Your Scrumhalf Connection

YSC Intern Ashley has put together a GREAT preview of the newly formed WPL league. Thanks to Ashley for her continued work with YSC!

The newly-formed Women’s Premier League gets underway with the first games being played Sunday, September 6. The WPL is comprised of 8 teams which have been chosen by ranking the finish order from the previous three National Championships as well as the clubs’ interest in participation.

The 8 teams have been broken down into two conferences with four teams in each. Each team will play six conference games, one home and one away, against the remaining teams in their conference.

The WPL season will occur during the fall- the same time as the regular women’s club season, with the National Championship being held November 6-8. Teams will be seeded based on the results of their conference play. The top four teams will compete for the Cup and the bottom four for the Bowl.

Seeding and promotion of teams into the WPL will be decided at the end of the season, in hopes of providing an incentive for other teams to want to be included in the league.

Blue Conference
Beantown
Keystone
New York
Washington DC Furies

Red Conference
Berkeley All Blues
Minnesota Valkyries
Twin Cities Amazons
ORSU

Who: Beantown
Coach: Jan Rutkowski
TU: NRU
Founded: 1976
About: Boston-based Beantown RFC is one of the best teams in the Northeast. They have been to the National Championship Tournament 20+ times since 1980, placing 3rd in 2008. Beantown boasts six players on the current Eagles roster, the most from any team: Mari Wallace, Melanie Denham, Emilie Bydwell, Amy Daniels, Jamie Burke, Kit Wagner and Sharon Blaney.

Who: Keystone
Coach: Pete Steinberg
TU: NRU
Founded: 2001
About: Keystone was formed by a group of seven women who dreamed of creating a top-notch rugby club in the Philadelphia area. Even though the team is only 8 years old, they quickly transformed themselves into one of the best in the country. Since 2005, Keystone has played in the USA Rugby National Championship Tournament, placing 5th in both 2007 and 2008. Contributing to their success are the many players on the team with years of both national and international experience, including current Eagle, Kim Magrini.

Who: New York
Coach: Ryan Dunnett (thanks to Anonymous in the comments)
TU: NRU
Founded: Joined NYRFC in 1997
About: New York has proven itself to be a very strong contender for many years. NYRFC has been to the last 10 National Championship Tournaments, placing in the top 3 since 2002. New York has 3 players on the National squad including, Lara Vivolo, Phaidra Knight and Vanesha McGee.

Who: DC Furies
TU: MARFU
Founded: 1978
About: The Furies boast a roster of 30+ including current Eagle Brenna Costello. In last year’s National Championship tournament, the Furies lost the Plate Consolation match to the Amazons, with a score of 24-14. There’s not doubt they will be looking to improve upon last year’s results.

Who: Berkeley All Blues
Coach: Alex Williams
TU: Pacific (*thanks to Rachel for her correction!)
Founded: 1978
About: This team has become accustomed to winning it all, as they have been crowned National Champs twelve times. The latest being last year with their 25-17 over New York. As with most teams in the WPL, they also have many skillful players who allow them to continue to dominate. Some of which include Eagles Stephanie Bruce, Nathalie Marchino, Blair Groefsema, Ashley English and Victoria Folayan (thanks to Anonymous in the comments).

Who: Minnesota Valkyries
Coach: Barb Fugate
TU: Midwest
About: In recent years, the Valkyries have emerged as quite a contender finishing in the top 5 of the last 5 National Championship Tournaments. They have continued to move their way up and with players like Jenny Menke, Kristin Zdanczewicz, Melanie Kanuk and Christy Ringgenburg, all current Eagles, it can only be assumed that they’ll continue to do so.

Who: Twin City Amazons
Coach: Roger Bruggemeyer
TU: Midwest
Founded: 1982
About: In addition to the players being committed to the sport of rugby, their administration has shown a love for the sport as well. Head coach Bruggemeyer held the position of national coaching instructor and coach for the Midwest Select Side team and former player Anne Barry was once the president of USA Rugby. The Amazons are no stranger to the National Championship tournament and will undoubtedly do their best to make yet another run at it this year. This team recently aquired Eagle Lynelle Kuglar as she made the move to a WPL team (thanks to Anonymous in the comments for this tip).

Who: ORSU
Coach: Jarred Power
TU: Pacific
Founded: 1994
About: The ORSU women are the only senior-level women’s team from Oregon. In order to facilitate an environment that allows for all players of differing skill levels to participate, ORSU will field two squads: the WPL side and a D1 side who will compete in regional D1 level matches. Currently, ORSU has one Eagle on its roster- Beckett Royce. (*Correction from Angelique: OR.S.U has recently gained a second USA Eagles player Ashley Kmiecik, formerly of the Emerald City Mudhens.)

Welcome to our newest YSC Intern! Angelique will be reporting on the upcoming ORSU games for the Women’s Premiership League. Check out the article below for a pre-season look at ORSU as they played the Mudhens on August 29, 2009.

By: Angelique “JACK” Jackson, Seattle, Emerald City Mudhens

The efficiency of the Oregon Sports Union is something to be admired. It is no mystery why ORSU is part of the USA Women’s Premier League (W.P.L.); comprised of the top 8 women’s rugby teams in the nation. Included in the Red Conference along with them are the Berkeley All-Blues, Minnesota Valkyries, and the Twin City Amazons. Despite their elite ranking they annually extend an offer to host a “friendly” match with the Seattle based Emerald City Mudhens.

