Author: Benson Hendrix

There are only a couple of days left for those rugby photographers to get their pics in to the IRB for the Fifth Annual IRB/Emirates Airline Rugby Photograph of the Year Competition. So far over 200 pictures have been entered in the contest. (Only 200!?There are more entries in the Albuquerque Journal’s yearly “Who Can Take a Hot Air Balloon Picture” contest!)

The winner of the competition will receive a trip for two to the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens tournament this year.  And how awesome would a trip to the Dubai Sevens be?

The judges for this year’s competition include Rugby World Editor Paul Morgan, Getty Images photographer Dave Rogers and others who will meet in London later this month to select the winning picture.

How will they select the lucky picture?  Well.. :

The judges will again be looking for a stand out picture that depicts Rugby’s unique blend of qualities, including teamwork, camaraderie, fellowship, skill and fair play. Photographs can be submitted from all levels of the Game, from Test arena action shots and supporters to behind the scenes snapshots or an image of community Rugby life.

Entries for this competition must be received no later than 9 a.m. GMT on Monday, Sept. 13 – which isn’t too much time from now! Get your pictures from this weekend’s matches sorted out, set them up as 300dpi JPEGs and emailed in to photooftheyear@irb.com right away!

According to the International Rugby Board, as quoted in this Stuff.co.nz story, the Haka (the traditional Maori war dance the All Blacks do before each match) in addition to other war dances by the various Pacific Island teams attending the 2011 Rugby World Cup will be respected. During the recently ended 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup, Australia was fined over $2000 because they got too close to the Black Ferns as they performed the Haka in their pre-match ceremony.

From the story:

The IRB confirmed that the New Zealand haka and the various challenges performed by the Pacific Island nations would be embraced as a key aspect of next year’s World Cup.

While there have been calls from some quarters for the haka to be banned, the IRB believes fans regard the haka as a key feature of any match involving the All Blacks.

As the video accompanying the story points out, there was one nation that was classless enough to ignore the New Zealanders and just huddle up as if nothing was going on.  And I’m sure none of us would be surprised to find out that it was, or course, the French.

And who in the hell would want to ban the Haka? (Probably some Frenchman… it’d figure. 😉 ) It’s one of the most iconic parts of any rugby match involving the All Blacks.  Who can’t watch the 1973 All Blacks vs. Barbarians match and feel the chill run up their spine at the very beginning when New Zealand finishes the Haka? (and that wasn’t an intense Haka at all, compared to today’s performances!)

Probably as a result of the French classlessness, the IRB has “encouraged” that teams stand about ten meters back from the halfway line and face the team’s challenge.  With those teams disregarding this “encouragement” possibly incurring fines.

Argentina is moving closer to take what has become their rightful place in the rugby universe, as the junior member of the Tri-Nations competition – potentially in 2012.

Why “junior member” you might ask?  Because Argentina is making a big jump from competition like the IRB Americas Rugby Championship, where they would face the U.S., Canada and Tonga (who is stepping in with an invite) to face off with the three best national teams in the world.  (For measurement, Argentina is ranked #8 in the latest world rankings)

For a quick lesson, let’s look back in time ten or so years…

When Italy joined the then-5 Nations in 2000 they also filled this role, especially facing England and Ireland.  (For those of you who don’t know, the Five Nations at the time consisted of the British Isles national teams, plus France)

One can argue that the experiment has been a failure so far, since the Italians have yet to capture a winning season, much less a Six Nations title – racking up only seven wins against 47 losses. But if you look at the Italians from a more holistic standpoint, they have started presenting a more professional front as a national rugby union, and their play has definitely become much more disciplined as a result of playing these higher profile teams.

Argentina has the opportunity for the same benefit – developing a more professional organization overall, and measuring their potential against the best in the world.  

I remember a few years back, there had been talk about adding the U.S. national team to what was (then ) the Super 12 rugby tournament.  An interesting idea, but the logistics would have sucked – it’s hard enough for the South Africans in the Tri Nations(apparently since they keep threatening to leave SANZAR) and they are in the Southern Hemisphere.  It would be interesting to see the U.S. in the Six Nations, but until they can beat the Canadians and the match up with Argentina, the U.S. has its own problems to address.

