Scion in Atlanta: Day 1

The biggest news of the day, at the Atlanta 7's Tournament, was the USA's 12-5 defeat of New Zealand. Their victory against the Black Ferns landed them on top of their pool with an undefeated record, and gave the hometown crowd a great reason to fill the Kennesaw Stadium with a deluge of jubilant noise. It was an exciting game that gave USA Rugby fans something with which to ignite their American pride.

On the Festival side of the Atlanta 7's event, there was some great rugby as well from all divisions. The Scion Elite side opened the day with a shut-out victory against ARPTC. Led by powerful runs from players like Stacey Bridges and some great defensive play, including key turnovers from Abby Gustaitis, the Elite side maintained control of the ball for most of the game and continuously put points on the board.

In their second match of the day, the Elites once again shut-out their opponents. This time they gave Mad In Sevens a good thrashing. Elizabeth Trujilio was a menace around the breakdown, causing turnover after turnover, and on the offensive end, Sam Pankey put up a hat trick to give Scion a very large and sharp edge in this match.

The Scion High School Side played some stellar rugby as well. Like the Elite side, they went 2-0 on the day, beating the Norfolk Harvesters and Glendale. For the High School Side, going undefeated is a special thing, since this is the first time that some of these young ladies have ever played together.

However, with a team that was fully willing to work together and work with a wide range of talent-- bruisers like birthday girl, Hannah Moran, speedsters like Daz Williams, and work horses like Mikayla Lowe--the Scion High School Side was not only able to take the 'W' in both of their games, they showcased some great skill.

Both the Scion Elite Side and the Scion High School Side will compete in their divisions' semi-final rounds tomorrow morning, and both hope to bring home the cup from the Atlanta 7's Festival.

Scion In Sin City, Day 3

Unfortunately, Day 3 of rugby in Sin City wrapped up early for the Scion Elite side. They faced a tough South African side early in the morning, and though the Elites fought a good fight, they weren't able to put up enough points to grab the win against the Springboks.

South Africa jumped out to an early lead in the first half with a couple of tries. They were led by some physical play in the breakdown, and the breakdown was where Scion received a few penalties.

In the second half, Scion was able to control play a bit better, and with about two minutes left on the clock, they got on the board. However, South Africa wouldn't give up their lead, and put another try on the board following a good series of offensive phases, and the match ended with South Africa on top 17-7.

Though this wasn't the result Scion wanted, they, once again, played strong against an international side. Out of their five matches in Vegas, four of them were against international teams. Each of those four matches were were close, with 15 points being the biggest point difference (in the Great Britain match), and one ending in a Scion win (the Japan match).

All in all, the Scion Elite side left their mark on the Vegas 7s Tournament. They showed that they could play with the best in the world, and they will use their experience in Vegas to continue to build a successful 7s team and Development Academy.

Scion In Sin City, Day 2

So ends day 2 of the Las Vegas 7s Tournament. The Open Division wrapped up play today, and the Elite Division advanced through the quarterfinals. Both Scion sides, once again, played some great rugby.

The Scion Elite side started the day with a win over the Florida Selects. Florida came into the match without a win, and they were hungry for one. They played a physically intense game, but the Scion Elites matched that intensity and physicality. They maintained their composure, ran their system, and chalked up a 33-5 win behind some powerful play from forwards like Alycia Washington, Stacey Bridges and Sam Pankey.

In their quarterfinal match, the Scion Elite side faced a group of internationally capped players from Great Britain--players from England, Scotland and Wales. Once again, the Elites proved they could hang with some of the best in the world. However, they left a couple of scores on the field and couldn't manage to overcome a couple of early tries from GB. The Elites fell 15-0 to the GB Selects.

In the Open Division, the Scion Select Side won their quarterfinal match against Dark And Stormy, a Bermuda side, 29-5. Scion veteran players, like Leigh Theirfelder and Kylie Noll, are no stranger to Scion successes and would lead the Selects into the semi-finals against a British Columbia All-Star side.

A rough first half saw the Scion Selects down by a few tries, however they would rally in the second half to close the gap. Their second hand efforts would come up short in the end, and they fell in the semi-final match by a score.

Though the Scion Selects were hoping to come out on top of the Open Division, finishing in the top 4 isn't so bad. The BC team they faced went on to win the Open Division. Though that doesn't lessen the blow, it is a consolation knowing the only game the Selects lost was to the eventual champions.

