2010 Wrap up of WRWC, WPL, D1 & D2 Competitions

Well we have reached the conclusion of another year for the WRWC, WPL, D1 and D2 Leagues. Congrats to the victors! Lets take a closer look at the year and how everything went down.

Rugby World Cup
While the finalist of the Women’s Rugby World Cup final were the same as the last 3 tournaments, lots of other aspects of the tournament were new and fresh. For the first time, over 13 matches were shown live on Sky Sports and most matches were available to watch on-line.

The quality of rugby in the upper half of the teams at the RWC was phenomenal. The lower half of the teams were plagued with Yellow and Red cards. In its first appearance South Africa suffered the most with yellow and red card offenses. Watching their games they were incredibly physical and it may have been a downfall for them as they were not as disciplined as other teams. Kazakhstan has been to the RWC before, but also had issues with discipline at the tackle and ruck areas of the game. As newer rugby nations, you might say that these teams are not as familiar with International reffing styles and their overall performance at the tournament was hindered by this. The teams that had very few issues with yellow/red cards are some of the top rugby nations. Looking back at the RWC tournaments it is clear that the top nations are New Zealand, England, France and the United States (Canada is right there as well, but USA gets the nod because they have performed better in earlier years).

Overall the USA performance was identical to their past 2 World Cups. Ever since winning the first Women’s RWC in 1991 and getting second in 1994 and 1998, the United States has not reached the top 4. The best in the last few years that the USA has placed is fifth and they repeated that this year.

Looking forward to the 2014 RWC Tournament you can only wonder if the the past will repeat itself. Even with New Zealand cutting back their women’s program they were able to upset England and take the crown this year. England has sunk tons of money into their women’s program including paying some of the players (Professional Women’s Rugby Players!?) and they were certainly dominating this year. You also have to wonder if the Australia team will be more of a contender in 2014 as they were the winners of the 2009 7’s Rugby World Cup and have really begun to focus on their women’s program. The host of the 2014 RWC Tournament has not been chosen yet, the nations that have shown interest in hosting are Kazakhstan, United States, Samoa and New Zealand.

Women’s Premier League
The WPL was formatted a bit differently this year. Instead of set regions, they decided to do cross-region matches with a Red and a Blue League. After the league matches, a tiered championship was played. #1 from the Blue Conference played #2 from the Red Conference in one Cup semi and #2 Blue v #1 Red in the other Cup semi. The winners then played for the National Championship and the losers played for 3rd/4th. Then, the Plate semis were #3 Red v #4 Blue and #3 Blue v #4 Red. Winners played for 5th/6th overall and losers played for 7th/8th.

In 2009, the WPL final was available live on Ustream and New York took home the title over Berkeley. This year no matches were available live and we found out soon after the conclusion that New York was again victorious as they defeated Beantown.  League play this year proved to be helter skelter as there were a lot more lopsided matches and teams often traveled light due to financial and time constraints.

Earlier this year, the promotion/relegation policy for WPL and D1 was released. The San Diego Surfers took advantage of this and challenged ORSU for a spot in the WPL next year. ORSU declined the match; therefore, they will drop down to compete in Div 1 and San Diego will join the WPL in 2011.  Atlanta also had the option to move up (by challenging Keystone), but declined to challenge this year. All the scores from the 2010 WPL Championship can be found here.

Div 1
In the second year of the Round of 12 format, the conclusion of the Championship only had a few differences. San Diego swept the competition all year long and came out victorious again. They have since decided to move up to the WPL (no challenge match as ORSU elected to drop down). However, at the Final Four tournament, there was one new face as Chicago NS upset Philly to earn a spot. Some new faces to Div 1 were able to make an immediate impact as Tempe and Providence both did well for new Div 1 teams. All the scores from the Div 1 Championship can be found here.

At the Round of 12 Tournament in Austin the teams held a meeting with USA Rugby to address concerns about the current Round of 12 format. It was clearly voiced that this current format with the Top 4 teams getting a bye is not working. Currently all of the Div 1 teams are discussing a revamp of the Div 1 League and/or Championships. USA Rugby has encouraged the teams to come up with an alternative format that they can consider. The teams are working closely with Alan Sharpley, Anne Barry and Lisa Gartner (newly appointed USA Rugby Women’s Representative on the Competitions Committee) to make a format that works for everyone. If you are a team that is thinking of moving up to D1 and want to be included in this Group Email LIstserv, please email me. The goal is to revamp for 2011 but who knows what will happen!

Div 2
YEAH! This year, USA Rugby decided to adopt the “unofficial” Div 2 Tournament. Until this year, the tournament was run by Nancy Champbell and her committee with great success. Teams were shocked to find that USA Rugby had adopted the tournament, but were excited to compete alongside the WPL and the Div 1 teams.

The brackets were set a few weeks out from the tournament, but on game day there were some big upsets! Relatively unknown teams such as the Atomic Sisters in New Mexico and Albany ripped through the competition on Day 1. On day 2 the Atomic Sisters and Albany faced off in the final with Albany coming out on top. Last year’s champion, Raleigh, struggled and eventually ended up placing fourth as they lost to the Atomic Sisters on Day 1. All the scores from the Div 2 Championship can be found here.