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31 August 2009 0 Comments

Rugby Video Monday: Full NASC Results and Archived Video

The weekend was full of great quality rugby and it was almost all available on the new Ustream USA Rugby site (they had generator problems all weekend so some games were missed or partially available…this includes the Women’s final, we only saw about 8 minutes of it).

Northeast Women, West Men Take Home Titles at All-Star Sevens

from USA Rugby:

NEW YORK – Following two days of stiff competition on Randall’s Island in New York City, the Northeast women’s team and the West men’s side walked away with their respective All-Star Sevens Championship titles, earning themselves bragging rights throughout the next year as they both finished the tournament undefeated.

The Northeast Rugby Union (NRU) Women’s All-Star Team worked the Pacific Rugby Union in its first round on Sunday, beating the Grizzlies 12-5 and moving on to meet the Mid-Atlantic (MARFU) Women’s Team in the final after the Mid-Atlantic team successfully handled the USA Development side earlier in the day.

The Women’s Championship match actually saw the local side get off to a slow start as MARFU scored first and the Northeast found itself trailing for the first time all weekend. The Northeast wound up taking back the lead in the second half, however, scoring its second unconverted try of the match and holding its Mid-Atlantic competition scoreless for over 15 minutes of play. (Finals in the All-Star Championships consisted of 10 minute halves.)

The NRU has now secured their fourth title in five years, continuing their domination of opponents with great team work and a consistent aggressive style.

“Obviously we are very happy,” Northeast Women’s Coach Chris Ryan said. “It was a really good week and we couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. We had a lot of local support and MetNY hosted a great event. Hopefully there are many more like this in the future.”

Unfortunately, the local Northeast men didn’t have the same success as the women. NRU lost their semifinal match after a last-second try by the Pacific Men gave them a three point lead and the win.

The Northeast actually had the game in its grasp within the last minute of play in its match against Pacific. Following a penalty within Pacific’s 22 in which one of the players was sent off, the Northeast decidedly should have gone for the try, but attempted a penalty kick instead. Pacific would come back in the very next play and score a try to end the game, 27-24.

“It was a very disappointing way to end a game we could have won,” Northeast Men’s Coach Sean Horan said. “But for the team to come this far is a great accomplishment. Unfortunately, a couple mistakes hurt us, several missed tackles directly led to several of their tries, but in sevens these things happen. All in all, the guys put forth a great team effort and I’m proud of them.”

In the other Cup Semifinals, the West faced the Mid-Atlantic in a similarly close match that came down to a last minute effort. In the end, however, the West walked away with it, winning 14-12 to advance to the cup finals where they faced the Pacific side. MARFU went on to win against the Northeast to take home the Men’s Plate.

Following such a tough match against the Northeast, the Pacific side may have been a bit worn down; and in the Men’s Championship finals, the West proved it had much more in the tank, jumping out to an early 21-0 lead. The Grizzlies attempted a comeback, but it was too little too late and could only come within seven, losing 28-19 to last year’s runners-up.

Besides taking second last year, this will mark the West’s third Championship title since the beginning of this event, nine years ago. And with a majority of this year’s players coming from two of its more dominant Colorado sevens teams- Aspen and the Denver Barbarians – the West’s Coach Sean Knight acknowledges the fact that this gives an All-Star team a powerful advantage.

“The team that learns how to play together the quickest has a great advantage over its opponents,” Knight said. “We are excited to finish on top and really owe it to an entire team effort.”

In the Bowl bracket, the Midwest won the men’s final over the U.S. Collegiate side, 29-5, while on the women’s side, the Midwest fell hard in the final to the South, 34-0.

For more information and tournament photos go to www.newyorkallstarsevens.org.

The Metropolitan New York Rugby Football Union is a non-profit organization whose vision is to elevate the sport of Rugby within the New York area. With a mission of attracting, facilitation and supporting the economic and social vitality of the greater metro area, the Metropolitan New York Rugby Football Union works to draw premier domestic and international sporting events to the NYC market. For more information visit www.metnyrfu.org.

