Gainline Africa is a Canadian sports for development organization that uses the power of rugby as a vehicle for development in Africa’s post-conflict communities. Gainline was founded by a small group of rugby players who experienced positive benefits playing the game they love. From these beginnings, Gainline believes rugby is a non-intrusive, efficient and cost-effective tool to assess and address many social and developmental issues that arise in post-conflict communities.

Today, Gainline is a completely volunteer-driven organization made up of rugby and non-rugby players who believe that their work can make a powerful difference. Cross the gainline and make difference with Gainline Africa.

OUR MISSION

• RAISE AWARENESS of international issues affecting rugby communities.
• INSPIRE Canadians to contribute to partner developing African rugby communities.
• IMPROVE LIVES & EMPOWER YOUTH through rugby.

Want to learn more about the people behind Gainline Africa and how it started? Go here.

Wendy Young

Editor of Your Scrumhalf Connection. Passionate Rugger since 2001.

Website - More Posts

Related posts:

1. WPL Match Report by Kevin Sullivan: A Win is A Win: Berkeley All Blues vs DC Furies [VIDEO] View the complete 2011 WPL Schedule, Match Reports and Results here....
2. WPL Round 5 Review by Wendy Young, YSC Editor View the complete 2011 WPL Schedule, Match Reports and Results here....
3. Canada win first IRB Women’s Sevens Cup To see the pools and full results from Dubai 7s...

Mark Griffin, Founder of Play Rugby, receives the award.

Play Rugby USA was honored at the 2011 Rugby Expo Awards Dinner by receiving the Community Program of the Year award! Mark Griffin was on hand in Twickenham to accept the award. The award was presented to the entry which has devised and delivered outstanding community program activities within the communities they reach. Criteria included clearly defined objectives, evidence of how these objectives were met, fit with mission and goal, sustainability, and demonstration of new ideas and creative thinking.

Congratulations are in order for the other short-listed organizations for the award:

• Bristol RFC
• Royal Bank of Scotland
• Ruggerbeez
• Spalding RFC

Wendy Young

Editor of Your Scrumhalf Connection. Passionate Rugger since 2001.

Website - More Posts

Related posts:

1. ‘Helping Hand’ named IRB Photo of the Year 2011 from IRB.com: A picture of Brad Thorn extending a hand...
2. Play Rugby USA- California Announces RFP for Founding Executive Director Position We are seeking a self-starting social entrepreneur, with the charisma,...
3. College Recruitment and Combine Program – Dec 10, 2011 in Chapel Hill, NC ...

I have a soft spot for Guam in my heart as I lived there when I was younger. An absolutely beautifiul island that I hope to visit again someday. I wish I had found rugby there as a teenager!

from Kuam.com:

This year’s girl’s high school rugby season will now offer tackle rugby to those that want to participate. The Guam Rugby Football Union together with the IIAAG will implement the new program in 2012 season but will not replace the flag version but offer it as an alternative. Since the sport made its way to the island in 1999 it has flourished to 11 of the island’s schools with about 275 student-athletes taking part in the sport.

The tackle version of the sport will help build the women’s national team program and get our girls up to par with schools that already play tackle rugby in the states. The girl’s game has grown from 10 a side to now 12 a side with scrums and line outs since 2009. The offer of a tackle version of the game allows those girls’s who are eager for the physical confrontation of the sport to leave the flag version of the game and take their abilities to the tackle pitch.

According to the IRB, there are 150,000 women and girls playing Rugby around the world with the numbers increasing. Our local players have took their game to the next level playing for universities such as Penn State, Arizona, Army and Navy and have also represented the island very well in international competition in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, China and Portugal.

On the women’s side our national team has posted wins against Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Norway where nations count their populations in the millions rather than the thousands.

Wendy Young

Editor of Your Scrumhalf Connection. Passionate Rugger since 2001.

Website - More Posts

Related posts:

1. Guest Blog: Black future? A Kiwi Girls’ Rugby Coach Writes… from Letchworthgirls: This is well worth a wider audience. Its a...

from USA Rugby:

BOULDER, Colo. — The 2012 USA Rugby High School National Championships will be an invitational format for 2012.  Teams will apply for a spot in the tournament, with a national committee considering the applications.

The Girl’s High School National Championship Tournament will be hosted in Stanford, Calif. on the weekend of May 11-13 in conjunction with the Women’s Collegiate Div I and Div II championships.  The Boy’s High School National Championship will still consist of both a High School (single school) and High School Club (multi-school or community club) and be played in Salt Lake City, UT on May 18-20 in conjunction with the Men’s Collegiate Division IAA, Division IA and Division II national championships.

Interested teams need to fill out the online application (link below) between December 15 and January 15.  The committee will consider the applications and offer invitations no later than February 15th.

Link to the application: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFVrcEhpNHdsMVFrVG9lZ1dCcko2Vnc6MQ

Further Information:

Kurt Weaver | Youth and High School Director | USA Rugby | kweaver@usarugby.org

Wendy Young

Editor of Your Scrumhalf Connection. Passionate Rugger since 2001.

Website - More Posts

Related posts:

1. USA Rugby To Hold Collegiate Sevens National Championships from USA Rugby: BOULDER, Colo. — The USA Rugby Board...
2. Rugby Academy Lineout & Kicking Clinics with Luke Gross – Oct 23, 2011 – Gonzaga High School, Washington DC Lineout Clinic For: All coaches and players of all levels...
3. Sacramento Amazons Earn Berth to USA Rugby D2 National Championship Tournament To view the D2 Championship Pools and Schedule, go here....

