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The Associated Press reported recently that the “B” samples of two South African Springboks players who had previously tested positive for methylhexaneamine banned performance enhancing substances came back from the labs with another positive result.

The two players, wing Bjorn Basson and hooker Chiliboy Ralepelle, will have to face an investigation and eventual tribunal in South Africa. The pair tested positive after South Africa’s 23-21 win over Ireland last month.

According to the story:

“Basson and Ralepelle failed random doping tests for methylhexaneamine after South Africa’s victory over Ireland on Nov. 6 and were sent home from the tour. They blame a sports drink used by the squad.”

Right, it’s a sports drink’s fault. The next think you know they’ll tell you the Devil made them do it. Look guys, it’s OK if you’re going to try and cheat. Really it is, after all if you’re not cheating then you’re not trying. But your end of the bargain is, when you get caught, to fess up to it.

“Come back home to the motherland, or lose your chance to play for it.”

That was the gauntlet thrown down by the English Rugby Football Union to all of their players under professional contracts with non-England based teams around the world. Come home or lose your space on the national team.

Seems pretty cut and dried if you ask me, if they mean it.

One star seems determined to find out.

England’s former stud fly-half Jonny Wilkinson appears ready to call England’s bluff. He’s prepared to sign a renewed contact with French Top 14 pro team, Toulon – where he signed a year and a half ago.

Players who are lucky enough to play professionally in France are likely to make more money, with Top 14 teams rumored to have a salary cap approaching double what English professional teams have, 8 vs. 4 million pounds.  But Wilkinson says it’s not about the money, it’s about living in the south of France (and can you really blame him?)

Wilkinson told the UK Telegraph, ““I am happy where I am, it fits the bill for me. I am enjoying the experience and I’m learning a hell of a lot. I can understand where they [the RFU] are coming from and what they’re saying. I’m just one player in this sort of situation.”

While not the starting fly-half for England anymore, Wilkinson had seen playing time coming off of the bench, and was recently surpassed by New Zealand’s Dan Carter for all-time points scorer.

Personal View: I understand why the English RFU wants to pull back all of their top players to England before the 2011 World Cup.  In closer proximity they have more time to train together and become a stronger team. This is the same argument that I made when Georgia beat the U.S. recently.  However, these players still have to take advantage of the opportunity provided by them from higher paying overseas teams.  One way around this might be for the RFU to put its own money where its policies are, and compensate the players it forces back from overseas.

 

According to ESPN Scrum, Steph Brennan, the former physiotherapist with London’s Harlequins rugby team who was an integral part of the team’s “Bloodgate” scandal, is appealing his ban from rugby, which turned into being disbarred in September.  He’ll be appearing before the High Court in London on Tuesday to appeal his disbarment from rugby. If his appeal succeeds he might be able to find a team to finally take him in; if he fails, this will probably be the end of his career. 

This is quite the downfall from someone who was on the cusp of working with the English National Team until the incident in question.

For those who are unfamiliar with the event – Harlequins’ Welsh wing Tom Williams used fake blood capsules to exit the field during a 2009 match with Leinster so Harlequins could bring kicking specialist Nick Evans (who was already disallowed from returning to the match) back onto the field.

Previous Bloodgate stories can be seen here and here.

Brennan was responsible for providing the fake blood capsules and helped facilitate the fake cut to Williams’ lip by former team doctor Wendy Chapman.  According to the investigation into “Bloodgate” Brennan had admitted to faking blood injuries with Harlequins five times.

While everyone should have the opportunity to work at the job they love, they have to realize the responsibility that comes with that opportunity. Brennan lost this opportunity because of his stupidity and willingness to set his ethics to his profession aside, and he needs to ride the pine for a few more years before he’s given another opportunity.  Hopefully the High Court will see the wisdom in this and not cave. 

The South African Springboks fell short in their revenge match against the fabled Barbarian Football Club this weekend in Twickenham Stadium, London.  The South Africans fell to the invitational team, 26-20 in a game that resembled more of a blow-out until the last ten minutes on the field.

As expected, and not a surprise to any reader of the SuperSite and anyone other than the overrated pseudo-player himself, “Rugby Super Duper Overrated Part-time Player” Gavin Henson did not take the field for the Barbarians. However, the Barbarians were fielding a team that might be better described as a Southern Hemisphere All-Star team, consisting of six New Zealanders and six Australians, including All Black winger Joe Rokocoko and Australian wing Drew Mitchell and Australia’s other wing James O’Conner filling in at fullback.

