Your Scrumhalf Connection

“A Giant Awakens” is a 60 minute HD sport documentary that explores 130 years of rugby in America.

Rugby, the worlds’ contact sport, is played in over 100 countries on 6 continents by men and women of all ages. What surprises most sports enthusiasts in America is that the Rugby World Cup is the 3rd most watched sporting event in the world, only behind the FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympic Games.

The success of rugby in America has been referred to as the “sleeping giant” that would considerably improve world rugby because of its large athletic population, affluent consumer base, successful professional sports franchises, and a deep connection to major international businesses.

Through the lens of award winning filmmaker Sylvain Doreau, the essence, spirit, and challenges of American rugby are captured at all levels from youth to the USA Men’s National Team. This documentary takes you on a journey from Olympic glory in the 1920’s, to rugby’s 50 year hibernation in the US, to the USA Eagles capturing the hearts of all rugby fans at the 2007 World Cup in France.

American rugby today is about a few hundred thousand passionate players, coaches, referees, administrators and fans sharing the love they have for the game and developing that giant into the international powerhouse of the past. This is their story of passion, commitment, sacrifice, hope and success.

With highlights of key events and interviews with players, coaches, and administrators, “A Giant Awakens” is a “must see” for any sports fan.

Help the next generation of American rugby Olympians defend the gold. Buy your copy of “A Giant Awakens” and share your love of the game with new players and supporters. Volume pricing available for resale or team fundraising.

20% of the films profits go to support youth rugby in America.

A GIANT AWAKENS: TREASURE HUNTING FOR OLYMPIC HISTORY

“A Giant Awakens: The Rise of American Rugby” has gone through numerous phases in its development. The HD sports documentary initially planned to include a very brief introduction about American rugby history and then connect with the USA Eagle’s qualifying for the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

Few people in the US are aware that Gridiron American football evolved from rugby. Virtually no one knows that rugby was the number 1 collegiate sport in the US in the early 1900’s, that rugby was ever in the Olympics, and the US is the reigning gold medal winners. Some have no clue the sport even exists. This is a fascinating and unheralded part of US sports history that director Sylvain Doreau wanted to uncover. Surprisingly, the main source of documents was not in the US, but in France.

Thanks to the rugby blog community, Sylvain found a French collector, Frederic Humbert, who has one of the most complete blogs about rugby history ( www.rugbypionneers.com). Sylvain sent him an email requesting anything related to US rugby history. To his surprise, Frederic uncovered dozen of rare photos prints of the early days of rugby in the US.

This fantastic collection of pre-WW1 college rugby photos when the collegiate finals could bring 35,000 spectators to a rugby game in the US. He also had an extensive collection of photos from the 1920 and 1924 Olympics and connected Sylvain with an Olympic historian, Pierre Vitalien, who wrote a book (in French) about rugby at the Olympics. Sylvain also filmed at the University of California, Berkeley Club house, a goldmine of rugby memorabilia.

While the photos were incredible, this was a film and not a slide show. Somewhere there had to be footage filmed at the Olympics. Then Frederic Humbert mentioned to Sylvain that he recently bought some old 8mm newsreels from 1924 at an auction that may include footage of the Olympic final. Sylvain immediately jumped on the opportunity and Frederic graciously printed and digitized the newsreels in a specialized lab in Paris.

When Sylvain downloaded the footage sent by Frederic, he cried of joy. With Frederic, Sylvain helped uncover an amazing piece of sports history! Beside few scratches, the print is incredibly detailed, and the action is filmed from the sideline and behind the posts. It has an incredible emotional power, like “Chariots of Fire”, like you’re actually running with these guys! Also, you can see from the build of the American players, that that team, composed of Californian college players, was made of exceptional athletes.

The historical footage totally changed the direction of the project, and there is now a 10mn intro on US rugby history. We also included more interviews about the inclusion of Sevens Rugby for the 2016 Olympics.

A Giant Awakens – Trailer HD 1 from sylvain doreau on Vimeo.