2009 USA Rugby All Star Sevens – Roster/Schedules & LIVE scores by YSC

Welcome to the 2009 USA Rugby All Star Sevens

Update 8/31/2009: Full results including the Tournament Writeup and Archived Videos are available here.

Welcome to New York!
On behalf of Metropolitan New York Rugby Union’s Host Committee, I am happy to welcome USA Rugby and its All Star Sevens Tournament to New York. This website will be the central resource for information before, during and after the tournament.

The competition will be held on new high-quality artificial turf fields on Randall’s Island. We worked with New York City government to ensure these and other fields fit regulation rugby dimensions, markings and goal posts. Both the match field and a warm-up field are dedicated to the tournament all day on Saturday August 29 and Sunday 30th, and one field is available for practice from 1-6pm both Thursday August 27 and Friday August 28th. There will also be a charity rugby match between the New York City Fire Department and the New York City Police Department on Saturday on an adjacent field. Information about the facilities is posted here.

There will be bleachers, tents, portajohns, food service, a videotaping service and medical professionals on call at the tournament site Travel Arrangements We have reserved blocks of hotel rooms at the Marriott East Side, located at Lexington Avenue at 51st Street in Manhattan, and at the Fitzpatrick Hotels at East 44th Street and East 57th Street. Details and discount codes are located here.

We plan to update this website with results from the tournament, to use Facebook and Twitter to keep participants who subscribe up to date on the results and on social events. We will be issuing all the usual publicity to media outlets in the area.

Welcome to New York, we hope you enjoy your visit and look forward to hosting USA Rugby and its All Stars in future.

Rosters

MARFU
Mere Baker/Washington
Stacy Bennett/NOVA
 Elizabeth Black/NOVA
 Brenna Costello/Washington  
Dana Creager/NOVA  
CJ Hildreth/NOVA  
Lauren Hoeck/NOVA  
Katie Miller/NOVA  
Elizabeth Noto/Washington
 Emily Record/Philadelphia  
Elizabeth White/Washington

Coach: Nancy Fitz

Midwest
Craig, Maggie/Chicago North Shore 
Freidheim, Alison/Chicago North Shore
 Helmer, Nicole/Chicago Women 
Jarem, Steph/Chicago North Shore 
Jones, Chalene/Grand Valley State University Women
 Limberg, Jackie/Wisconsin Women 
Lui, Jenny/Chicago North Shore 
Meyer, Katie/Wisconsin Women
 Neuens, Corrie/Chicago Women 
Tjosvold, Colleen/Twin City Amazons 
Torii, Devin/Chicago North Shore

Coach: John McGeachy

Northeast
Ida Bernstein/Keystone 
Rebecca Brafman/NYRFC
 Kate M Daley/Keystone 
Katy Dowty/Beantown 
Jenna Flateman/NYRF
C Daniela Mogro/NYRFC  
Maria Muscara/NYRFC  
Alison Price/NYRFC  
Ines Rodriguez/Keystone
 Jen Sinkler/Keystone 
JoAnne Ward/Albany  
Dana Wasserman/Suffolk

Coach: Chris Ryan

Pacific
Ruth Bryson/Berkeley All Blues  
Elaine Gardner/Berkeley All Blues  
Maddy Glainyk/At large  
Kelly Griffin/Berkeley All Blues  
Hillary Hegener/Berkeley All Blues  
Allyson Hemstreet/Berkeley All Blues  
Ardia Kelker/San Francisco Fog  
Erin Kobashigawa/Berkeley All Blues  
Katrina Logan/Berkeley All Blues  
Elaine Schlarbe/ORSU  
Lee Salgado/At Large  
Jossy Tseng/Berkeley All Blues

