Falcons Fly to Japan for Okinawa Invitational

Corny titles aside, the USA Falcons, the USA Eagles' developmental side, will face off against some tough international opponents in the upcoming Okinawa Invitational tournament at Shimonoba Cape Ball Park. Six international teams will play round robin games, followed by a 1st v 2nd seed matchup, 3rd v 4th, and 5th v 6th, to determine the winner of the weekend, in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Japan has entered two teams in its tournament. HSBC World Series teams, France and Australia, each have a team competing, and the Netherlands have thrown in their hat as well. The Falcons will face the two Japan teams and France tomorrow, and will have the Netherlands and Australia on Sunday, followed by their final match, depending on how they finish in pool play.

Seven Falcons players have been capped in the 7s game, and of those seven, only five were a part of the Eagles squad that won silver in Sydney on the last World Series stop. Naya Tapper comes in as reigning HSBC Player of the Final, after her 45-point performance in Sydney.

Ryan Carlyle, Nicole Heavirland, Cheta Emba and Kate Zackary comprise the veteran talent for the Falcons, with Zackary captaining the squad. Lily Durbin and Nicole Strasko have also earned 7s caps, but represent some of the youth that will be on display in this squad.

Tia Blythe is coming off an impressive 15s season with the San Diego Surfers, winning the National Championship and earning Club Player of the Year honors. Sam Pankey (yours truly) was also a member of that Surfers squad, and brings her own experience as a capped 15s player.

Kelsi Stockert and Megan Foster, also capped 15s players, round out the squad. Both Stockert and Foster are no stranger to 15s championships themselves, each having won a Club National tournament with their respective clubs, Seattle and Life West.

Andrew Locke, USA Eagles assistant coach, will be at the helm over the weekend. The USA staff hope to give some newer 7s players a chance to demonstrate their talent against international opponents, try out new combinations, and give all players an opportunity to take some risks and try new things within their skill sets.

This tournament is a wonderful opportunity for more field time and a creative outlet for both USA players and staff. However, don't think that development is the only focus in Okinawa. This Falcons squad has sights set on the cup.

Women's 7s Take Silver in Sydney

Coming off an 11th place finish in Dubai, the USA Women's 7s Team was itching for a little redemption, but their road wouldn't be an easy one. They would have to make it past the third (Russia) and fourth (England) place finishers, from Dubai, to progress through pool play and qualify for the Cup quarterfinals.

As in Dubai, the Eagles' faced Russia in their opening match. In Dubia, the USA was able to eke out a two-point win, 12-10. However, Russia would turn the tables, in Sydney, and hold the Eagles to only 10 points (their lowest scoring game of the tournament), while tallying 19 of their own.

Going into their second match, against England, the Eagles were behind the eight ball. They would have to beat the Brits to keep their shot at the Cup alive. Down 14-5 late in the first half, it wasn't looking promising for the USA. However, a try with less than a minute left put the score at 14-10 and kept the Eagles in the game. Strong defense in the second half held England scoreless, and the Eagles added two more tries to take the win, 22-10.

The Spanish women were the Eagles' last pool opponents. While this side has given the Eagles trouble in the past, the USA dispatched with Spain easily, holding them to only five points while scoring 20 themselves. With two wins in pool play, on Friday, the Eagles would advance to the Cup quarterfinals on Saturday.

The Eagles continued their defensive dominance over Ireland in their quarterfinals match, holding the women in green to only five points. With that defensive performance, three tries would be plenty to seal a 17-5 victory.

In their semifinal match-up, the Eagles ran up against the World Series leaders, New Zealand. Again, the Eagles' defense would hold strong, as they held New Zealand scoreless through the first half, while dotting down two tries of their own. They would allow two New Zealand tries in the second half, but added another of their own to take a 19-10 victory and head into the Cup Finals against Canada.

The all-North American final was a nail-biter of a match, with the two sides trading scores. The USA struck first, but Canada added two tries of their own to take a 14-7 lead into the half. The second half saw more try swapping, as the Eagles closed the gap, and then Canada widened it again. In the end, the Eagles could catch up to the Canadians, and Canada took the Cup with a 21-17 victory.

Despite the disappointing finish, the Eagles' overall performance was wonderful. Not only did they get that sought-after redemption, they put their collective hand up as a World Series contender. With a second place finish and the tournament's Player of the Final, in Naya Tapper, the Eagles hope to ride this momentum into their home-field tournament, in Las Vegas.

Kingfishers Dominant Performance Closes Out Winter NASC

With their lineups slightly altered, the Kingfishers (WNT coaches' top 15 picks) and the CuckooRollers  (coaches' next 15) squared off again to close out the Winter 2016 NASC, in Tigertown, Florida. Like the first match, the Kingfishers controlled the tempo of the match and were able to rack up the points, while the CuckooRollers struggled to gain momentum. 

