Rugby Here and There

Here we go!

• I had forgotten that Katie Wurst from Glendale had forwarded me this email:

  40th annual Sneath Cup 7s in Denver. Saturday July 7, 2007.
  We would like to have your club play in the Sneath Cup 7s. As you may know we are hosting one of the three Mens WRFU 7s Super Regional Qualifiers, Mens Social & Womens Club Brackets, Youth Division. Saturday July 7, 2007.

  So far Aspen, Dallas Fort Worth Elite, Kansas City Blues, Olympic Club (San Fran), Queen City, Santa Fe, The South RFU and the Barbos 2 competitive sides have expressed interest in attending.

  Last year we had Dallas Elite, Kansas City United, O Club, Sante Fe, Shreveport and ourselves as well as some local clubs in the tourney. The Qualifier bracket is a small (8 to 12 teams) but competitive event, 5 weeks before the National Club 7s.

  Two years ago we had a Women’s bracket. We were not able to attract a Women’s group last year but would like to again.

  Pitch size – 2 dedicated rugby fields with full dimensions and Goal posts

  Howard Kent (303) 620-9913 C nhil@earthlink.net
  Manager/Assit. Coach Denver Barbarians RFC 7s

  For travel contact Travel Corp, Jim Bob Glabman 303 595-0007 or 800
  222-9229

  Blondie also blogged about it…lets try and support ladies!

• Here is an email I got from a disgruntled Memphis player that didn’t post on my blog. She is apparently upset over the “scathing” (cough, cough) match report our Coach (Meredith Bagley) wrote about our match against Memphis. First the match report again and then the comments…you be the judge!

  For all Valks & Valk-lovers:

  The Austin Valkyries went 2-1 this weekend at NashBash, ending with two consecutive dominating victories to build some great momentum going into our first weekend of West Div I matches (see below). Our toughest match of the day came first, of course, at 10am Saturday v. the two-time defending Div II champion Raleigh Venom. We had some moments of brilliance but a few too many miscues and the Venom prevailed 19-0. However, their points came off simple errors, penalties & a freak kick-interception so we kept our heads high.

  In game two we faced Glendale (formerly the HOGS) who had picked up about 12 whores — suffice to say we crushed them. The final score was Austin 18 Glendale 7…I know Ros scored once and Wendy had 2 lovely penalty kicks. Ros also got called names by her opposite — that’s how tough our defense was. 🙂

  On Sunday we faced Memphis, a scrappy but less skilled team. While Memphis earned one try, the Valkyries scored 3 gorgeous ones: a long series of phases ending with, no joke, a 1-14 switch on the wing between Traci & Rocky, a beautiful catch & counterattack by Shalay from about 30 meters out, and another gorgeous passing attack featuring ‘Meg the Prop’ stepping into 10 and ending with Shay scoring on the wing. This game ended early as the Memphis ladies kept dropping like flies in the heat…final score was Austin 15 Memphis 5.

  And now the email (from Mandy Yow yowbeast@gmail.com) that I think was totally unwarranted:

  “Bold comments you posted against Memphis. You played a partial Memphis team that had fought a hard fight the day before with an opening game against NOVA (ya know…the team that took the tourney) which we did loose by a try, but it was a very close game. As I recall, you guys had a fairly easy day on Saturday.Try us again when we are not as injured/hungover and short handed and you might feel a bit differently.
  Thanks for the motivation, however.”

  I believe that if we had been trashing Memphis that maybe this email would have had a point…but the writeup was very fair and didn’t say anything negative about Memphis. It was hot, there were a lot of injuries…nice try though!

  As a teammate of mine pointed out “Let’s see, we traveled by plane 860 miles with over 20 players – all Valkyries – and finished strong on Sunday…Even after playing the DII national champs on our “fairly easy” Saturday. They had a short 3-hour drive and were still short handed on Sunday. And she even had the lack of sense to admit they were hungover??

• Carleton Gives Eight Varsity Teams the Ax (Northfield, Minnesota)

  Carleton will cut eight teams from its varsity slate next year, the department of athletics announced today.

  The department has stripped the men’s and women’s rowing, golf and swim teams, the men’s rugby team and the women’s field hockey team of their varsity status.

  The teams will be encouraged to apply for competitive club status so they can continue inter university play.

  The cuts are a result of financial strain within the department, and were decided based on a nine-point criteria system.

  A report tabled by the Carleton’s Competitive Sport Review Committee also suggested that unless the department’s profit margin changes, athletics should wait four years before adding any new varsity programs.

  Make sure to check our website on Thursday April 5 for more on this developing story.

• College Rankings from Vassar College Athletics (obviously taken from Goff though…)

  1. Chico State (1)
  2. Army (2)
  3. Penn State (5)
  4. Stanford (4)
  5. Navy (7)
  6. Texas A&M (9)
  7.Vassar (16)
  8. Virginia (3)
  9. BYU (18)
  10. UCSB (10)
  11. New Mexico (6)
  12. Brown (11)
  13. Air Force (7)
  14. West Chester (16)
  15. U. Northern Iowa (13)
  16. UC Davis (12)
  17. University of Colorado (14)
  18. California (15)
  19. Cornell (23)
  20. Yale (20)
  21. Oregon (21)
  22. Eastern Illinois (22)
  23. Clemson (Unranked)
  24. UCSD (24)
  25. Ohio State (25)

• Women’s rugby travels to nationals in No. 1 spot (Chico State)

  The women’s rugby team was the national champion in 2001, but Chico State hasn’
  t been ranked No. 1 in the nation going into playoffs – until now.

  The ‘Cats defeated two top-ranked teams, starting with Stanford and continuing with Army, in the final game of the Champagne Classic in San Diego two weeks ago.

  Games against Stanford University have always been close, but the ‘Cats have started to catch up to them.

  “We have the benefit of seeing them every year,” head coach Alex Triantafyllou said. “I think we know their system.”

  Experience continues to be what builds the team’s performance. More of the article here.

• Women’s rugby club slugs local competition (East Carolina)

  Many ECU club teams have performed well during the last couple of years, but none have succeeded quite like the women’s rugby squad.

  This year, the Pirates finished with a 6-1-1 record, taking their only loss in the Division II Southern Region finals against College of Charleston, 15-13.

  “It was an emotional game,” said ECU Women’s Rugby Club President Elisa Ford.

  Last season the Pirates got to the finals of the Division II Southern Region tournament, but lost to the University of Georgia by one point. ECU was then informed that UGA had used ineligible players and that the Pirates would be allowed to go to the Division II National Finals.

  Unfortunately, because of the discrepancy, the club team had not been told in a timely fashion and could not gather the funds to attend the national tournament. Click here to read more of the article.

• U19 Women’s Rugby Blog – MARFU U19 Tryout Camp

I believe that is all for me today…keep it coming ladies! I love getting the emails, news, blogs, photos and more.

Don’t forget to check out my RUGBY STORE and to visit the ONLINE RUGBY CALENDAR.

Have a great Easter Weekend.