Your Scrumhalf Connection

Last week I had the pleasure of working with Hedley Lagrand of the blog A Rugby Life, Hedley specializes in rugby podcasts and it was an honor to be interviewed for the first podcast in 2010.

Re-post from Hedley’s blog:

For the first podcast of 2010, I had the pleasure to sit down and chat with fellow blogger Wendy Young, the founder of Your Scrumhalf Connection, a fantastic blog covering women’s rugby in the USA. In this episode, you’ll find out more about the blog, Wendy’s playing, refereeing, and coaching career, as well as her recent commentator work for USA Rugby (see below). And of course, how could I forget to ask about The Girl, her mysterious partner.
You can listen to the podcast online on the Podcast Page, via iTunes, or by RSS Feed.

As mentioned in the podcast, here is the link to the video with Wendy commentating at the Atlantic Cup in Florida. Plus, if you are interested in the travel packages to head over to my homeland for Women’s Rugby World Cup this year, check out Wendy’s website for more details.

from WeWaNTRugby.com:

BOULDER, Colo. – With the Women’s Rugby World Cup (WRWC) less than six months from kickoff, USA Women’s National Team Head Coach Kathy Flores has announced the player pool and reserves currently under consideration for England 2010.

In the final push toward the Women’s Rugby World Cup, the USA team will assemble for two skills camps, two test matches versus Canada at the annual CanAm competition in June, and a three-week July residency program, before finally departing for England on Aug. 8.

“We have selected a pool of players we feel will best contribute to the foundation and continued development of the squad who will represent the USA in the 2010 World Cup,” Coach Flores said.

“In these final months of preparation, it is important to keep all pool players involved in trainings so any transitions can be seamless for the player and the team. Reserve pool players will also be involved in training opportunities, but not competition venues. However, they may have the opportunity to move up into the pool depending on injury or availability of pool players.”

The Women’s Rugby World Cup player pool includes six returning veterans from the USA Women’s National Team that finished fifth at the 2006 World Cup in Edmonton – Claudia Braymer, Jamie Burke, Ashley English, Phaidra Knight, Mari Wallace and Kristin Zdanczewicz. Also named to the WNT pool are Lisa Butts, Farrah Douglas and Kim Magrini, who were named as non-traveling reserves for the 2006 tournament.

In the sixth Women’s Rugby World Cup, the USA women will kick off pool competition versus Kazakhstan on Aug. 20, before facing Ireland on Aug. 24 and rounding out pool play against a dominant England squad on the 28th. Dependent on the results of the pool rounds, teams will be reseeded for the fourth round of play on Sept. 1 and close out the ranking matches on Sept. 5. (Click here to see the full match schedule)

Tickets for the pool rounds at Surrey Sports Park, Guildford, as well as the finals and semifinals at the Twickenham Stoop will go on sale to the general public on Monday, March 22 via Ticketmaster.

USA Rugby Women’s National Team Player Pool
Women’s Rugby World Cup – England 2010

Forwards
Stacy Baker – Keystone
Sharon Blaney – Beantown
Stacey Bridges – Texas A&M
Jamie Burke – Beantown
Lisa Butts – Berkeley All-Blues
Kate Daley – Keystone
Melanie Denham – Beantown
Farrah Douglas – Keystone
Blair Groefsema – Berkeley All-Blues
Phaidra Knight – New York
Jillion Potter – Minnesota Valkyries
Naima Reddick – Berkeley All-Blues
Beckett Royce – ORSU
Lara Vivolo – New York
Kittery Wagner – Beantown
Maurin Wallace – Beantown
Sarah Walsh – Minnesota Valkyries
Kristin Zdanczewicz – Minnesota Valkyries

Backs
Claudia Braymer – Albany
Stephanie Bruce – Berkeley All-Blues
Emilie Bydwell – Beantown
Amy Daniels – Beantown
Ashley English – Berkeley All-Blues
Victoria Folayan – Berkeley All-Blues
Kelly Griffin – Berkeley All-Blues
Katie Hertel – Minnesota Valkyries
Melissa Kanuk – Minnesota Valkyries
Ashley Kmiecik – ORSU
Lynelle Kugler – Twin Cities Amazons
Kim Magrini – Keystone
Nathalie Marchino – Berkeley All-Blues
Vanesha McGee – New York
San Juanita Moreno – ORSU
Christy Ringgenberg – Minnesota Valkyries
Hannah Stolba – Minnesota Valkyries

WNT 2010 WRWC Reserves
Sadie Anderson – Penn State University
Libby Berg – Minnesota Valkyries
Ida Bernstein – Keystone
Liz Dilley – Washington Furies
Christina Hobson – New York
Tayo Mafe – Michigan State University
Desiree Markovich – Minnesota Valkyries
Schmarrah McCarthy – At-large
Deanna McGillivray – University of New Mexico
Jenny Menke – Minnesota Valkyries
Jossy Tseng – Berkeley All-Blues

WNT Staff
Kathy Flores, Head Coach
Candi Orsini, Backs Coach
Alex Williams, Technical Coach
Krista McFarren, Technical Coach
Michelle Carrone, Strength and Conditioning Coach
Dr. Lisa Bartoli, Team Physician
Ginger Stringer, Manager

For a full schedule of all the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup, go here. For travel packages to England for the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup, go here.