The Kingfishers struck first in the match, with an early try from Alev Kelter on an offload from Molly Kinsella. Kelter would score a second time, quickly after her first on a good support run after a Jess Wooden line break. Offloads and quick ball from the breakdown would be the story of the match for the Kingfishers, while trying to stop that momentum would prove to be the bane of the CuckooRollers.

Though the CuckooRollers struggled to string together consistent phases, they has some moments of brilliance. One of those came off a good scrum by their forwards, a nice half-break by Nana Fa'avesi, and a great strike run and try-scoring finish by Kris Thomas. This was as close as the game would get, however, as the Kingfishers tacked on three more tries to end the half--one a return favor from Kelter to Wooden and two from Naya Tapper on two great breaks. 

Six tries in a half makes for some exciting rugby, and the Kingfishers wouldn't let down the fans in the second half. Though they wouldn't match their first-half total of five, they were only one try shy, with Tapper and Kelter leading the scoring once again. 

Tapper ended the first half with two scores, and she began the second with two. Certainly she had some great breaks and broke tackles, but three of those four tries began with quick ball, offloads and great ball movement. One of those four was a stellar 90-meter break away run, in which she beat everyone down the sideline. 

Kelter's third try of the game, came off another great support line. It started with a smart read by flyhalf, Hunter Griendling, spotting a gap for herself, then putting Kelter through another for the score. 

The CuckooRollers, though held scoreless in the second half, weren't silent. Behind some smart reads and great line breaks by players like Stacey Bridges and JoJo Kitlinski, they threatened to score on several occasions, but just couldn't muster the manpower to put second-half points on the board. 

The Kingfishers would put a final flashy stamp on the game in their last try. A behind the back flip, by Phaidra "Old School" Knight, led to a Wooden break, a connection to Christiane Pheil and another to AnnaKaren Pedraza, who scored in her first senior side NASC match. 

Though the games may not have been close, the execution by the Kingfishers, with their wonderful support lines and dynamic play, was a welcome outcome, especially after the Women's National Team's lackluster performance in France. There is definitely a great foundation for these women to build a winning World Cup team, and the players are excited to continue their journey to Ireland and the world stage, in August. 

Kingfishers Control Tempo and Win Opening Winter NASC Match

(photo credit: Paul Rudman)

The first senior side match of the 2016 Winter NASC pitted 48 of the best women's rugby players in the country against each other. The Kingfishers started the players the coaches felt are "the current top 15" and the CuckooRollers started the players the coaches felt are "the 'next' 15."

Both teams came out of the gates in attack mode, but jitters would be the story of the opening "quarter" (the match was divided into four 20 minute quarters, so that coaches could experiment with different combinations of players). There were quite a few scrums in the first 10 minutes of the game, as some good phase play was lost on missed connections and the ball going to the ground. The Kingfishers were still able to capitalize on good field position, as Christiane Phiel powered a try in from the one-meter mark, and Sam Pankey stole a lineout overthrow on the five and sneaked in for a try.

The squads cleaned up their play quickly, and the rest of the first half saw some great offense on both sides. The CuckooRollers' backs displayed great footwork and ball movement and broke the Kingfishers' defensive line on a couple occasions, with Kelsi Stockert streaking down the sidelines trying to finish those plays. However, the Kingfishers were able to stop those drives, turn over the ball, and capitalize with Jordan Gray and Cheta Emba dotting down tries.

The Kingfishers continued to roll with their momentum and control the tempo of the second half. They kept the ball alive with offloads and quick ball from the breakdown and were able to handle some good tactical kicking from CuckooRollers' flyhalfs, Hannah Stolba and Lauren Rhode. Cheta Emba would score again in the second half, as would Naya Tapper and Alycia Washington.

Overall, both squads put together some great phase play, with the Kingfishers scoring off of, in the words of Associate Head Coach, Peter Bagetta, "one of the best phases of rugby I've seen since I've been a part of the Women's National Team." The deciding factor was the Kingfishers' control of tempo and set pieces. With their forwards setting good platforms, backs attacking into space, and their ability to keep the ball alive and quick with offloads and quick rucks, the Kingfishers executed their game plan effectively and came away with a decisive victory.

For the second match, the coaches have made some lineup changes, so they can see different player combinations, but mostly the lineups are the same. Both squads have kinks to workout, and the hard work that all players have been putting into this assembly will once again be on display tomorrow morning.

