Author: Benson Hendrix

Scotland built their momentum in the Rugby Universe throughout international matches this weekend, as they not only layeth los smacketh down upon the Springboks’ asses (yes it was 21-17 but until there was a late game try by the South Africans the Scots were able to gram and hold a comfortable lead), but the Scotland “A” squad (essentially their “B” team for the non-rugby readers of the SuperSite) knocked down the visiting USA Eagles men’s national team to the tune of 25-0.

The game was close going into the half, as the U.S. was only down 11-0 at half time, thanks to two David Blair penalty kicks and a try resulting from a one-man advantage when Eagle prop Mate Moeakiola was yellow carded off of the pitch in the 16^th minute for repeated scrum infractions. (also known as “WTF are you doing??” to the non-rugby readers)

Eagles Head Coach Eddie O’Sullivan said, “We started well, but turned over a lot of ball and we got behind 6-0 early.  Our scrum was under a lot of pressure and they scored a try with a man down. We still had a shot at 11-0.”

Penalties were the name of the game for the Eagles throughout the game, with the visiting Americans down two men at one point in the second half. Scotland’s tries in this match all came when the USA Eagles had players sitting in the yellow card “Time Out” bin.  According to the rose-colored glasses coming from USA Rugby this was a testament to the Eagles’ defense, which according to the release “is still very strong.”  But more importantly, this is also a testament to a lack of discipline on the field – that equates to 19 points given up when the Eagles were playing short-handed.

The conventional wisdom after a game like this is to state that there is usually more to learn in a loss than in a win.  If that’s true, then the Eagles coaching staff are hoping to take the many lessons from this game and add them to the team’s training program before Nov. 27, when the Eagles face off with Georgia in Tbilisi to wrap up their fall tour.

With all of the excited talk about the inclusion of rugby in the 2016 (I believe) Olympic Games, I wanted to take a moment for us to remember the last time rugby was in the Olympics, and the New Mexico link to that team.

Norman Cleveland was his name, and kicking ass in rugby was apparently his game. While being born in California (a sin that we can forgive of most people these days), Cleveland spent much of his youth growing up in the countryside around the small village of Datil, New Mexico.  By a happy coincidence, Cleveland ended up studying mining engineering at Stanford University (instead of the eminently more logical choice of attending what was then known as the New Mexico School of Mines, now New Mexico Tech). 

It was during his time at Stanford that he started playing rugby and ended up as part of the 1924 U.S. Olympic Rugby team. To be fair, the national team was essentially made up of the Stanford Rugby team.  That team went on to beat both France and Romania, the only two other nations to enter teams in the Olympic rugby competition.

(Really?  Really?? No Ireland or Scotland? Nothing from England, the birthplace of Rugby??)

Cleveland also caused a bit of a stir in New Mexico in his later years, when he wrote a book about his family’s move to New Mexico to manage one of the Land Grants in the state, and the assertion that his grandfather’s death had to do with an organization known as the “Santa Fe Ring” in a grab for power in the late 19^th century.

For those who have read this far, and are still interested, the “Santa Fe Ring” was made up of politically connected lawyers and land dealers that got rich off of fraudulent land dealings in what was then the “New Mexico Territories” (New Mexico didn’t become a state until 1912).  For movie buffs, part of the battles with the Santa Fe Ring had to do with the Lincoln County Wars, and are semi-fictionalized in a little movie called “Young Guns,” starring Emilio Estevez.

But back to Cleveland – after an exciting life that included arming people in Malaya to protect some of his mining operations during the 50’s, and pissing off a couple of U.S. Senators (you might have heard of them, Bobby Kennedy and John F. Kennedy) as well as then Senator Lyndon B. Johnson – he found himself in New Mexico’s mountainous capital city, Santa Fe, where he continued to play rugby and was considered a life member of the Santa Fe Rugby Club until he died in 1997, at the age of 96.

(Most of this information was caught by scratching around the web, if New Mexico rugby peeps have any corrections or additions, please let me know! – B)

If anything, the results from this weekend’s matchups goes to show us that the All Blacks are still a tier above most of the other teams in the Rugby Universe.  This will be a recurring theme throughout this post, every Northern Hemisphere team will have to measure their successes when they face New Zealand, regardless of how they do against the other touring sides.

