Whew, I am way behind on my personal updates! Here is a quick writeup of the Texas team and my West U23 LAU Tournament weekend. This tournament was a collection of teams from regions across the West including Heart of America, Eastern Rockies Rugby Football Union, Texas Rugby Union, and the West U19 team was also present.
The Girl (Texas U23 Forwards Coach) and I (Texas U23 Trainer) met Anna Kunkel (Texas U23 Head Coach) in Colorado Friday night. The weather was a stark difference from Texas as we had been experiencing high 70s and even some 80s…but no CO was freezing and had a chance of snow! So out came the long underwear, fur coats (Jessie), beanies and mittens (The Girl).
Once we adjusted to the freezing cold weather…ok we never really did…we spent the night huddled in our hotel rooms with the heater on…early Saturday morning we played the Heart of America (HOA) and got off to a sluggish start. Perhaps it was the cold, perhaps it was the 9am kickoff, but we just didn’t show up to knock any heads off! I am not sure of the score of that game but HOA played very well and won at least 30-5 or so.
That night Infinity Park put on a great dinner where all the teams were present and we were privy to several rousing skits! I do have to say that the Texas skit was the best though as they made fun were in costume and spoofed Jerry Springer! I also gave away 6 YSC tshirts (all shirts are 11% off until 4/15/2009) to players that the coaches and I thought played really hard and had earned the recognition. If you have a picture in your new tshirt…send it my way!
On Sunday, we played a great game against ERRFU B and were victorious! This time we were awake and prepared for the challenge ahead. I liked the directing from the scrumhalves, and really enjoyed watching the backs bust through the back line over and over with forward support on their heels. Again, I am not positive of the score, but I know we won by 3 or 4 tries.
ERRFU B vs Texas – U23 West LAU Tournament from Scrumhalf Connection on Vimeo.
Later in the afternoon after we had sampled the snacks from the Grubber Grill we played against Eastern Rocky Rugby Football Union A (ERRFU). The first half the game was very even as each team battled to score, the half went to ERRFU A as they put one score down to make the score 5-0. Unfortunately the fitness and the altitude took its toll the second half and we ended up losing by at least 5 tries.
ERRFU A vs Texas – West LAU Tournament 2009 from Scrumhalf Connection on Vimeo.
Overall the weekend was great, the team learned about higher paced play and we are hoping that they will bring this back to their own teams and raise the level of Texas Rugby for all! If you missed the tryouts this year, be sure to make time for it next year. Your rugby will only get better and you will make friends that you will never forget!