Coach: Laura Cabrera

South
Annie Antar/Atlanta Harlequins  
Leah Barnes/Atlanta Harlequins
 Corrie Coates/Florida State University
 Julie Freese/Charleston 
Patty Jervey/Atlanta Harlequins
 Tasha Mannino-Dickson/Atlanta Harlequins 
Ashley Mitchell/University of Central Florida 
Pat Neder/Atlanta Harlequins
 Cara Nocero/Atlanta Harlequins 
Danielle O’Mahoney/Auburn University 
Lindsey Stephenson/Orlando 
Becky Urion/Orlando

Coach: Mike May

West
Bagley, Meredith/Austin Valkyries  
Coder, Penny/St Louis Sabres  
Gregorich, Claire/Glendale  
Kuchar, Jennifer/St Louis Sabres  
Lucia, Jessica/Colorado University  
Nelson, Jennifer/Kansas City Jazz  
Pavao, Kathryn/Glendale  
Pheil, Christiane/Colorado University  
Ruiz, Kandis/Kansas City Jazz  
Swenton, Jennifer/Houston  
Whitman, Heidi/Austin Valkyries

Coach: Laura Hertel

Update 8/31/2009: Full results including the Tournament Writeup and Archived Videos are available here.

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3 June 2009 0 Comments

USA Rugby Senior 15’s NASCs – VIDEOS!

UPDATE (6/21): The scores for this Tournament were posted moments after the games ended. If you would like Tournament scores posted LIVE, email me at scrumhalfconnection@gmail.com for more details.

I am still working on editing these videos so they are pretty and less jerky, but I wanted to get them up as quickly as possible for the die-hard fans out there!

And yes the first two videos are QUITE shaky because I had just finished playing and hadn’t eaten…I braved starvation and the risk of passing out to bring you these videos!

Look for more videos next week because my brother will be taping all the women’s matches at Dallas 7s this weekend. Summer rugby adventures are continuing on here at YSC!

**For final scores and writeup of the 2009 NASCs, go here.

Pacific vs NRU – USA Rugby 15’s NASC Senior Championships from Scrumhalf Connection on Vimeo.

Pacific vs NRU – USA Rugby 15’s NASC Senior Championships

Great game, I missed the last 15 minutes because my battery ran out…final score Pacifc 36 NRU 5.

MARFU vs Midwest – USA Rugby 15’s NASC Senior Championships from Scrumhalf Connection on Vimeo.

MARFU vs Midwest – USA Rugby 15’s NASC Senior Championships

Collegiate All Americans vs USA Rugby South Women from Todd Lowe on Vimeo.

This is the video from the USA Rugby Senior Women NASCs (ITTs) All Star 15s Championships played in Little Rock, Arkansas on Sunday, May 31 2009.

The South squad scored first in this match. The All Americans never scored in the first half.

The Collegiate All American squad turned up the heat in the second half and scored 31 unanswered points for a final of 31-5.

The video has not yet been edited but will be in the coming week to remove camera person errors, etc. The video will be uploaded back to this same link. I will also get up the first and second halves in HD soon as well (those will of course have separate links).

West vs So Cal – USA Rugby 15’s NASC Senior Championships from Scrumhalf Connection on Vimeo.

West vs So Cal – USA Rugby 15’s NASC Senior Championships

Good game but low scoring…West wins 3-0 with a penalty kick in the 28th minute.

The first 15 minutes or so was missed due to the camera operator having to run some errands. Thanks for taping Charles!!!

Want to know right away when I upload new rugby videos to my Vimeo Channel? Simply subscribe to the Scrumhalf Connection channel here.

Popularity: 2% [?]

1 June 2009 0 Comments

Recovering from NASCs

Back at work early this morning after a great weekend in Little Rock for NASCs! I was able to tape a portion of all the games and will be working hard this week to get the videos up for your viewing soon!

Photos from the event will also be available at ShootingTheGap.com soon and also from Todd Lowe here.