New Zealand 49, Scotland 3

We can add one more to Scotland’s 0-for-eternity record against the All Blacks.  Scotland stuck early in the game, taking the lead off of a Dan Parks penalty goal.  Unfortunately for the Scots, it turns out that Connor MacLeod and the team from “Highlander” were right. “There can be only one,” and this year Scotland ain’t it.  After the quick 3-0 lead, Scotland only gave up 49 straight points to New Zealand.  The Kiwi’s were a textbook case in speed and power on the pitch, but need to work on giving up penalties if at all possible.

Given the closeness of the Welsh loss to South Africa and England’s win over Australia this week, and the ease of many of New Zealand’s tries – you have to admit that the All Blacks are still in a class of their own this season.

South Africa 29, Wales 25

I don’t know if Wales is this good, or if South Africa was playing down to the perceived level of competition in this game.  If it’s the former, then we might see Wales contend for a Six Nations championship leading into next year’s World Cup, and the resulting positive momentum might carry the Welshmen through the quarterfinals at the RWC. 

Wales blew a 20-9 lead early in the second half as the visitors powered back, led off of the boot of fly-half Morne Steyn’s 19 points (5 penalty kicks and two conversions).  Wales was hit with the injury bug as winger Shane Williams suffered a shoulder injury keeping him out of the second half, while Wales’ other wing George North tried to make up the difference, scoring a brace of tries in his Welsh debut.

England 35, Australia 18

Now despite what Graham Jenkins is saying over at Scrum, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.  Is England poised to steal a World Cup win in 2011?  That’s yet to be seen. We’ll know more once the Roses play New Zealand in a few weeks. It was pointed out that England really ran at the Wallabies, mixing it up with forwards and backs a lot like successful Southern Hemisphere teams have done.

England played a fairly commanding gave over the visiting Wallabies, and if they are able to keep this form up throughout the Southern Hemisphere tour of the Isles and carry it on into 2011, they might develop into a threat to the All Blacks, but let’s not jump the gun.

I expect to see Australia and South Africa switch rankings once again after the current tour ends. (Update: the most recent IRB rankings showed this switch)

Ireland 20, Samoa 10

Once again, Ireland crafted a game plan to slog along in what were reported to be less than “perfect” weather conditions to beat Samoa by 10.  (Don’t ask the Irish why they have to toddle along whenever the ground is a little damp, it might hurt Luke Fitzgerald’s feelings.  Also it had to upset the fans who were expecting more expansive rugby against the Samoans)

At least Ireland could scratch this up in the “W” column, which won’t be so easy for them next week when they play New Zealand.  Samoa have to feel pretty good, despite not winning this match. They were able to recover from giving Ireland a 10-point head start, and hung tough after pulling close, 10-7, in the first half.  Note: Samoa has only won one match in Europe since 2000, when they beat Italy 13-9. 

And a special match: USA 22, Portugal 17

The USA Eagles started off their fall European tour with a close win against #22 ranked Portugal.  For those fans expecting the US to repeat their 61-5 battering of Portugal, well they were disappointed.  But for the Eagles, trying to bounce back from their showing in the Churchill Cup this was a welcome start to their tour.

The Eagles started off with a try from wing Takudzwa Ngwenya in the 28th minute.  Known for his speed, if not his power, Ngwenya surprised Portugal by steamrolling the final defender between him and the end zone.

Penalties were the bane once again for the United States, as Portugal slotted four penalty kicks throughout the match to keep the score respectable before a late try by Vasco Uva pulled Portugal within 5 points.

The US next plays Scotland “A” before wrapping up their fall tour on Nov. 27 on Tblisi, Georgia to face the #17 ranked Georgians.

Readers of the SuperSite might remember that a few months back I called out the Irish Rugby Union for their scheme to raise money by forcing fans to purchase tickets to not just one international match this fall, but a package of the International matches taking place this November. I said back then it was a bad idea, and it looks like I was right. According to Scrum.com:

“Only 35,515 turned out to see Ireland lose 23-21 to South Africa in the first Test at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, leaving 16,000 empty seats at the newly-redeveloped Lansdowne Road.”