Wendy Young

Editor of Your Scrumhalf Connection. Passionate Rugger since 2001.

Website - More Posts

No related posts.

Rugby South Carolina would like to invite you to the 2012 Southern Scrum Youth Rugby Tournament.  This will be one of the premier youth rugby events of the 2012 season.  Entry fee for this event will be $300.00.

Limited slots are available for

• Boys High School
• Girls High School
• Boys U19
• Boys U14

Leigh Knotts
Rugby South Carolina
803-243-7207

Wendy Young

Editor of Your Scrumhalf Connection. Passionate Rugger since 2001.

Website - More Posts

Related posts:

1. North Carolina Youth Rugby Referee Society & NCYRU Presents Level One Referees Course When: Sunday September 25th, from 9:00AM to 5:00PM Where: West...
2. 45th annual Denver 7s Rugby Tournament. Saturday July 21, 2012 Please update your calendars to reflect the next Denver 7s...
3. 2012 USA Sevens Rugby – Las Vegas – February 10th-12th The 2012 USA Sevens international rugby tournament will take place...

At the 53rd Annual New York 7s Tournament this weekend the games were fast, furious and hotly contested! NY 7s is the largest and longest running sevens tournament in the United States. The New York Rugby Club has hosted The Tournament on the Saturday following Thanksgiving since 1959, and it traditionally marks the end of the Fall rugby season in the New York Metropolitan area. We had 130 teams in 2010 – the most in Tournament history! Thanks to Jessa Giordano for sending me the scores and results!

2011 NY 7s Results
Men’s Premier: Schuylkill River Exiles
Women’s Premier: New York Rugby Club
Men’s Club: CRQ Sevens
Men’s Social: Brome Lake Ducks
Women’s Social: Olde Love
Men’s Collegiate: Stony Brook
Women’s Collegiate: Falcons
Boys U19: NJ Blaze
Girls U19: Beaconsfield Red

Full Results

Wendy Young

Editor of Your Scrumhalf Connection. Passionate Rugger since 2001.

Website - More Posts

Related posts:

1. YSC Reporter Donna Ventura – San Diego Surfers vs New York Match Report & VIDEO [WPL] View the 2011 WPL Schedule and Results here. Match Video...
2. USA Rugby To Hold Collegiate Sevens National Championships from USA Rugby: BOULDER, Colo. — The USA Rugby Board...
3. WPL Match Report by JL “Trie” Triemstra: Valkyries 22 New York 39 – [VIDEO] View the complete 2011 WPL Schedule and Results here. by...

by Lance Pruett:

Washington, DC – Each November, for the past 14 years, the Embassy of New Zealand has partnered with the rugby program at Hyde Public Charter School (now known as Perry Street Prep) to put on a unique event, known as the Ambassador’s Shield.  On a pristine pitch on the campus of Trinity Washington University, matches begin at 9:30am and continue until the main event.  At 2:30pm, the collection of New Zealand ex-pats, known as the “Ambassador’s XV”, stride on to the field and perform a haka to prepare for their “battle” against a US Combined Services team.  Although the contender varies from year to year, the finale always provides a great match for those in attendance.

The event is unique in that the hillsides beside the pitch are lined, not only with those playing in the event, but with people who come solely as spectators.  Typically, several hundred people are present to watch the matches.  A rugby supplier is on hand to sell their wares, while people munch on New Zealand style pies filled with meat and vegetables.  After all the matches are played, the Embassy hosts a party where people drink Steinlager and eat, as one might expect at the New Zealand Embassy, lamb.  It is, quite simply, a great day for rugby.

The Ambassador’s Shield is a fundraiser, with the proceeds used to support the rugby program at Perry Street Prep.  The funds help the students, who often come from low-income families, take advantage of opportunities which may otherwise elude them.  Not only do the students benefit from being part of a team, and all that goes with that, certain players have achieved more.  Players from Perry Street Prep (Hyde), have gone on to; play on the USA 7’s team (PJ Komongnan), play on the Women’s U-19 National Team (Brittany Woodard), train at Auckland University of technology (Antoine Johnson et. al.).

Being a fundraising event, teams pay for the opportunity to play, which has an effect on the matches that are played each year.   The past several versions of the Ambassador’s Shield have seen little change in the participating teams.  The one exception is that this year, as last, the event lacks a women’s game.  Event organizer, Jason Frost, advised that the last women’s match that was scheduled failed to materialize, so the slot was opened to men’s teams, and quickly appropriated.  Every variety of men’s rugby is represented, Old-Boys (two matches), adult, high school, and youth.

The lack of a women’s match is particularly disappointing considering the following facts; the event is held on the campus of a women’s college, New Zealand have won the past four Women’s Rugby World Cups, Perry Street Prep fields a girls team.  Although it would be unfair if current participants were no longer invited in order to make room for a women’s match, I believe that it would be appropriate to make a good faith effort to secure a women’s match when an opening in the schedule is naturally attained.  The lack of a women’s match is the only blotch on what is otherwise a fantastic example of everything great about our sport.

http://www.ambassadorsshield.com/index.html

http://www.hyderugby.com/

LPruett

Related posts:

1. First IRB Rugby Women’s Sevens Event Announced from IRB: The IRB has underscored its commitment to delivering...