Thanks to our partner Ruck Off Rugby, we have 3 sweet jerseys to give away this month. This will be a short raffle as January is over in a few days! If you would like to enter yourself into the raffle, comment in the comments section of this post, comment on the YSC Facebook Fan Page, or RT on Twitter (make sure to include @scrumhalfblog)! All raffle entries must be received by Jan 31, 2009.

Canterbury Scotland Men’s Jersey – XL (jersey on left in photo)

Canterbury Scotland Men’s Jersey – M (jersey in the middle of photo)

Canterbury HSBC Waratahs Men’s Jersey – M (jersey on the right in photo)

*NOTE: There will be 3 winners for this raffle…one for each jersey.

Ruck Off Rugby is a grassroots organization whose existence is determined by providing quality rugby products and apparel at reasonable prices. The company sees profits only as a means for achieving greater success, as customer satisfaction and a quality brand image stand before all on Ruck Off Rugby’s list of objectives. Our mission is to be the leader in fashionable off-field rugby apparel.

To view past raffles and raffle winners, please go the navigation bar and select About YSC > Free Raffle.

We appreciate all of our partners and their generosity in donating items for the raffle. If you would like to donate items to the raffle please email wendy@scrumhalfconnection.com.

Your club is invited to participate in the 30th Annual “Throw Me Something, Rugger!” Mardi Gras Women’s Rugby Tournament!  Attached is a flyer with all the information you need about it.  Please note that the tournament coincides with President’s Day Weekend (Feb. 13-14, 2010) this year, so many have the extra day to stay through Monday. We’d love to have you!  Please let me know at your earliest convenience if you plan to come.  Thanks!

2010 Mardi Gras Tournament
February 13-14, 2010

The tournament will feature college and club brackets, with a minimum of three games for each team.

The entry fee is:
$300.00 if received by January 1, 2010
$350.00 if received by January 15, 2010
$400.00 if received after January 15, 2010
Please call or email Karen Dicke (kdicke@halfmoonsrugby.org or 504-812-5742) for the mailing address.
The Endymion parade will roll on Saturday night.
That weekend is also President’s Day weekend.

Tournament Hotel
A block of rooms have been reserved at the La Quinta New Orleans Westbank (504-368-5600) for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. The cost is $90 per night. Say that you’re with the Women’s Rugby Tournament to get the rate. The block expires January 22, 2010.

Karen Dicke
Tournament Director
kdicke@halfmoonsrugby.org
504-812-5742

Also, this year the Women’s Rugby Foundation will be hosting their Habitat for Humanity build again:

Habitat for Humanity Link: http://www.uswrf.org/2009/mardiGras2009followup.aspx
Tourney Link: http://www.halfmoonsrugby.org/

Calling all Ruggers!

Please forward this on to your teams to discuss and let me know if you are interested.  Chicago Women and Madison Women are putting together teams to go to the Mardi Gras Tourney this year as well as volunteer for the Habitat for Humanity project that is on its 4th year.  We were hoping to encourage other higher competitive teams into sending a group as well.  Habitat is Feb. 11th & 12th and the tourney is the 13th and 14th.  Monday is President’s Day as well so many may have off already.  I also have the hotel block info already.  Please let me know if you are interested in sending a team, otherwise if you have a partial team I will organize efforts to put together a full team granted the tourney fee of $300 is covered.  Thanks so much and hope you are all well!  Corrie

Thanks to our partner rugbystore.co.uk we have a sweet jersey to give away this Holiday. This will be a short raffle (only 5 days) and is for the truly dedicated to YSC who will check the blog during the holidays.

If you would like to enter into the raffle, comment in the comments section of this post, comment on Facebook post, Twitter (make sure include @scrumhalfblog) or comment on this post! All raffle entries must be received by Dec 31, 2009.

Kooga Away Harlequins International Replica Jersey – size men’s SMALL

The Official Away Harlequins Replica Rugby shirt for the 2009/10 season from rugby specialists KooGa is designed to look the same as the match jersey and comes in a revolutionary new fabric known as EVAPOREX, which is a polyester thermal mix designed to wick away perspiration creating the ideal body climate. It features an embroidered Harlequins badge on the chest along with embroidered KooGa logo and large embroidered Etihad Airways sponsor on the front plus more embroidered sponsors on the sleeves, collar and back. Other features include contrast panelling, top stitched detailing as well as embroidered branding text on the mandarin collar, including rubber buttons finishes the shirt.

rugbystore.co.uk is a sweet online rugby shop that is across the pond. They have some of the best Canterbury gear and Kooga gear available that we never see in the US. They constantly have sales on jerseys, shirts, shorts and more. They ship fast and they always have assorted sizes.

To view past raffles, please go the navigation bar and select About YSC > Free Raffle.

We appreciate all of our partners and their generosity in donating items for the raffle. If you would like to donate items to the raffle please email wendy@scrumhalfconnection.com.