In bad economic times (Ireland being one of the hardest-hit European nations during the current financial crisis) the IRFU was probably lucky to land those 35K fans. The attendance was so bad that fly-half, new Irish test centenarian and hero Ronan O’Gara has been almost begging fans to upend the couch cushions, or go out and roll homeless folk for the pound coins in their pockets to support the national team.

O’Gara talked about the energy and atmosphere at the old Lansdowne Stadium, and how important it was to bring that energy back. They need the fans to do it, but the fans need to pay to keep a roof over their heads first.

So what’s Ireland to do?

Well I’m not a marketer or a PR person… oh wait, actually I am!

The Irish Rugby Football Union needs to pull their heads out of their asses and allow people to go to whichever games they damn well want to, and they need to cut the prices of the next two international matches – probably Australia and New Zealand, since the Samoa game is coming up too quickly to make these changes. By doing this, they’ll start to rebuild solid fan relations by showing that it’s more important to have fans at Lansdowne, than it is to force them to purchase tickets to games they might not even want. The fans will return, and with them money from their tickets and other in-stadium purchases, but it might take a short-term hit in ticket prices to make that happen.

Come on Irish rugby, get it together. You’ve asked the fans to “Save Irish Rugby,” now give them a reason to.

What’s good for the goose is also good for the gander when it comes to unnecessarily rough play on the pitch, and this time the hammer falls on All Blacks hooker Keven Mealamu.  Mealamu has been suspended for four-weeks for a headbutt on England’s flanker Lewis Moody.

How is this different from Bokkies Botha?  Mealamu appears to have a pretty clean record when it comes to on-field incidents since a very questionable tackle of Brian O’Driscoll in 2005, and as a result his eight-week penalty was cut in half.  When Botha went after Jimmy Cowan at the 2010 Tri-Nations, he already had a much longer record of questionable play.

This suspension means that Mealamu is out for the rest of the All Blacks’ British “Grand Slam” tour, unless he is able to get it overturned.  He’ll also miss his role in the Barbarians’ match against South Africa on Dec. 4.   This currently leaves New Zealand with only two hookers to get through the rest of the tour, unless coach Graham Henry has someone up his sleeve to call up to international play.

The All Blacks will square up with Scotland this Saturday in the second match of the tour.

The University of New Mexico Lobos, the elite college side in the Rio Grande Rugby Union, were in attendance at the High Desert Rugby Classic.  At most tournaments in the western U.S. the Lobos are in the hunt for a collegiate bracket victory.  While still many years away from consistently challenging for a run in the national championship tournament, the club at the University of New Mexico have put together a solid foundation of young athletes, many of which come from New Mexico.

http://www.youtube.com/v/nqAZ6PD6oRI?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999

And our neighbors to the north were well represented at the High Desert Rugby Classic – with the Denver Harlequins and Denver Highlanders, and the Glendale Raptors fielding men’s teams, and the Denver Black Ice women’s team visiting the Duke City.  I wasn’t able to sit down with the team from Glendale, but was able to talk with the head coaches for the Quins and Highlanders.

http://www.youtube.com/v/FPGSGUl56OE?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999

http://www.youtube.com/v/8thR4rHaV_Q?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999

Allow me to start off this post by bastardizing and paraphrasing Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.”

I have come here today, not to bury Cal Rugby, but to praise them.

Now on to the post…

It happened a few weeks back.  That seismic shake you might have felt? It was the quake of thousands of jaws hitting the floor simultaneously as it was reported that the University of California Rugby Team was losing its varsity status and becoming a “varsity club” sport (whatever the hell that means). While “varsity club” sounds like a copout, it does move Cal Rugby closer to nearly all of the other collegiate teams located around the U.S.

I discussed this previously on the alpha-test-episode of the new Rugby SuperShow a few weeks back – asking what the impact would be on not just Cal, but the rest of the U.S. collegiate rugby universe.