Tomorrow will be the final day of play for Scion. The Elite side faces South Africa at 9:20am, and if they win, they will face the winner of Atavus v. Stars 1. The morning match will be the 4th international match for the Scion Elite side, and they hope to repeat their performance against Japan in pool play.

Scion In Sin City, Day 1

Day one of the Las Vegas 7s Tournament is in the books, and both the Scion Select and Elite sides had impressive showings, and both are in a position to compete for a place atop their respective podiums. 

The Scion Select side won all three of their matches. In fact, they handled their competition, not allowing any team to come close to victory against them. With speedsters, like Kylie Noll and Karmin Macedo racing around the outside of defenses and power runners like Jaime Albarelli and Jacie Vonada running through defenders the Scion Select side had no trouble scoring tries. And their defense was just as solid with some big hits coming from the likes of Megan Gilmore and Jasmine Harrison.

In the Elite division, the Scion Elite side opened the day of 7s with the first match of the morning against a strong French side. Though France bested the Elites, 12-0, Scion controlled the flow of the game, and had it not been for a few mistakes that turned into French breaks, the outcome may have been quite different.

Against a quick and scrappy Japan side, the Scion Elites played more composed and jumped out to an early lead in the first half behind some brilliant kicks from Kimber Rozier and streaking runs from Danielle Miano. The second half opened with another score from Emily Fullbrook, putting the Elites well ahead of the Japanese. However, Japan would rally and tick off a few tries in a row to close the gap to two, 26-24. In the end, Scion would hold on to that two-point lead and set themselves up for a chance to advance to the quarterfinals tomorrow.

The Scion Elites will kick off the day for Scion rugby tomorrow morning at 8:20am when they take on the Florida Select side, in their last game of pool play. A win against Florida will, most likely, put them into the quarterfinals.

The Scion Selects have already wrapped up their pool play and will meet Dark And Stormy in the Open Side Quarterfinals tomorrow morning at 9:00am. Both sides are expecting another day of great rugby and some exciting wins.

One final note, check out the view of Las Vegas from the balcony of the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Pretty sweet backdrop for dinner after a tough day of rugby, huh?

So Much Rugby...

Since my last post, back in June of last year, there has been a ton of rugby that's happened in the USA and in my rugby life. The Women's 15s team competed in the Super Series, Iowa hosted what was probably the most competitive 7s National Tournament ever, Glendale took the WPL title, players have been traveling to numerous international 7s tournaments and NASCs invaded the Sunshine State (not to mention the 7s World Series kicking off, the Men's World Cup and all of the other international rugby the USA has been involved in). I wanted to revamp my blog, and hopefully be more consistent about posting, so I thought I'd update it with a quick recap of all of the rugby happenings, well, all of the rugby happenings that I've been close to or involved in.

Super Series
Following the June NASCs, at JMU (my last blog post), the Women's 15s National Team traveled to Canada to compete in the Super Series. The Super Series featured the 1st and 2nd place finishers in the 2014 Women's World Cup, England and Canada, and the team that's still arguably the best in the world, New Zealand, and of course, the physical, scrappy USA side.

The USA WNT brought a young, inexperienced squad to the Super Series, in hopes of giving younger players experience and building a strong and wide base for the 2017 World Cup. There were a total of 17 new caps on tour, with only 5 players returning from the 2014 Word Cup. An additional 5 players (including yours truly) had been capped before this tour.

In the first match, against England, 13 of those new caps made an appearance. The Eagles struggled early with England's pace, and their offense, still undergoing tweaks and changes, wasn't as efficient as they would've liked. They were still able to put 13 points on the board. However, just like their offense, the USA defense was a little disjointed and allowed 39 England points for a final of 39-13.

The Eagles faced Canada in their second match, and for a while, it looked like Canada would run away with the game. However, the USA rallied, and with some "cheeky" chip kicks from Jess Wooden, hard running lines by Jordan Gray and smashing hits from Hope Rogers, they pulled off a 36-28 victory over Canada, on Canada Day, mind you. That's right, the USA beat Canada on Canada Day.

Going into their final match against New Zealand, the USA was confident in their offensive scheme and excited to test their mettle against a strong Kiwi side. Fueled by their desire to prove themselves and their growing connections with one another, they put together a well-executed and strong first half, trailing the Black Ferns 15-14.

The second half was a different story, in fact, maybe it was a different genre of story altogether. New Zealand ticked off try after try and wound up adding 32 points to their tally, while holding the Eagles to a goose egg, making the final score 47-14.