By the hair of their chinny-chin-chins, the New Zealand All Blacks completed the clean sweep of the Tri-Nations competition by squeaking by the Australia Wallabies 23-22.

Thanks to late second-half tries by New Zealand captain Richie McCaw and No. 8 Kieran Read, the All Blacks were able to fight back from a 14-6 halftime deficit – which had expanded to 19-6 early in the second half after Australia center Adam Ashley-Cooper was on the receiving end of a pass from scrum half Matt Genia.

This continues the Australian losing streak to their cross Tasman rivals to a record-setting ten games.  While for the All Blacks, this has to give them more confidence going into their 2011 World Cup campaign.

Catch the Scrum.com game stats here!

Later today, Australia will try once more to stop the All Black Tri-Nations onslaught as they face off in Sydney.  It’ll be the last game of the Tri-Nations tournament for the All Blacks, who clinched the Tri-Nations title this year against South Africa at “Soccer City” Stadium.

The only question left to ask is – Can the Australians do it?

Recently the Aussie ended a 45+ year drought of winning any matches at higher altitudes by beating South Africa, and are only making one change to the Wallabies lineup that won that match.  They are now hoping to break another bad streak and keep their current loss streak to the All Blacks in single digits at nine.

Meanwhile, the All Blacks have won every Tri-Nations game this year, what would make this match any different? When they beat Australia in game two of the series (in Christchurch) the Wallabies were playing a strong game, but still unable to knock the Kiwis off of their pedestal. 

According to Scrum.com, the New Zealand player to watch is fly-half Aaron Cruden, who has been pressed into service due to an injury to Dan Carter.  It’s an important game to get your international start in, and his opposite in this match will be Quade Cooper, who is looking to redeem himself after a recent suspension (thanks to his actions on the pitch against South Africa) and debate whether he would leave Rugby Union for the potentially more lucrative paychecks in Rugby League.  This battle at one of the most important positions on the field will be one to watch with interest.

Prediction:

My take on this Tri-Nations match – I think the Aussies will put up a good fight, but they’re going to get the short end of the stick, and the All Blacks will live up to their 2/5 favorite status and return to the Land of the Long White Cloud as undefeated Tri-Nations Champions.

Note:

A recent financial and time crunch has played havoc on my Tri-Nations reporting, in the next few days there will be updates and my takes on how the tournament has progressed for South Africa and Australia – including the two teams swapping their #2 and #3 world rankings.

According to the dogged work of American Rugby News, USA Rugby is looking at the ever present problem of college athletes moving from program to program looking for greener pastures, or at least different opponents.

From the article (please click the link and read the entire piece):

The issue has now bubbled over to the point where Phillips is calling on USA Rugby to implement rules of engagement and codes of conduct for USAR coaches.

The sticking point is Phillips’ assertion that All-American assistant coach Blake Burdette first had contact with Shephard after the High School championships in Salt Lake City and then had further conversations with him on the 2009 All-American tour to South Africa.

Once again, massive kudos to Brian Lowe and his excellent staff at American Rugby News for staying on top of this story.  At first glance it appears that this is not important to cover, but if rugby wants to be taken as seriously as a collegiate sport then players can’t jump from program to program like they’re NAIA athletes.  Boulder needs to come up with some kind of monitoring program to hold athletes accountable to the programs the decide to play for. 

A side benefit of this kind of program might be to spread the athletic talent to universities based more on the school’s academic program than whether or not they can offer scholarships, or other perks, to players – or whether these teams field All-American coaches as well who have a level of unfair contact with athletes.  Let’s be honest here, there are a handful of collegiate teams that have an unfair advantage by being able to offer rugby-specific scholarships and enticements such as varsity program status (and access to NCAA-caliber facilities).

(Not to mention the ever moving target of when collegiate eligibility runs out – is it after a set amount of time, or can players who have been in and out of college at the whim of their coach (whenever they need them for a season) return to play at anytime)

Interestingly, Todd Bell from USA Rugby commented to Lowe that he had been apprised of the situation as early as this summer.  If that’s true, then my next question is – why did it take a move by Indiana coach Tom Phillips to the media to get some kind of action?