After thinking this over, I think that this will hurt the University of California Rugby Club in the near future. But it will benefit many of the other collegiate programs in the United States – possibly even saving the collegiate ranks in the long run and help spread the rugby gospel. There are a lot of places in the “flyover country” (as we who do not live on the coasts are less than flatteringly known) where rugby does/would have a great cult following.  Since many people follow their local college team, or alma mater, once introduced to rugby they might be more interested in following their team, leading to more support (including possibly financial).

While it’s nice to have a handful of dominant teams across the country, having a situation where one team always wins the national championship (and Cal’s 20, 25, 40, 100, a googolplex, collegiate rugby titles is a testament to this) will make for very boring college rugby in the U.S., unless you live in Berkeley.

Is this fair for Cal? That’s a really good question – it appears that the team isn’t being ejected for monetary reasons, or for any negative actions of the players (who have usually conducted themselves much more professionally than some professional athletes).  According to Cal coach Jack Clark, it might have been because of Title 9 – a federal law that was created to increase the number of women’s athletes in college.  While this might be true to a certain extent, women’s collegiate rugby is already making inroads into the NCAA, and is considered an “emerging sport” while the men’s teams are still mostly relegated to club status, which is problematic when Cal tries to argue that they deserve special treatment in the USA Rugby-sphere. 

Something along these lines happened previously at my alma mater (and current workplace) the University of New Mexico.  The team lost some of its funding from the state government after a report in the media about the team receiving state funds, which led to the team’s “GM” (for lack of a better word), who was also a state legislator, to lose reelection. 

Budgetary Differences

On a recent episode of American Rugby News’ “Collegetalk” podcast Jeremy Ognall mentioned that Cal was getting preparing to build a new $320 million football stadium, while having to shear $10 million off of the athletic budget.  One thing that appeared to be unclear, to me at least, was where the money is coming from.  If the University of California is like the university that I work at then this is really like comparing apple and hamburgers…

Where I work there are two separate funds for a situation like this, an instruction and general fund – where much of the money to run the university comes from, and a capital projects fund – where money designated for construction projects comes from. You’re not allowed, by law, to divert money from one fund to the other.

Should Cal Rugby figure out a way to convince the students to divert money from the general fund, or increase student fees to support their team, that one thing.  But to say that “Cal has all of this money to build a stadium but can’t keep their rugby team” isn’t quite fair.

Besides, it sounds like Cal has quite a sound financial base as it is.

Cal’s Sweet Rugby Lucre…

Another argument that’s being forwarded is that Cal shouldn’t have to lose their varsity status because they bring in money to the Cal athletic department. Which is a wonderful thing for the Cal athletic department.

This positive bank account has allowed Cal rugby to stay at the top of the collegiate ranks at the expense of other high flight college teams.  The University of California Rugby Club probably has a bigger budget than many of the teams in the Rio Grande Local Rugby Union (where I live) combined. This includes a really good College Premier university side (the University of New Mexico) and the 2009 Men’s Division II National Championship Runner-Ups (Albuquerque Aardvarks). 

It’s also why Cal rugby can afford to lose its varsity status.

If Cal does indeed pull in enough money to give back to the Athletic Department every year (as I’ve heard, and please correct me if I’ve heard incorrectly), then presumably they’d get to keep it after they move to Club… excuse me, “Varsity Club” status.  They could offer their own scholarships, provide quite well for their student athletes, all on their own, with their own money.

Competing for students

This shouldn’t even be a point of consideration. Cal Head Coach Jack Clark mentioned recently that other schools were able to offer incentives to their own club players – such as … in state tuition.

Really? The University of New Mexico being able to offer in-state tuition to a kid from Socorro is really a threat to Cal Rugby?

The University of California is one of the United States’ elite public universities. Period.  Even on a level playing field, you can still offer potential rugby student athletes an incredible educational opportunity.  Not too mention, there are quite a few high school rugby studs in the state of California, Cal Rugby just might not be able to stockpile them.