In case you missed it via Twitter, Facebook or on the blog, here are the scores from the weekend (thanks to The Girl for updating the blog!):

Friday, May 29
Match 1 10:00 am SoCal vs Collegiate All-Americans 12 – 42
Match 2 12:00 pm West vs South 0-39
Match 3 2:00 pm Midwest vs Pacific 0 – 30
Match 4 3:30 pm Northeast vs Mid-Atlantic 32 – 23

Sunday, May 31
Match 5 8:30 am Loser # 1 – SoCal vs Loser # 2 – West 0 – 3
Match 6 10:00 am Winner # 1 – Collegiate All-Americans vs Winner # 2 – South 32 – 5
Match 7 11:30 pm Loser # 3 – Midwest vs Loser # 4 – Mid-Atlantic 22 – 5
Match 8 1:00 pm Winner # 3 – Pacific vs Winner # 4 – Northeast 36 – 5

I had a great time and met a lot of great ruggers this weekend, thanks for your support of YSC! Have a great week everyone!

Go here to read Ashley’s preview of the weekend!

from USA Rugby:

Pacific Coast Takes Top Honors at Women’s All-Star Championships

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (report from Match Commissioner, Martin Gardner) – The Pacific Coast stole the title from defending champions the Northeast when the USA Rugby Women’s All-Star 15s Championships wrapped up at the Little Rock Rugby Complex on Sunday afternoon.

Playing before a large crowd, both teams looked set to make this a grand final and with just 6 minutes into the game Pacific #7 (Beckett Royce) was over for a try out wide to the right, to take an early 5-0 lead. Following the restart, the Northeast forced a turnover and mounted an attack. With eight minutes played, the game was tied 5-5 following a try by Northeast #14 (Vanesha McGee)

This seemed to energize the Pacific team, who took the game to the Northeast with further tries in the 13th and 25th minutes to lead 17 – 5 at the half.

In the second half both teams made some adjustments, but the Pacific team enjoyed the better chances and finished with tries in the 51st, 57th and 74th minute to round out the game as the ultimate winners with a final score of 36 – 5.

MVP of the tournament was the Pacific #15 Ashley English, who had a storming weekend of defending and entering the line on attack with great effect.

Earlier was the Tier A relegation match between Mid-Atlantic (MARFU) and the Midwest. Both teams were ready for this one and it took 20 minutes for MARFU to open the scoring and take a 5 -0 lead, another 16 minutes of back and forth play until the Midwest created an opening and pushed in a try, converted to lead at the half 7 – 5.

From the kick off again both teams defense dominated until the Midwest got a penalty in front of the posts to extend their lead to 10-5, even with two players in the Sin Bin. With one player back and just three minutes played from the restart, the Midwest got in for a try, and extended their lead to go ahead 15-5 in the 61st minute.

From the restart the MW fielded the ball and set up a flowing play combining forwards and backs to score again to make the score MW 22 – MARFU 5, which remained the final score.

TIER B

Sunday saw the start of the finals with the Tier B consolation match kicking off under clear blue skies at the Little Rock Rugby Complex. The field had been cut on the off day and had dried from Friday so a faster, surer surface promised some flowing rugby.

Cal kicked off against the West team, and at the half the West lead by a 28th minute penalty, 3-0. In the second half both sides mounted attacks but both defenses were resolute and the final score, despite So Cal’s final drive ended at 3-0 to the West.

Next up the South took on the USA All-American Collegiate team, and both teams looked motivated as they took the field. The All American’s came out attacking from the whistle, a strong South defense resulted in a turn over and the South put together a flowing move to score in the 8th minute to lead 5 – 0. The score remained 5-0 at the half with both sides creating chances but failing to score due to some great tackling by both teams.

From the second half whistle the All Americans unleashed a running attack and with just one minute played, led 7-5. The South team was not going to take that and immediately upped their game and mounted attack after attack interspersed with great defense.

The All-American squad was equally resolute and 20 minutes passed before the South created the chance, a break by the #10 sliced through the centers and they looked certain to score in the corner, but the final pass was bobbled and recovered by the AA wing who took it 99 meters to score under the posts and the lead was 14 – 5. This broke the South’s hearts if not their backs and the final score was All Americans 31 to the South 5, with the All American squad winning Tier B.