Despite the second half, the USA Women showed that they could, in the words of Head Coach, Pete Steinberg, "play with the best...but we just couldn't do it for 80 minutes."

The Eagles finished 1-2 in the Super Series, but they consistently improved their play and honed their attacking and defensive patterns. With such a young and inexperienced team, it will be exciting to see how this foundation grows and develops over the next year and a half leading up to the 2017 World Cup. And let's not forget, we beat Canada on Canada Day.

2015 7s Nationals
This summer was a hot one, and not just the weather (excuse my corniness). The Women's 7s season saw the rise of new programs, the unseating of old champions and some of the most competitive games ever.

I threw my hat in with Scion Rugby for the summer season, and I am so very glad I did. We brought on some young talent, some old talent (I'm included in that group), some foreign talent and a lot of personalities to assemble a squad that could potentially be the best in the country.

At the start of the season, I couldn't participate, because of my involvement with the 15s WNT. I watched, cheering from the sidelines, as we took second to NOVA in our first tournament. This was a great start, but we faltered in our second tournament appearance, and finished 4th.

However, Scion would right itself, pulling most of the roster, which was spread out across the country, together in the DC area. By the end of the regular season, we had beaten NOVA by a pretty hefty margin to take a tournament title, before heading into regional play.

For the past 11 years, NOVA has been the team to beat in our region. They have won the MARFU playoffs each of those 11 years, and only the Furies have been close to taking them down. This year, it was Scion's turn. In the MARFU playoffs, we didn't lose a game--didn't come close--and in the Championship match against NOVA, we continued that winning streak with a decisive victory. For the first time in 11 years, the Mid-Atlantic region saw a new Women's Rugby 7s Champion--the Scion Sirens.

Scion tried to ride the wave of their MARFU successes into Nationals in Iowa. However, Iowa is in the literal middle of nowhere and has no beaches, so the wave petered out a bit. We had the eventual tournament champions, ARPTC, and tournament runners-up, Seattle, in our freaking pool play, and we drew ARPTC in the first match. Though we played them closer than any team that summer, we dropped the match 7-5.

That first match seemed to deflate our sails. Not only had the wave petered out, but we were in the rugby doldrums. The National tournament didn't go so well for us and we ended up going 3-3 and finishing god-knows where. Though it was a tough National Tournament, Scion built a foundation in 2015 for some exciting developments in 2016 (coming up later in the article).

2015 WPL Season
This fall's WPL season was the toughest season of rugby I have ever been involved in. Back in 2013, I was a part of the James River Women's Rugby Team when River first tried their hand at D1 rugby. We didn't win a game. That season was more enjoyable than this WPL season.

The DC Furies finished 7th in 2014, so there was plenty of room for improvement. However, going through some coaching changes, losing some key players and dealing with balancing a WPL side and a D2 side, caused the infrastructure to crack a bit, and the Furies struggled.

We lost our first 4 games of the season. The loss to Atlanta, in Atlanta, was a tough match, and we fought for that loss. We didn't play that well, but we didn't play badly, as we had early in the season. When they came to DC for our 5th match of the season, we controlled the match. However, we got ambitious. We tried to earn points for the standings, instead of trying to win the game, and we passed up a couple of penalty kicks in order to score tries. We wound up not scoring anything as a result, but neither did Atlanta, and the match ended in a 0-0 tie. Seriously, I'm not making that up. Two Premier League teams managed to play 80 minutes of rugby without scoring a single point between them.

In our final match of the season, against New York, were desperate to put one in the win column. We brought it to New York, with as much physicality as we could muster. Behind the foot of Kimber Rozier, we were able to put points on the board and gain field position. However, in the last couple of minutes of the game, we were tied, 10-10.

That's when yours truly decided to take some risks and jump the passing lane to pick off a pass from a lineout. Our back line subsequently ran a series of phases and put us within New York's 22, and a one, two punch from Ellen Triemel and myself sent me scampering, legs cramping, over the try line as time expired. We were able to end our tough season with a 17-10 victory.

The Furies ended the regular season on a high note, however we couldn't produce at Nationals and wound up dropping both of our games--the first to ORSU and the second to Atlanta. Though our matches didn't bring much excitement, the National tournament was full of excitement. The All Blues beat the Amazons in a nail biter, with Ruth Bryson making a game saving tackle as time has expired, and the Championship match was excellent, with Glendale eventually taking home the title.

