Under the Posts – June 15-21 highlights The Virtual Rugby Show, Australia begins making plans for their women’s competitions, WRCRA looks at the USA college landscape and we feature Pam Buisa, Alicia Lucas and Linda Djougang.
Video of the Week
Most of the USA Women’s Collegiate D1 and D2 teams have joined the College Rugby Association of America (CRAA). Watch the video for more details and interviews.
Featured News
We were bummed when the coronavirus forced The Rugby Show to be cancelled. But then they went virtual and takes place June 26-28. All proceeds will go to charity.
Women’s Rugby News
Australia has announced that their men’s competition will start back up in July and we’re anxious to hear more about their women’s competition, we also take a deep dive with WRCRA as they look into collegiate rugby programs being cut across the US, Black Fern Charmaine Smith is retiring and Scrum Queens talks with Lisa Finegan of the LA84 Foundation.
Player Features
Three features this week including Canada’s Pam Buisa who is refocusing on social justice, Australia’s Alicia Lucas on becoming a broadcaster and Leinster’s Linda Djougang on the stark realities of moving from Cameroon to Ireland in her childhood.
Media
Lots of media again this week, our favorites are the Off The Ball State of the Union, Maggie Alphonsi, Shaunagh Brown and Deborah Fleming talk race in rugby and the panel by HBCU Rugby Classic.
Rugby Jobs
One rugby job from Loughborough Lightening. They’re searching for a head coach for the 2020-2021 season.
Can’t wait a week? Join us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram as we will be posting daily. We have a bit more dialogue on Twitter if you’d like to join in.
Our featured women’s rugby video this week announces that the USA Women’s Collegiate D1 and D2 have joined Men’s D1A under the College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) umbrella!
Very exciting news and we look forward to the partnership.
https://twitter.com/The_Rugby_Show/status/1270407986687639555
https://twitter.com/avreed12/status/1272985954287063042
https://twitter.com/The_Rugby_Show/status/1273971684291366912
https://twitter.com/The_Rugby_Show/status/1272567368103968768
https://twitter.com/The_Rugby_Show/status/1272899631660380161
https://twitter.com/The_Rugby_Show/status/1273896081777197056
https://twitter.com/The_Rugby_Show/status/1272808868456927232
https://twitter.com/The_Rugby_Show/status/1272944935252176904
https://twitter.com/The_Rugby_Show/status/1273956542115721218
We’re super excited that The Rugby Show has gone virtual and will happen in 2020. Over the past few weeks they’ve been announcing tons of women’s rugby ambassadors and speakers. Tune in starting June 22!
100% of all the money raised from The Virtual Rugby Show will go to the Dallaglio RugbyWorks charity.
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1272997399850627074
Rugby Australia is in a precarious situation as they have a new CEO and they continue to navigate the coronavirus. Their men’s competition will begin again shortly and that has some wondering about the women. Siren Sport spoke with the General Manager of Women’s Rugby, Jilly Collins. She has indicated that there is “every indication that the women’s program is still a priority for the organisation and is therefore getting on with the task at hand.”
The Aussie 7s squad is back to training hard, while many of the national XVs players should be getting back to club rugby next month, with only the possibility that a Wallaroos call-up could happen before the end of the year.
https://twitter.com/BlackFerns/status/1272634797785886720
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1273661851256184837
WRCRA takes a look at the state of women’s rugby in the US with a special focus on college.
“In the past 3 weeks, over 90 varsity sport teams have been eliminated, with 78 teams of those teams in Divisions II, III and NAIA. It should also be noted that 44 of these teams were from three schools that closed at least in part because of financial fallout from the pandemic. Most of the Division I teams cut — 14 men’s, 4 women’s — are from schools in the Group of Five conferences (American Athletic Conference (AAC), Conference USA (C-USA), Mid-American Conference (MAC), Mountain West Conference (MW), and Sun Belt Conference (Sun Belt). But other conferences have announced recently that they’ll be making significant cuts to athletics as well (ESPN.com).”
Even if teams aren’t completely cut, cost saving measures…
“Will fall hardest on non-revenue sports like rugby. The cuts are likely to eliminate or curtail support staff, assistant coaches, videographers, equipment, travel, and food budgets, amenities for which many rugby teams already had to fight.”
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1272680379321913347
A rugby programme in inner-city LA is changing lives for the male and female students who are part of it. Scrum Queens caught up with Irish native Lisa Finegan, who helps oversee the ICEF Rugby programme which has been subject to a recent Netflix documentary.
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1272574737122840577
Updated link – Canada’s Pam Buisa should be preparing for the Olympics games but with their postponement she’s refocusing on social justice.
She went from attending a Black lives Matter march at the end of May to organizing a bigger rally in June in Victoria that included neighbors and even some of her teammates.
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1273042741732220929
Australia sevens star Alicia Lucas is one of seven female rugby players enrolled on a broadcasting course as they plan for their post-playing careers.
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1273405145674588160
Leinster’s Linda Djougang speaks about moving from Cameroon to Ireland and the stark realization that she was different. Being different wasn’t something that would go away but rugby made it a bit easier.
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1272891844289015818
https://twitter.com/WomensRugbyShow/status/1272974728572162050
https://twitter.com/EnglandRugby/status/1273911428118970369
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1272937188150456322
https://twitter.com/offtheball/status/1273612680344096771
https://twitter.com/WorcsWarriorsW/status/1272930382254653450
https://twitter.com/LightningRugby/status/1272906831522926596