Leveling the Playing Field

Apparently I’m in the minority of believing that this event will have the added impact of balancing out the competition levels in college rugby.  While many people feel, and rightly so, that this will have a negative impact on teams trying to elevate themselves in the eyes of their college athletic department and possibly gain the same benefits for their program that Cal has had for many years.  

It’s not a matter of making everything “fair” across the board, but other college teams need to be able to be more competitive over time.  Having one team with 25 national championships in a short amount of time is a monopoly that Microsoft would love to have.

Ladies and gentlemen, that’s not going to happen.  Men’s rugby is never going to be recognized by the NCAA as a full-fledged sport – the U.S. Rugby Powers that Be made sure of that back in the day.  Women’s rugby, there’s a possibility there.  Cal Rugby offered to try and field 65 women for a women’s team as well, mitigating any Title IX impact.  The university might take them up on that offer, still reducing the men’s team to club status, but taking on the 65 women’s athletes to better balance the school’s Title IX obligations.

The vast majority of U.S. rugby fans don’t want to see Cal get relegated to club status, seeing it as a devaluation in the sport at universities around the country.  And it does not look like it now, but this could be the best thing for college rugby in America, allowing other teams to finally be competitive.

And that’s the Bottom Line…

I’m not here to blast Cal Rugby, despite what many Cal supporters are going to say if they’ve read this far.  I’m a big supporter of the program, I’ve had the opportunity to see them play and interview both Clark and former U.S. Eagles Head Coach Tom Billups when they were here in Albuquerque many years back.  They are both class acts and eminently professional, and the program is the measuring stick of every program in the country – club and collegiate.  Plus many international clubs can learn a lot from the Golden Bears.

While it does suck to see Cal lose its varsity status, I don’t think the program will be as irreparably damaged as Cal supporters think it will be.  They still have a massive advantage and for the next 3-5 years after the changeover (in the 2011 academic year) they will remain the best collegiate rugby team in the U.S.  It’ll take other dedicated teams that long to try and develop the foundation to catch up with them.

Ray Marrone and Patrick Whelan from the Albuquerque Aardavrks, Santa Fe Rugby team, and just about every rugby team in New Mexico, discussed the importance of the High Desert Rugby Classic and the history of the Albuquerque Aardvarks Rugby Club, who were second in Division II rugby in the U.S. as recently as the 2009 season.

http://www.youtube.com/v/ke8VVpui1yA?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999

What’s more important to a rugby player?  Playing for the professional club that pays him so well, or representing the country he loves (supposedly, as long as he’s not country hopping to find a place to play).

This question has dogged the Rugby Universe since the game went professional in the mid-90’s, and it doesn’t appear to be letting up anytime soon – thanks to Premier Rugby and what appears at first glance to be an effort to weaken non-English International teams with players lucky enough to play in the Premiership.

Earlier this month, Wales rugby coach Warren Gatland took Premier Rugby to task for not releasing players for the 2011 Rugby World Cup before the mandatory 35 days prior to the tournament’s start.  While British players based in England can be released at any time, and the same for Welsh players in playing professionally in Wales.

This is ridiculous.   

While on the surface it looks like it might be fair as long as teams stay in their home country, this rule neglects the fact that many of the professional rugby teams are stationed in England, and they tap into much of the international talent out there.  To deny national teams some of their top talent does nothing more than artificially weaken teams that England might be playing.

This also means that those foreign-based players based in England might end up missing out on playing in the World Cup, if they are not released in time to get in enough valuable practice time with their team.

Country vs. Club has been a debate in rugby for a while.  If there was a dedicated “professional rugby season” that would work in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere (possibly a Spring in the Northern Hemisphere/Fall in Southern Hemisphere)  and vice versa for the “International Season.”  This way both professional and international obligations can be met, and the summers and winters are set aside for  players to recover.

Now it’s up to the International Rugby Board to step up and realize that there’s more to rugby than just the England National Team…

The Provo Steelers Rugby Club, one of the top upper-tier teams in the United States, were also in attendance at the High Desert Rugby Classic.  I was able to get a few minutes of time from coach Nova Valeti to talk about the team and if they were enjoying their time in Albuquerque.

http://www.youtube.com/v/I12Suq0aQjc?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999