gets."
Since we are forced to reschedule by the West, we immediately offer the next weekend for the rescheduled match. Glendale refuses saying they are attending Aspen Ruggerfest. We suggest Sunday Oct. 5th and the response is "no, it costs too much." Glendale offers a counter offer of Sept. 27 and they can guarantee a forfeit by Black Ice (League Match) and they will move our Boulder Babes League Match to Sunday.
As soon as we received this counter offer of Sept 27 complete with forfeit and moving of a match, we contacted Black Ice and Boulder and asked if they had been informed of these decisions. Of course they had no idea what was going on and we suggested they call the Glendale coach as she was offering them up. Black Ice and Boulder were both of course appalled that these arrangements would be made without being consulted, and were extremely happy we had the integrity and fortitude to contact them.
On the originally scheduled match day we continued with our plans to play rugby and we hosted our B side vs Texas State in Austin, TX at the reserved pitch. The weather was picture perfect, the rugby was even more beautiful and we had a GREAT Hurricane Ike party.
Negotiations continued throughout the next week as Glendale, Boulder, Black Ice, Austin and the West officials continued discussions about this match and the conditions thereof. Finally we received confirmation that we would play Glendale on Sept 27, 2008 in Denver (pitch to be neutral and TBD). Glendale will play the Kansas City Jazz (League Match) and then we will play our League Match against them that afternoon. We found out later that Black Ice decided to forfeit their League Match because they wanted to see the best team go to Nationals and we confirmed with them that we would give them a B side match after we play Boulder on Sunday, Sept 28, 2008.
All in this has been a huge stress and completely ridiculous as the weather in Austin on Sept 13, 2008 was absolutely gorgeous without a drop of rain and our B side threw to Pod 2 without any problems all day long. There has been plenty of speculation as to why this match was really canceled, and I have my own opinions about that, but that is for another day.
We are looking forward to our League Match this weekend against Glendale and may the best team win! It doesn't go without saying though that Glendale obviously thinks they are pretty powerful, scheduling two league matches in one day, speaking for other teams when they don't have the right...is this what having USA Rugby in your backyard does, give you false confidence and false power?
UPDATE: Match was successfully rescheduled, for details check out this post.
Its not very often that you see videos of girls playing rugby against boys! This week's video is a HUGE shout-out to GRFC Women's rugby as they play with boys! This can be incredibly intimidating, but a useful tool if you can get yourself out on that pitch with boys or men's rugby teams. I love playing touch rugby with men's teams as it much faster, but less contact and I have really been able to excel my game through playing with them.
And the Winner of the FREE Your Scrumhalf Connection tshirt raffle is...drum roll please!
I have to post this, hilarious (here's a link to the video as well)!!!
I can't believe the summer has flown by and its already Fall here in Austin! The weather has been unnaturally cool for this time of year (due to pressure systems around Hurricane Ike) and the break from 100 degrees has been welcome.
So what has been happening in my neck of the woods? Starting in June I was released to play rugby and spent plenty of time training for the West All-Star Team. I knew I was a backup scrumhalf going into the whole situation, so the pressure was low and it was actually nice to enjoy my time at NASCs. I also had a BLAST working with the West U23 All-Star as a trainer/scrumhalf coach for that team. Don't forget to read up on The Girl's LONG trip to PIT as she was also on the West Senior team and also helped with the West U23's as a forwards coach.
Before NASCs, I played my first game since ACL surgery at Dallas 7s in Ft, Worth TX. That tournament is always a blast with the Debutante Ball after a long day of 7's. Good tournament with plenty of women's teams (6) and of course it is always good to see old friends! We played well as a team in our first event and placed 4th I believe. I reffed two games and played in a few as well, love that tournament!
In July I was disappointed to not be selected for the Nations Cup Team, but knew it was a long shot as I was still coming off my ACL replacement surgery. However, I watched with pride as the team fought hard against England, Canada and England again. The pictures from the event were amazing and the new jerseys look smashing!! Also, make sure to check out the Youtube highlight video of England vs USA.
Bloodfest 7s was in July and that is an amazing tournament as well! I reffed and played with the Satiated Beavers in that tournament. My knee was coming along well and I was feeling more and more fit and more and more confident. The Beavers kicked arse in that tournament and placed 1st while A&M (last year's champions) placed 2nd. The Austin Valkyries, my club team, also began Sprint Training in July in order to be ready for our first league match against Glendale in September.
While some of the Beavers were in Cape Cod at Cape Cod 7s, the rest of the Beavers headed down to Corpus Christ for 7s by the Sea. The weather was absolutely gorgeous as we had partial cloud cover most of the day and of course the ocean was lovely as well. I reffed over 6 games that day and enjoyed every minute of it! Reffing men has been a pleasure as they have been respectful, honest and understanding. It has challenged my fitness, mind and character, and I am enjoying it immensely.
In August the summer continued to fly by as The Girl, Meg and I headed to Shreveport, LA to referee the TOLA 7s Championships and we enjoyed good buffet food, gambling and of course some great rugby. In the middle of August, the Austin Valkyries began fall practice with large numbers (yea for recruiting) and plenty of heart and gusto.
Of course August is the best month because it is my birthday month, and everyone knows that Virgos are the best!! For my birthday it was pretty low-key on the actual day as I had motorcycle classes, but that night was another killer Ros/Wendy duo birthday party.
September is almost half over and rugby is back in the works full swing! We are hosting a Private & Exclusive screening of Forever Strong next week, we have already played a few A side and B side games and I will be reffing under the new ELV laws this weekend for the first time. All in all things are moving well, my knee is stronger than ever and I hardly think about it anymore. I am training a new backup scrumhalf and she is kicking ass, I have had fun teaching her all the ins and outs of being a bad-arse scrumhalf.
Some good news on the WNT front, I just received an invitation to a Red vs White game in November in Ft. Lauderdale, FL...we are playing as an exhibition match for the U19 Tournament...more details to come as that event develops.
I have a few projects in route for the blog and the most recent is creating some sort of HTML form or ASP project that will allow you to submit your team's scores each week. If anyone has any hints or suggestions on this, I would appreciate it as I am trying valiantly to figure it out between work, school (one more semester till I graduate!) and rugby!
Our Sports tickets include
rugby tickets,
boxing tickets,
hockey tickets and soccer tickets
Rucking Zone
Keystone Premiership Team
ScrumQueens