According to this story from American Rugby News, some criticism involving the transfer of All-American prop Michael Shephard from Indiana (the rugby home of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban) to Western Conference powerhouse Utah has arisen. 

From the story:

Indiana head coach Tom Phillips is upset over what he claims was a year-long recruitment campaign by his Utah counterpart and 2009 All-American forwards coach Blake Burdette to encourage Shephard to transfer.

I’ve seen this quite a bit in the collegiate ranks in the last 10 years or so. One of the teams out here would repeatedly reload the same scrum half year after year… after year… after year… until I swear he turned 35.  It appears that collegiate eligibility rules have been lax for many years, with the result being a dearth of talent throughout the country except for a handful of teams that have the resources to attract them.

It’s also a problem to let a handful of elite team’s coaches have access to the best collegiate players in the country.  Events like this lead to the belief, correct or not, that coaches take advantage of their position of national leadership for the benefit of their own team.

So what can be done?

USA Rugby should take the lead on keeping track of player transfers, keeping these athletes from jumping from school to school to find a team to play for.  It’ll take some effort and infrastructure development on USA Rugby’s part, but it’s necessary for rugby to be taken as a serious sport and not just a chance for frat boys to get together and drink.

This infrastructure goes all the way down, from the national union to each local union.  Referees have to ensure that players in collegiate games are CIPP insured, and that those each player has a photo identification to verify against their list from USA Rugby.

After developing this infrastructure, USA Rugby has to drop the boom on players who transfer schools.  NCAA college sports have a one-year wait for athletes who transfer schools. USA Rugby should have the same requirement.  It’ll suck for athletes who move schools for legitimate reasons.  But since there are very few schools who offer scholarships or other enticements for rugby athletes, students should be transferring for legitimate academic reasons.

All-American Cluster-#%@^

USA Rugby should also rethink who they get to coach the All-American teams.  There’s too much of a temptation for coaches currently working with college teams to (subtly or not) recruit these elite athletes.  If we as ruggers, former ruggers, and fans are not willing to make this kind of commitment, then we need to rethink how we want to feature collegiate rugby – one of the growth markets of the rugby world in the U.S.  Again, if we all want to make this commitment, then USA Rugby needs to hire an All-American coaching and scouting staff and make sure they are not working for, or enamored with, any one particular team.

This just in from the IRB:

New Zealand winger Carla Hohepa was awarded the 2010 Women’s “Personality of the Year” award from the International Rugby Board as a result of her outstanding performance throughout the Women’s Rugby World Cup tournament. Hohepa’s seven tries in this tournament tied her with Canada’s Heather Moyse as the most productive scorer in the World Cup.

Moyse, an athletic studette herself, as well as an Olympic gold medal winner in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics in the two-woman bobsled competition, scored her seventh try in the tournament against the United States as the two teams faced off in the fifth-place game in England.

Hohepa scored the first and only try for the Black Ferns in their championship victory over England earlier today.  Congratulations to Hohepa in not only her new award, but leading her team to the Black Ferns’ fourth consecutive World Cup Trophy!

Just finished watching the Women’s Rugby World Cup finals and I have to say, while I did say it would be a close match, I didn’t think it would be New Zealand 13, England 10 close!  And I whiffed it on the score prediction (just another reason I don’t usually do score predicts).  The match was exciting and while the Black Ferns racked up three yellow cards in the match (really? Three yellow cards?) 

The match started off with both sides facing down in front of the record 13,000+ fans at Twickenham Stoop.  The Black Ferns began with the traditional Haka, the Maori war dance performed by New Zealand sports teams before matches, and the English facing them off unafraid during the Haka.

After trading penalty kick misses by New Zealand’s center Kelly Brazier and England’s fly-half Katy McLean, the Black Ferns finally put the first points on the board with less than ten minutes to go before halftime by wing Carla Hohepa.  Followed by a successful Brazier conversion kick saw New Zealand carry a 7-0 lead into halftime, after a late penalty kick by McLean bounced off of the upright.