The Barbarians poured on the offense in the first quarter of the match, jumping to a 19-3 lead in the 22^nd minute thanks to two tries by weakside wing Drew Mitchell in the fifth and 20^th minutes, and a try and two conversion kicks by fullback James O’Conner. Mitchell’s second try in the 20^th minute capped a five-minute scoring flurry for the Barbarians.  The Baa-Baas (as the Barbarians are known throughout the Rugby Universe) added another try by Italian replacement lock Quintin Geldenhuys midway through the second half to cement the victory.

The match really wasn’t as close as the score indicates.  The Barbarians were still up 19-3 going into the half, and while the Springboks were able to tighten the score to 19-10 just after halftime, it took a final ten-minute attacking push from the South Africans to finally pull the score to a respectable six-point loss at the end of the game, thanks to a unconverted Botha try in the 69^th minute, and a try by replacement hooker Bandise Maku, that also went unconverted just before time expired.

Personal Note: The Springboks didn’t appear to take this match as seriously as the rest of their matches in their Anglo-Celtic tour, much to my disappointment. I have to question the wisdom, as I so often do for this particular coach, of Springboks coach Peter DeVillers for essentially replacing his entire 21-11 winning starting lineup from the previous week’s match against England.  Only three players from that squad took the field against the Barbarians, including Bakkies Botha, who one could only hope wouldn’t headbutt, or mount, or try to bite the ear off of anyone on the Barbarians side.

Years ago the Barbarians would have been planned for as much as any other international match. The Barbarians were created as kind of an All-Star Invitational team where the players were given the honor to play for the team.  It was created and grown in the true spirit of rugby, where people could get together to just play for the love of the game.  And in recent years, it strikes me that this lack of planning for them is a slap in the face to the organization.

According to American Rugby News’ most recent update, the site is going dark for the remainder of the month and plans to open up again, revamped and renewed for the sprint to the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.

American Rugby News’ editor Brian Lowe has also moved on from the Web site it appears, as he was listed in that story as the former ARN editor. In recent weeks he’s moved on from ARN to the new We Are Rugby Web site.

I’m looking forward to seeing what new changes come to ARN, as well as Brian’s new writing gig at We Are Rugby. And I hope to finally have a few new surprises going on around here just after the new year (would have had them up sooner, but life derailed me for a little bit)

– Benson

Just a little diversion for Rugby fans this evening, or whenever you end up reading this, A video showing some of the differences between Rugby and Soccer – you’ll notice all the flopping and ankle grabbing and cheap shots thrown in soccer against the hard hits and intense play of the rugby, I’m sure. 🙂

Feel free to use this as an open thread for the evening.

 

http://www.youtube.com/v/BQU34NzAqpg?fs=1&hl=en_US

The United States Eagles sevens rugby team ended the first round of the 2010-2011 IRB World Sevens Series rugby tournament with their heads held high in Dubai this weekend.  After going 2-1 in pool play the first day in the desert kingdom, the Eagles went into day two expecting a little more than they showed against some stiff competition – ending the day 0-2.  When the team left Dubai, they walked away with six points for the eight-tournament World Sevens Series, which moves on to South Africa next weekend.

The Eagles started the first day of tournament play in Pool B, facing off against Zimbabwe, Argentina and World Sevens Series champion favorites New Zealand.  By the end of the day the U.S. team finished Pool Play qualified for the Cup Championship (one of the trophies for teams in Pool Play that did not finish in first place) with a respectable 2-1 – beating Zimbabwe 28-12, and Argentina 24-19, and losing to New Zealand 31-7.

On Saturday the Eagles started the Cup Quarterfinals against a motivated Samoan sevens squad (also last year’s World Sevens Series champions) – this is where the wheels unfortunately started to come off of the bus, so to speak.  Team USA was unable to contain the former champion’s style of power rugby and the Samoans ran over the Eagles to the tune of 38-5, bumping the Eagles down into the tournament’s Plate competition.  Team USA will see Samoa again in South Africa’s Pool B next weekend.

After the loss to Samoa, Caravelli informed the team that he had seen less than he expected based on the previous day’s matches.

“We really didn’t play well in the first of two games and I told them a performance such as that against Samoa was not acceptable; they needed to be more physical. Although Samoa had raised their game, we had brought ours down,” Caravelli said.

In the Plate tournament’s semi-final match, the U.S. squared off with South Africa, fresh off of a 21-19 loss to Fiji, always one of the most exciting teams in any sevens tournament.  The South Africans hammered the final nail in the Eagles tournament coffin, beating the U.S. 24-10.

Former Miami Dolphins defensive back Miles Craigwell, making his first tournament start for the Eagles Sevens team, scored a great try in Dubai. According to U.S. coach Al Caravelli, “(Craigwell) made three great tackles against South Africa and showed that some of the football skills can be of great use in rugby.”