2009 Women’s All-Star Championships – Final Results

TIER A
1st/2nd – Pacific 36, Northeast 5
3rd/4th – Midwest 22, Mid-Atlantic 5

TIER 2
5th/6th – USA Collegiate All-Americans 31, South 5
7th/8th – West 3, So Cal 0

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26 May 2009 0 Comments

USA Rugby Senior Women NASCs (ITTs) All Star 15s Championships

YSC Intern Ashley strikes again with a great writeup on the upcoming USA Rugby Senior Women NASCs (ITTs) All Star 15s Championships…gosh that title is a mouthful! For more posts from Ashley, go here for Rites o f Spring Tournament coverage and go here for her writeup on the NRU vs MARFU matches.

Also Wendy (YSC Editor) will be playing scrumhalf for the West Mustangs. I will have YSC Tshirts with me and they are ONLY $10! I will also be giving away YSC stickers for free!

I am going to try to videotape a few of the games but I am not sure how that is going to work with training etc. If you would like to volunteer to videotape a game or two I am glad to give you a tshirt for your help!

Please make sure you following me on Twitter as I will be posting scores!

USA Rugby Senior Women NASCs (ITTs) All Star 15s Championships

The National All-Star Championships will be held this weekend, May 29-31 in Little Rock, Arkansas. The USA Rugby National Championship Series is the highest level of play within its domestic competition structure.

There will be a total of 8 teams one from each region in the US. For one of the teams, this will not only be its first appearance at the NASC’s but also its first year as an actual team as well. For the first time, the Collegiate All-Americans will form their very own team instead of only being a named honor. They will take on Southern California in the first match of the day.

Of course, the usual suspects will be in attendance as well. The remaining teams are West, South, Midwest, Pacific, Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic.

Every one of these teams is a contender but only the top 4 in Tier 1 can can walk away with the title. The bottom four teams are fighting for the right to be back in Tier 1.

This year was the 2nd year that NASC Warmup matches were played and thanks to the Ruckosphere we were able to gather those scores for a preview of how the teams are playing:

NASC Warmup Matches

West vs Pac Coast 0-63 (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!

Last year the NRU had a very convincing win over the two-time defending champions from the Midwest with a score of 34-0. Their victory was attributed not only to their speed, but also to their powerful pack. Assuming they bring the same type of arsenal they had last year, they will be hard to beat.

However, that is not to say it can’t be done. Jeanie the Greek also agrees that the NRU will be tough to beat, but also believes there are certain teams who just might take the title away from them.

Match Schedule

Friday, May 29
Match 1 10:00 am SoCal vs Collegiate All-Americans an style="font-weight: bold;">12 – 42
Match 2 12:00 pm West vs South 0-39
Match 3 2:00 pm Midwest vs Pacific 0 – 30
Match 4 3:30 pm Northeast vs Mid-Atlantic 32 – 23

Sunday, May 31
Match 5 8:30 am Loser # 1 – SoCal vs Loser # 2 – West 0 – 3
Match 6 10:00 am Winner # 1 – Collegiate All-Americans vs Winner # 2 – South 32 – 5
Match 7 11:30 pm Loser # 3 – Midwest vs Loser # 4 – Mid-Atlantic 22 – 5
Match 8 1:00 pm Winner # 3 – Pacific vs Winner # 4 – Northeast 36 – 5

Also Wendy (YSC Editor) will be playing scrumhalf for the West Mustangs. I will have YSC Tshirts with me and they are ONLY $10! I will also be giving away YSC stickers for free!

I am going to try to videotape a few of the games but I am not sure how that is going to work with training etc. If you would like to volunteer to videotape a game or two I am glad to give you a tshirt for your help!

Please make sure you following me on Twitter as I will be posting scores!

Popularity: 3% [?]