Category: Uncategorized

Last weekend I had the pleasure of watching the Scottish National Rugby team cross swords – or in this case, cleats – with the now #3 ranked South African Springboks. I was incredibly proud of my ancestors’ heritage when I saw that the Magic Thistles (that’s what you get when your national team doesn’t have a nickname, I just start making them up) were going to redeem themselves after a horrendous loss to New Zealand by holding off a late Springbok surge to upset South Africa 21-17 and deny the visitors their first Grand Slam (sweep of the Isles teams) in 50 years.

After this win, the Scots jumped up two spots to replace Ireland as the sixth-ranked team in the world, while Australia and South Africa once again traded the second and third world rankings once again.

Far from engaging in free-flowing, explosive rugby – which to give the hosts credit, they tried to do from time to time – Scotland scored their points the European way. Penalty kick, after kick, after kick, blah blah blah. Scottish fly-half Dan Parks scored all 21 points off of six penalty kicks and a surprise drop goal, while Springbok kicking machine Morne Steyn continued to add to his total points scored in international play with four penalty kicks.  South African replacement flanker Willem Alberts scored a late try to try and revitalize the visitors, but it turned out to be too little, too late.

This week we’ve seen the aftermath of this game, with a shaken (but not stirred – wokka wokka wokka!) South African team trying to rebound with a win against an English team that has already upset Australia and full of players looking to show that perhaps the top three ranked teams in the IRB should not all be based in the Southern Hemisphere.

Meanwhile the Scots receive what should be a little bit of a reprieve when they face off against the Samoans, fresh off a 26-13 loss to England in Twickenham. Scotland need to be careful that they don’t lose their focus against a dangerous Samoan team that’s looking to rack up its first win on the European continent since beating Italy 13-9 in 2001, and its first win ever against Scotland.

Romania and Uruguay will butt heads on Saturday in Bucharest with nothing less than the final opening at the 2011 Rugby World Cup at stake. The winner of this match will determine who will play the role of “sacrificial lamb” to Argentina, England, Scotland and even Georgia in Pool B of next year’s World Cup.

This match is the second of a series of two matches between these two teams for this last open slot in the world cup, earlier this month they met in Montevideo, Uruguay and fought to a 21-21 tie.  In the two previous times these teams have met (2008, 2009 – both in Bucharest) Romania walked away the winner, giving them what has to be more than a home-field advantage going into this game.

So far this year the highlight for the Uruguayans was a run through the South American Championships’ semi-final match, where they lost to the world’s #8 ranked team Argentina 38-0. They’ve also competed in the 2010 Churchill Cup in the United States, losing their three matches to Canada, France “A” squad, and then losing to Russia 38-19 in the Bowl Final match.

On the other side of the scrum, Romania has a record of six wins, zero losses and one tie in their 2011 Rugby World Cup qualifying matches.  They’ve also finished third in this year’s European Nations Cup, behind Georgia and Russia.

Should this game be tied at the end of regulation, the two teams will continue with a period of extra time, then a first-score-takes-all, “two men enter, one man leaves,” Thunderdome-esque sudden death overtime. If no one takes the lead after this, then there will be some kind of a kicking competition, followed by an ice dancing contest, a beer keg chugging contest, a “prettiest mascot” competition, and possibly a match of Tiddly-Winks to determine a winner. But by Buddha someone is going to walk off of that field a winner.

(And someone should tell Bud Selig to take notes, when you have a one-off important game… such as an “All-Star” game, one team needs to walk away the winner, especially if there are important ramifications for the winning side)

Recovering from their less than stellar performance in the Women’s Rugby World Cup earlier this summer, the Kazakhstan women’s rugby team won the first ever Asian Games Women’s Rugby Seven championship after beating the tournament’s heavily-favored team, and host country , China 17-14 at University Town Main Stadium, Guangzhou, China on Tuesday.

Kazakhstan’s team was made up of 11 of 12 players from the nation’s Women’s Rugby World Cup team earlier this year, while China benefitted from home-field advantage, sweeping through to the championship match without being scored on.  That streak ended four minutes in the first half as Irina Amossova scored the first try of the match.

China recovered and went into the half 7-5 leaders off of a Wang Qianli try and Fan Wenjuan conversion.  Instead of folding, the Kazakh’s traded the lead with the Chinese in the first part of the second half, until Anna Yakoleva scored the game winning try halfway through the second half.  The Chinese had a last-second scoring drive denied when they lost the ball after crossing the goal line.

(Note: for non-rugby readers, you have to not only cross the goal line with the ball, but also physically place the ball on the ground under control for a score to count. Hence the name used in American Football “Touchdown.”)

Curses, I was too slow on the email today to find out about the cool-as-hell live web feed from We Are Rugby covering the Atlantic Cup on Saturday – featuring the U.S., Canada and Jamaica.  However, if you want to check out the site and the other web casts they are showing (currently I’m watching the New South Wales Rugby League on their site) , visit them at

http://www.wearerugby.com/atlantic-cup-live-feed

And read some of their stories while y’all are over there.  After all, we’re all in this together!

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