In an effort to create a learning environment for new players on both sides, ORSU, on a muggy Saturday, exchanged players to fill in gaps in the Mudhen lineup and broke the standard forty minute halves into twenty minute sets. Throughout the match, coaches, referees, and veteran players worked with those that are less experienced for the sake learning what rugby is all about — honor through hard work. Erica Horne of the Emerald City Mudhens was heard explaining to her team the importance of working beyond your aerobic complex to further your capabilities.

Emerald City scored in the first twenty; one to OR.S.U.’s three tries. The Oregon Sports Union, despite the ball being controlled by the Hens for more than sixty percent of the game, continually divided the Hens defense. Each time, ORSU’s players made an clean break through the Mudhen’s forwards for a try only to then further their prowess with each conversion kick. Once, in the ultimate show of superiority, San Juanita ran, untouched, down the try-zone to touch the ball down between the posts. In a word: ouch.

Though the Emerald City Mudhens are not part of the W.P.L. they have been doing much to earn their stripes in the women’s rugby community, recently earning 5th place at the inaugural USA Women’s Sevens Tournament in San Fransisco. The dedication committed to that title reared its’ beautiful face in the final twenty when the Hen’s Kammi Lopez tore through ORSU’s defense for a final try.

This match seemed to be a great beginning to 15s. Rookies were “bitten by the rugby-bug” as Becky Garland of the Mudhens said, boots were put back in their bags, congratulations were exchanged, and once again two rugby teams walked off of the pitch looking forward to a social, despite anything that may have happened on the pitch— here is to the rest of the season!

8/31/2009: Master WPL Scoreboard
8/31/2009: WPL Videos
8/31/2009: ORSU vs Mudhens Friendly Match Report (pre WPL season, by Intern Angelique)
9/1/2009: Overview of WPL Teams (YSC Intern Ashley)
9/3/2009: Coaching Spotlight: Keystone
9/7/2009: WPL Week 1 Match Reports
9/8/2009: WPL Spotlight: Coach Jan Rutkowski and Player Kelly Seary from Beantown
9/8/2009: Week 1 WPL Videos
9/10/2009: WPL Spotlight: Coach Ryan Dunnett and Player Caroline White from New York
9/14/2009: WPL Week 2 Match Reports
9/17/2009: WPL Spotlight: Keystone: Player Profile Rashida Stamps
9/21/2009: Week 2 WPL Videos
9/29/2009: Week 3 Match Reports

UPDATE: We have 2 volunteers already, we would like at least 2 per team, so keep ‘em coming!

YSC Intern Ashley attended the NRU vs MARFU game this past weekend and this is her writeup with pics of the event! Check out her other post covering the Rites of Spring Tournament for more Ashley!

The Northeast Rugby Union and the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union squared off Sunday afternoon. On a day that was surprisingly cold, the two teams wasted no time heating things up. It only took the MARFU squad a couple of minutes to find their rhythm and get their offense going as they ran in a try first about 10 minutes into the game. However, the NRU women were not phased. They answered with a try of their own. Fullback Laura Bilazarian fed wing Vanesha Mcgee who used her quickness and evasiveness to get the NRU on the board.

Play following those two quick tries became a little inconsistent as both sides seen a number of dropped balls and penalties. This was due in part to the little time these teams have had together as a unit. However, the amount of experience on the pitch from both sides was easily able to make up for any lost time. Both teams have players who have played at the national level as well as countless All-Americans.

The match was filled with hard runs and even harder hits. The defensive stands put up by both sides meant that neither team would score for the majority of the first half. That was true until about the 38th minute when NRU’s Ida Bernstein split two sets of defenders for the try.

The NRU opened things up a bit during the second half. Their successful set pieces allowed them to march down the field, but often their attempts to score were halted by the MARFU defense. However, penalties plagued the MARFU women, which the NRU capitalized on, scoring 12 points from penalty kicks made by flyhalf Ines Rodriguez.

Both the NRU and MARFU women displayed moments of brilliance. The difference was the NRU was able to use their experience and skill to capitalize on the mistakes and mishandles of their opponent.

Final score:
NRU-26
MARFU-7

Following the first match, the NRU and MARFU developmental sides took to the pitch. While there was less experience out there, the intensity matched that of the first. There were many players who showed great promise and a few stand-out players as well whom I’m sure we’ll get to see more of in the future. Both teams had their offensive troubles-mainly handling and maintaining possession, but like their senior side, the NRU women were able to gain from the mistakes of MARFU. They broke through their defense and sent the ball out to their speedy backs who took it the try zone six times.

Final score:
NRU-40
MARFU-18

We are working on gathering other NASC Warmup match scores, if you know of any, post in the comments, post on Facebook or email me!

West vs Pac Coast 63-0 (video available to watch here)
West vs South 24-26
MARFU vs Midwest 13-23
MARFU Dev vs South 25 -15
Pac Coast vs Midwest 17 – 0
NRU vs MARFU 26 – 7
NRU vs MARFU Dev 40 – 18

*Some of these scores were gathered from Jeanie the Greek’s comments section…thanks everyone!