Your Scrumhalf Connection

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.

from my inbox:

It’s Vic from the Harlequins. I’m trying to fill a petition to get more rugby on TV. Think you could give it some attention on your blog and/or mailing lists and/or facebook?

from ScrumQueens:

Scottish Rugby TV have provided video footage of Scotland’s superb win over France in round one of the women’s rugby 6 Nations. Ron Evans reported from Lasswade on the match which Scotland won 10-8 thanks to two tries from centre, and scrumqueens blogger, Lucy Millard.

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

The Girl and I had a blast in Lakeland, FL this weekend helping USA Rugby out with the Ustream broadcast for the Atlantic Cup and the U20 matches! Thanks for all the kind comments in the UStream chatroom, on Twitter and Facebook about my commenting!! I’ve never done it before, so I am still getting my feet wet, but I do enjoy it.

Here are the videos from the weekend, thanks to USA Rugby for providing video for all the viewers at home. The viewing reached over 3500 fans, this is a Ustream record for USA Rugby! Thanks again to all of the YSC fans as over 1600 of you clicked on the link from YSC to view the video. That means that YSC brought half the viewers!

USA vs Canada 1st half – January 16, 2010

USA vs Canada 2nd half – January 16, 2010

We apologize as the broadcast was shut off before the conversion was attempted…but it was missed by Canada and so USA won 11-10.

It doesn’t appear that the U-20 matches are available yet, I will try to see if I can get the links once they are posted.

For the match report of the Senior USA vs Canada and rosters, go here. For the match report and roster of the U20s match, go here.

For travel packages to England for the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup, go here.