March 12, 2010
Ah, another season of Super League rugby is upon us. Launched in 1997, the USA Rugby Super League brings together fourteen of the top men’s club teams in the United States each season to crown a champion.
Don’t blink, because before you know it, the season will be over.
No, seriously… with only seven weeks (six games and one bye) of regular season play, it will be over before you know it.
A handful of the best teams will get to advance to the playoffs and play a wee bit longer, but as the top level of domestic rugby in America, the season is way too short.
All of that aside, the Super League puts in a great effort with the many obstacles that they face.
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March 6, 2010
I should step away from my computer more often. Usually, I’m bombarded with depressing work and emails to catch up on from a few days out of connection. Today, I couldn’t be more excited as I found this gem waiting for me.
On the back of the Olympic announcement and the successful Las Vegas Sevens event, rugby sevens has just made yet another huge leap in the United States.
American International Media, owners of the USA 7’s and Rugby Magazine, are set to launch the first ever Collegiate Sevens Championship in conjunction with USA Rugby and NBC. First ABC with the USA Sevens highlight show and now NBC showing college rugby live. Someone has been eating their Wheaties.
NBC will broadcast live from the tournament, which takes place June 5-6 at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. The broadcast marks collegiate rugby’s debut on network television. In fact, when was the last time rugby (at any level) broadcast live on network television?
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March 3, 2010
The 2009-2012 USA Rugby Strategic Plan made it’s way into my hands today. I had a chance to browse through all of the sections quickly, but I plan to spend more time in the coming weeks going through a detailed reading and interpretation of whats in it.
To summarize, it’s not anything we didn’t already know or have already heard about in recent years. There wasn’t any ground-breaking news divulged within it’s pages.
Pretty much the same old-same old… more focus on college rugby, growing the game at the youth and high school level, raising funding for USAR, making our National teams more competitive, etc. If you’ve been around the game in the USA for a while you already know the story.
As with their recent plans, USA Rugby will forever be judged on how they perform. The rugby public has held the current administration in fairly low regard, so this can go two ways. Either USA Rugby will make amends for the last few years or fall even deeper onto the public’s crap-list.
The one gleaming star that USA Rugby has in their corner that didn’t exist during the last strategic period is the United State Olympic Committee and they were reference quite a bit in the Strategic Plan. The USOC’s involvement (and mere presence) at various levels of the game in America could help push USAR into a position where they may be able to succeed in reaching some of their goals.
There is alot of information and multiple sections to the Strategic Plan, so I’m going to break each one of them down individually over the next few weeks.
Also, rumors of a revamped USA Rugby website have finally sprouted flowers. While the full page is still under construction, www.usarugby.org now sports a new splash page as a preview to the new website.
Stay tuned for more to come.
March 1, 2010
With just a little over two weeks until the kickoff of the 2010 USA Rugby Super League schedule, here’s a look at the full schedule.
Note that the Super League final, currently set for June 4th is likely to move to Memorial Day Weekend to avoid conflict with the Churchill Cup.
Just as with the last couple of years, I will be right here to cover the Super League with weekly updates, news, and predictions. Stay tuned for another exciting year of Super League rugby.
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February 24, 2010
For the second consecutive year, the Churchill Cup will be played solely on American soil. The Churchill Cup is an alliance between the English Rugby Football Union (RFU), Rugby Canada and USA Rugby. The tournament was launched in 2003 aiming to develop and grow the sport of rugby union in North America.
Glendale, Colorado’s Infinity Park will once again serve as the hosts for the pool play round of the tournament and the newly constructed Red Bull Arena in New Jersey will host the Finals.
The new venue aside, the Churchill Cup will take on additional changes as four of the six teams involved are now full international sides. This is an exciting development for the tournament as it gives teams such as the United States and Canada more opportunities for full international tests.
Gone from last year’s lineup are Ireland A and the Argentina Jaguars. Returning sides are the United States, Canada, and the England Saxons. Newcomers to the tournament include France A, Russia, and Uruguay.
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February 22, 2010
This past weekend, the Lions and Chiefs locked horns in one of the most epic scoring matches ever played in the history of the Super 14. Played at Coca-Cola Park in Johannesburg, South Africa the two teams combined to score 137 points on 18 tries with the Chiefs coming out ahead 72-65.
USA Eagles Captain Todd Clever started at #8 for the Lions and scored a 24th minute try and set up a try minutes later with an interception.
At one point in the second half the Lions trailed 72-37 before the squad made a furious comeback effort and nearly pulled off the upset.
The Lions are now 0-2 in the early going in the Super 14 season which is good for 12th place in the standings. The Chiefs, who were finalists last season, upped their record to 2-0 on the season. Along with the Chiefs, the Bulls, Hurricanes, and Stormers are the four remaining undefeated teams in the Super 14.
February 19, 2010
Just as with last year, ABC Sports will air a one-hour highlight show from the USA 7’s held in Las Vegas last weekend. Despite being prempted by a basketball game last year, the USA 7’s highlight show scored very well in the ratings.
No chance of any cutoffs this year as the broadcast was switched from Sunday afternoon to Saturday to avoid following a live sporting event. The highlight show is set to air at 5pm (EST).
Presented by Bridgestone, the event was held at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas and hosted the largest ever crowd for the USA 7’s. A remarkable feat considering it was the tournament’s first year in Las Vegas. It’s also a great sign of things to come for the USA 7’s.
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