Scion in New York and Tobago
Following the WPL season, I once again joined Scion Rugby to play some 7s in a couple of tournaments. In November, we trekked up to New York to compete in the New York 7s Tournament. Usually, I try to avoid any uncomfortably cold weather, but playing rugby in the cold is often worth the discomfort, and besides it was unseasonably warm this past November.

Scion took a lot of talented players, who had never played together, to New York. Despite lacking a practiced rapport, we we able to bond quickly and went undefeated in pool play. We won a tough semi-final match against the Northeast. However, we couldn't finish against an experienced Canadian squad, and we came back to DC with silver medals.

In Tobago, Scion added even more new faces to the squad. After a strong showing in the first couple of matches, we dropped a close one to Atlantis, who finished 2nd in last year's Tobago Tournament.

On the second day, we won our last pool match, and then came up against a strong all-star Canadian side in Aptoella. A few early mistakes put us behind the eight ball, and we couldn't quite rally sufficiently to pull out the win. However, a 2-point loss to the eventual champions wasn't so bad. We ended up beating the Northeast to claim 3rd in the tournament.

NASCs in Florida
Ahhh, good old Tigertown--the USA WNT has seen a lot of the Detroit Tigers training facility. This year Tigertown hosted about 250 women rugby players, from the high school lever up to the senior level.

I played on the Bruins senior side. In our first match, we smoked our opponents. Though a 55-5 point win was a lot of fun, our opponents weren't short on talent, and they went on to win their second match. On the other hand, we lost our second match.

However, the win/loss column wasn't what this assembly was about. This assembly was about selecting players for the 2016 WNT pool and developing the game in the USA. I believed we did both, and managed to play some of the most competitive 15s matches on US soil.

Upcoming
My next rugby adventure will land me in Vegas for the Vegas 7s tournament. Scion, which I didn't mention, has formed a National Development Academy, and we will field two teams at this tournament.

I also failed to mention that I was invited to the OTC to train for a week in a selection camp for the Sao Paulo stop on the HSBC 7s World Series Tour. Though I didn't make the squad, I relished in the opportunity to train with the USA 7s WNT for a change. I'm growing to like 7s more and more, and Vegas will be yet another opportunity to play against some excellent competition. Look for more posts in the next week, on our adventures in Sin City.

USA Rugby In Virginia

Last week, James Madison University hosted the largest assembly of rugby players in the history of USA rugby. The National All-Star Competition, held in Harrisonburg VA, pooled the best Women's Rugby players in the country from the High School age range to the oldsters at the Senior Women's level.

The players were selected based on their past performance at the National level and/or their performance at various regional camps, and then drafted by WNT coaches onto eight teams. Four Senior Women's teams competed, along with two college sides and two high school sides.

The competition was fierce across the board. All four of the Senior Women's matches were decided by two tries or less, with one nail-biter that ended 8-7.

This National All-Star Competition was the springboard for the Senior Women's Super Series Tour at the end of the month, in Canada, as well as the selections filter for that tour. The squad that will represent the USA against Canada, England and New Zealand is full of young, blossoming talent. Only five players, who competed in the 2014 World Cup are on the roster, and an additional five capped players make up the "experience" on the team (see below for the full squad).

The Super Series kicks off on Saturday, June 27 with the Eagles playing England in Calgary, Canada.

Women's Eagles Super Series Squad:
Kathryn Augustyn
Catherine Benson
Stacey Bridges
Elizabeth Cairns
Sarah Chobot
Bianca Dalal
Cheta Emba
Tiffany Faaee
Jordan Gray
Nicole Heavirland
Molly Kinsella
Joanna Kitlinski
Jennifer Lui
Samantha Luther
Laura Miller
Deven Owsiany
Jane Paar
Samantha Pankey
Sara Parsons
Lauren Rhode
Hope Rogers
Kimberly Rozier
Jennifer Sever
Kelsi Stockert
Alycia Washington
Jessica Wooden

Let's Try This Again

Once again, I have been MIA in the blog world. When I started this blog, my purpose was to record my rugby experiences, especially those with the National team and other elite level teams. I felt like it would be a lot of fun to do so, and it would be something that could keep my family and friends "in the loop" of my life while on tour or competing (not that I think I'm so important that everyone wants to follow my life).

And then life happened. I got busier and busier with various things and sort-of forgot about all the fun I have posting blogs, especially those that are a little ridiculous. So this is my apology--my apology, mostly to myself, for forgetting all the fun I have posting these blogs. With that said, check out my latest blog in the Fun section of the blog.