The West U23 Local Area Union Tournament was this past weekend and it showcased the best of the best in the West Rugby Union. With only three unions participating this year, Texas Rugby Union (TRU), Eastern Rocky Rugby Football Union (ERRFU) and the Heart of America (HOA), the format was a bit different than in years past. Since this is mainly a selection venue, on Saturday all three teams played once and then on Sunday the West coaches split the teams up into motley sides. The West coaches in attendance were Angie Cranmore, Head Coach, Traci Schmitke, Fowards Coach and Wendy Young, Backs Coach.

The first match of the day on Saturday featured the hosts Texas against ERRFU. This match was very intense and incredibly close the whole 80 minutes. The ERRFU pack was incredibly mobile and Texas struggled with tackling and rucking in the beginning of the match. ERRFU was able to take advantage of this early in the match and put five points on the board. Katie Thompson, Rachel Ryan and Becca Knappe from ERRFU were unstoppable off the edge of the fringe, gaining meters on every run. During the second half the Texas backs, Kandis Ruiz, Autumn Murrill, KC Curl and Alex Davenport began to get clean ball and they showed their speed and evasive running to put 5 points on the board. Texas was able to hold ERRFU back from opening the gates and the score ended ERRFU 15 Texas 5. View the video below, or go here.

Texas Rugby Union vs Eastern Rocky Rugby Football Union – West U23 LAU Tournament from Scrumhalf Connection on Vimeo.

The second match of the day pitted the Heart of America vs the Eastern Rocky Rugby Football Union. ERRFU brought the most players of all the teams, so we got to see some fresh faces in this match. ERRFU scored very quickly at the beginning of the match off of a driving maul. But HOA had some great forward support and they were able to steal ERRFU ball and capitalize on it themselves. Towards the end of the first half, HOA’s inside center, Cari Squires, cherry picked a pass and 80 meters later put HOA on the board. HOA was able to put another score on the board in the second half, but ERRFU continued to score as well with three tries in the corner from Emma Parenteau to bring the final score to ERRFU 22 HOA 10. View the video below, or go here.

Heart of America vs Eastern Rocky Rugby Football Union – West U23 LAU Tournament from Scrumhalf Connection on Vimeo.

The last game on Saturday was voted as the match of the day by all. HOA took on Texas for a nail biter of a match. HOA got off to a quick start with two tries from Cari Squires and at half time the score was HOA 26 Texas 0. Texas finally responded at the start of the second half with big hits, runs and scores. The Texas backs were able to get fast ball often and were passing well and this resulted in several tries in a row. Not to be undone, the Texas forwards played smart in the red zone and were able to dot a few tries down as well. The final score of this match was Texas 51 HOA 26. Unfortunately the battery ran out in the camera and this game was not filmed.

Overall the weekend was a success and the level of rugby was the highest seen in the West in quite some time. With 81 girls attending, the West coaches will have a chore choosing players to bring to the Invitational only tryouts in late April or early May. After that the West coaches will need to pick the best 28 players to attend the 2010 National All Star Championships in June.

Thanks to Ashley Voss and USA Rugby I have been given copies of the USA U20 vs Canada U20 and USA vs Canada matches from the January Atlantic Cup. I am still working on uploading the USA vs Canada, but I will let you know once it is uploaded. Great tournament for the USA and I am glad we have it available to watch again. Unfortunately the USA U20 vs Canada U20 video is a bit blurry until about 5 minutes in, but just let the video load and then skip forward.

USA U20 Women’s National Team vs Canada U20 Women’s National Team from Scrumhalf Connection on Vimeo.

To view more YSC videos hover over the heading ‘Videos’ on the navigation bar up top and choose Rugby Video Monday.

Please continue sending in your videos and I will keep posting them! Send them to wendy@scrumhalfconnection.com.

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.

With the release of the new USA Women’s National Team website there have been some sweet improvements to the access of the WNT. The page has great bios, photos and the short documentary film by Amanda Micheli is amazing. Watch it below!

To view more YSC videos hover over the heading ‘Videos’ on the navigation bar up top and choose Rugby Video Monday.

Please continue sending in your videos and I will keep posting them! Send them to wendy@scrumhalfconnection.com.