A small writeup from Stephanie “Sprouts” Dvorak from the University of Texas A&M Rugby Team. She just got back from the USA U23 Developmental Program in Philadelphia. She is and up and coming prop with a ton of potential and is a force to reckon with. Her field vision and “gap seeking” improves with every game.
*Haha, I just realized that her jersey says 13 on it, I had heard rumors that you used to be a back!*
The camp was great….I had a LOT of fun, and that was actually the first time I have ever met the USA coaches so that was a great part of it. The shoulder is doing much better. It was pretty sore each day but I’m working hard to take care of it… icing it and taking my medicine and therapy and what not.
Basically this was 4 was the most physically demanding rugby days of my life. We stayed at the dorms at West Chester University and the pitch was 1 mile away, so we walked to and from it 2 times a day for our practices (I never thought 4 miles of walking a day would hurt so bad).
Practice was amazing, the first day we did fitness testing and I felt like I did pretty solid…I had been keeping up with fitness so I wasn’t in too bad of shape. We started on ball handling that afternoon, working on running channels and crosses and moving the ball with runners trailing, inserting, etc. It was definitely a big learning thing for me, especially being a forward.
The next day we started in on the tackling, starting low (on our knees) and working up to massive drills with 15+ people in at once just going at it. the progression of each of the drills was nice, and after the big drills we would work on individual skills and what not and then go back to the drills to try to improve in them. That was a pretty intense day with all of the tacking.
The next day we worked a lot on defense, working on communicating and sliding and who should get what tackle. We also split up into the different positions and I went with the tight 5. We did lots of core work and powerful, explosive movements for the scrum and line outs. Monday, we split into teams and had a full out, 80 minute scrimmage, which was one of the best games I have ever played in my life. They really encourage fast ball out of the rucks and lots of movement in the back line.
What was really different for me (being a prop) was that they really wanted us to insert right up WITH the backs to be there to support to work on continuous play. We also rucked more than I’ve ever rucked before to try to work on poaching and turnovers at the breakdowns. I have never really personally worked on that so that was good for me. Ooh also I LOVED meeting girls from all over the US, girls that I have seen play and have played and always thought were amazing were there, and that certainly helped with confidence levels and just learning about different styles. I love those girls a LOT already.
Another fun thing we did was watch the women’s 2006 World Cup, which I had never seen before, between England and New Zealand. It was great to watch with all my teammates because everyone had comments about everything and Barb really went through it and broke down the plays with us.
Ok well this was probably more than you needed to know but I’m at work and just went off on a tangent :). Hope everything is going well with you. and I hope I see you again soon so we can have a slurpee together!
-Sprouts
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A lot of interesting things in this post.
I have heard nothing about the end of the current u23 WNT program. Or anything about it being rolled into the WNT program as part of a revamped WNT ‘A.’ Granted this is year one of the new cycle, so now would be the time for change.
In regards to TU u23 players not going on to play for their senior side teams, I would imagine in most areas this is no different than the reasons why college players don’t end up playing club side rugby. College students have a different set of burdens and responsibilities. For many these burdens are not comparable to life after college. Traveling 8 hours for league games in college, like some folks do in the south, midwest, west, etc might be ok. But all of sudden your perspective changes when you actually have everyday responsibilities. Folks here in MARFU and the NRU kind of have it easy in terms of that. Things are fairly close.
Now the whole issue of u23 eagles making the WNT is a different story. I think you need to look at the the world cup squad a little closer. 10 players (that I can see) who traveled with the team were u23 products. Not bad for a program that is what…8 years old? I think this will only increase because up until this point the WNT has skewed kind of older with folks with lots of valuable experience holding on past their physical primes…