Quickly after the second half began, England finally put their first points on the board from a McLean penalty kick.  While the Brits drew the match even at 10-10 with 20 minutes to go, New Zealand squeaked out a win by the luck of Brazier’s boot – as she slotted the winning penalty kick with 15 minutes to go. 

The New Zealand All Blacks have been given notice going into the 2011 Rugby World Cup – the women’s team lived up to their end of the deal and now the men need to work up to their potential next year.

As a quick note, I’d like to give the International Rugby Board big props for livestreaming Sky News’ broadcast of some of the Women’s RWC matches, including the championship. It was a great way to help build the women’s rugby fan base and while the broadcast rights to the Men’s RWC have already been locked down (way to go NBC!) I hope there will be a way to catch the matches live online as well.

The scores from the other WRWC matches:

Third Place Match – Australia 22, France 8

Australia racked up their best Women’s RWC finish ever, beating the French 22-8.  The Aussies kept it close against England, and except for a few missteps might have seen themselves facing off against the Black Ferns in the finals.  Australia stormed out to a 22-3 lead at halftime, but played the second half a bit deflated while the French defense tightened up and held the Aussies scoreless the rest of the match.

Fifth Place Match – United States 23, Canuckistan (Canada) 20

The United States, former Women’s RWC champions in 1991, slipped past Canada in a match that went back and forth throughout the first half. Thanks to a flurry of play, the Eagles found themselves facing an early 3-10 deficit to the team from the Great Frozen North.  Thanks to a one-woman advantage, courtesy of Canada’s Sarah Ulmer who was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes, the Eagles took the lead when wing Vanesha McGee hit captain Ashley English for their first try of the game.  Although Canada went into the half with a 17-11 lead, the Eagles scored twice in the first ten minutes of the second half to regain and extend their lead, holding on against a furious Canuck onslaught as the game drew to a close.

Seventh Place Match – Ireland 32, Scotland 8

In this face off of Celtic rivals, Scotland never appeared to get their feet solidly underneath them as Ireland sprinted out to a 15-0 lead before the first 20 minutes of play ended.  While the Scots scored to cut the lead to 15-5, and started to assert themselves more, adding a three-point penalty kick before halftime to reduce Ireland’s lead to 15-8, Scotland got no closer to victory. 

Ninth Place Match – Wales 29, South Africa 17

Wales returned the 15-10 loss they suffered to South Africa during pool play in this years RWC with a ninth-place win, and hopefully a positive mindset to carry into this off-season. Welsh fullback Naomi Thomas scored two tries in the first half and fly-half Awen Thomas took over kicking duties from fly-half Laura Prosser (who was having an off-day with two missed penalty kicks and two missed conversions) to put Wales ahead 17-0 at the break.

11th Place Match – Kazakhstan 12, Sweden 8

In a game that might have made mythical Kazakh reporter Borat smile, the Asian regional champions notched their first win of the 2010 Rugby World Cup campaign with a victory over Sweden. While Kazakhstan, who had not scored a try the entire tournament, finally found the goal line, it was Sweden who was off target – as captain and fly-half Ulrika Andersson-Hall missed three kicks, and replacement Lina Norman missed an additional conversion for the Swedes. 

The championship game of the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup tournament has arrived, and the English Women’s Rugby team is hoping to finally break the strangle hold that the New Zealand Black Ferns have had on the World Cup since 1998. 

According to Sky News’ Julie-Anna Needham, the New Zealand Black Ferns are the best women’s team in the world, the equivalent to the All Blacks.  And as recent history has shown, the Black Ferns have won when it counted – which has been pretty much every game they’ve played – especially in the World Cup, where they haven’t lost a match since the 1991 championship match, losing 7-0 to the United States.

Needham’s story states: 

So England have a challenge on their hands but it is one they are ready for, says Joanna McGilchrist who plays in the second row.

 England has racked up a recent win against the Black Ferns, beating them 10-3 in Twickenham, home of today’s Women’s World Cup finals today.  And while England has focused on redeeming themselves from their 2006 loss to New Zealand, 25-17 in Canada, the championship is a pinnacle the English lasses won’t reach this year.  Today’s prediction is a fourth-straight WRWC championship for the Black Ferns, 35-14.