Craigwell joins Kyle Marshall, Zach Test and Nu’ese Punimata as former American Football players who have recently converted to rugby (although while at the University of Oregon, Test played wide receiver for the Ducks, and played rugby for the University of Oregon team).

Earlier this week, the International Rugby Board and the USA Sevens announced a new broadcast deal with NBC Sports here in the U.S.  NBC will broadcast eight hours of live coverage from the U.S. Sevens tournament in Las Vegas on Feb. 12 and 13.

NBC has previous experience in covering sevens rugby, having successfully covered the U.S. Collegiate Sevens championship earlier this year.  I hope that NBC selects the correct announce team (*ahem… ahem… right over here!*) who can explain rugby to the non-rugby fan as well as keep things exciting for the seasoned Olympic Rugby fan. 

It’s nice to see that the inclusion of Rugby in the 2016 Olympics, and that Administrators in the U.S. are taking advantage of this to help the sport grow in the U.S.

NBC Sports executive vice president Jon Miller said “Rugby Sevens is an exciting, fast-paced sport that is growing in global popularity, participation, and interest. NBC had the privilege of broadcasting the inaugural 2010 Rugby Sevens Collegiate Championship and is excited to expand its coverage of rugby by bringing the HSBC Sevens World Series to live network television for the first time.

A quick Tip O’ the Hat to my friend Kevin Hare for hooking me up with this info! 

The U.S. lost a19-17 heartbreaker to Georgia on Saturday in Tbilisi as the Eagles were unable to hold the Georgians out of the end zone through nine minutes of extra time in a hard fought and physical game.

 The U.S. forward pack, led by captain Todd Clever, would keep the host Georgians guessing at each scrum and lineout throughout much of the game, but the wear and tear of extra time finally got to the Eagles.

With extra time finally winding down and the U.S. clinging to a 17-12 lead, a knock on (fumbling) penalty against Georgia gave the U.S. the ball back deep in Eagle territory in overtime, the Eagles and Georgians packed down for what would be the last set piece of the game.

As quickly as the U.S. put the ball in the scrum, the Georgians stole it away and put the U.S. on their back foot before punching a score through to tie the game.  The after score conversion is all that was needed to steal the lead back as time expired.

U.S. head coach Eddie O’Sullivan said ““We had a great team performance and everyone gave 110% and definitely put their bodies on the line.  I’m very proud of how we played.” Sullivan followed up by stating that even though this match was a loss for the U.S., it was considered the best game of the Eagles’ November European Tour.

With this win, Georgia and the United States are guaranteed to switch positions in the next IRB rankings, expected next week.

Tomorrow’s test match for the United States Eagles against Georgia in Tbilisi will be a decent measuring stick for the Americans’ development during the current European Tour.  Coming off of a 25-0 loss against Scotland “A,” the Eagles will have their hands full against a Georgian team looking for a second-straight upset against North American teams. While the Georgians have developed a reputation for harsh play on the field, approaching, if not, thuggishness at times – they will be playing at home, where they have been impressive this year.

With their 22-15 upset victory over Canada, the resurgent Georgians have leapfrogged Tonga in the IRB rankings and at #17 are now one spot behind the United States.  While these two teams did not face off against each other in the 2010 Churchill Cup, the United States did beat the Georgians 31-13 in Denver the previous year.

A victory against the United States will move the Georgians one more rung up the international rankings, replacing the U.S.

Georgia has been an erratic team in recent games, while winning against Canada and Russia (a grudge match to be sure, given International geo-political nastiness between the two in recent years) in recent matches, they’ve lost to Namibia and Romania this year as well. An interesting fact for this match, Georgia is 13 of 15 when starting center Irakli Chkhikvadze has been in the starting lineup; and when starting fly-half Lasha Malaguradze has played, Georgia has won 17 of 21 matches.

At first glance, international experience also appears to be a weakness for the Eagles – Georgia forward pack have more international appearances than the entire United States’ starting 15.  With Georgia’s new coach, Richie Dixon, coaching only his second game for the team, it will be interesting to watch their composure as they are pressured.  And while the United States has less international test experience, at least eight of the starting 15 currently play professionally overseas.

For the United States this ends the team’s “European Tour” for 2010.  Unlike many of the other teams travelling throughout the continent, the United States does not have a regularly scheduled yearly tour of the rugby playing nations.  In order for the United States to get stronger, they need to be more diligent in planning more than a handful of international test matches a year.  (While Georgia has racked up many international test-level face-offs in calendar year 2010, the United States only has two)

The United States also needs to work on better ways to keep their team together longer to train together.  But these are points for an upcoming piece on rugby in the United States dissecting what the IRC (Internet Rugby Community) usually bitch about.