Tigertown 2016

The Women's National 15s Team is back for another round of NASCs at Tigertown. I've been writing about Tigertown for a few years now, as USA Rugby has been holding camps here since forever (find some of those old blogs here). Tigertown, in Lakeland, Florida, where no one knows the winter season, is the site of the Detroit Tigers' spring training and a bunch of little baseball whippersnappers (I feel like I'm old enough to use that word), who run around with little spacial awareness but make up for bumping into everything by holding doors for the women rugby players.

We're here until January 3 competing for a spot on the 35-ish players who will lead the WNT into the upcoming World Cup. The senior side will have two top teams, and those teams will have two matches over the next five days, and performance in those matches will be one of the primary selection vehicles for the World Cup. There will also be two developmental teams that will have two matches as well. Players from the developmental sides will also have the chance at making the squad.

The format of this camp varies slightly from the past NASCs at Tigertown. We've had both selection and developmental camps here, but this time the top tier matches will pit those players the coaches think are their top 15 against those they think are the next-best 15, with others distributed evenly as subs.

For the players here, this is an exciting event. In theory, the best two players at each position will be on the field at the same time playing against each other (I say "in theory" because I don't want to discount the players who couldn't make it or who have yet to be discovered). Right now, we've just finished with Day 1 of camp, which was The Day of Logistics, and are winding down for the night. Day 2 should be a lot more fun--full of rugby and not travel. I'll try to keep all of my awesome readers updated throughout the next five days. At the very least I hope to post the results of the matches.

From Tigertown, in the swampy humidity of Florida, this is Sam Pankey signing off.

Wrapping It Up In France

If you follow my blog, you probably follow women's rugby (to some extent), and so you know that we dropped our second match to France, so I won't go into too much detail there. I will touch on a few general tour notes and give you all a little insight on how we spent our time in France. This blog entry will be a melange of tour notes and observations.

The Second Match
In a similar story line as the first match, France took advantage of scoring opportunities and we did not. We had fewer trips into France's 22 and played more defense this time. Our set pieces were still competitive, but could get better, and we weren't able to attack wide that much. This pretty much sums up France's 31-6 victory.

What's under it all is that we're not consistent and tested enough. A problem that has plagued the Women's National Team over the years is that we don't get a chance to assemble and play together enough, and we certainly don't play enough in general, both domestically and internationally. Our staff and players have been working on these obstacles over the years. This is why the 15s Residency Program is exciting. This is why a few of our top players are deciding to play overseas, where they will get more rugby. Of course, there is still work to be done, and we have a ways to go yet, but our future is promising.

Thanksgiving in France
This is the second year of my life in which I spent Thanksgiving in France. Obviously, the French don't celebrate this very American holiday, so we had to make the best of what we had. What we had was very little in terms of Thanksgiving fixings--no turkey, no stuffing, no cranberry sauce, no fall decorations--so we had chicken and fish (if you read my post on how the tour was progressing midway through, you won't be surprised by this), we made decorations for our tables, and we all expressed how thankful we are for the people and positive things in our lives.

It certainly wasn't a traditional Thanksgiving, but we were among family, we shared good food, we expressed our gratefulness together, and we made the most of what we had--sounds like the embodiment of the Thanksgiving spirit. Also, take a look at the table that team Hippos decorated. Looks like something out of a magazine, right? That table should've catapulted us straight to the top of the inter-squad competition. Instead, it got us a lame tie for third (thanks for nothing, Roshna).

Tourist Things in Montpelier
On our day off, after the first match, we had the chance to do tourist things. The lovely Kelsi Stockert has a friend who is from Montpellier, so she, JoJo and myself got a wonderful tour of the city and got to visit the Mediterranean, courtesy of Tom, Zoe and Lola.

The blustering wind blew us around a little seaside town as we explored the Mediterranean. We were only at the sea for about an hour, but we got to walk down a canal and see a bull fighting rink. Bull fighting is very popular in Southern France, but not so in the rest of the country. In Southern France, bull fighters participate in course libre bull fighting, in which the bull fighter attempts to grab a rosette from the head of a young bull.

In the city of Montpellier, we visited the cathedral. The building's high, arching ceilings loomed over us, and the cloudy sky cleared long enough for a little sunlight to streak through the stained glass windows and tint the inside with color. It was beautiful. We also walked around the shops and cafes through the narrow streets and cobblestone roads. I think I would really enjoy living in a city like that--full of history, where the closeness of the buildings and the slimness of the streets push lives together.

One of the best parts of the day was the sampling of desserts we did. We had crepes, macaroons and an assortment of other sweet delicacies. And then, we visited a couple of shops where we bought more sweet things for our friends and family back home.

All in all, our trip to France, though we had a tough time in our matches, was a wonderful experience. We learned a lot about our team, and hope to build on what we believe is a great foundation. We had a lot of fun in the city and with each other, and we met some great, hospitable people.

Brief Recap of USA v France #1

Where oh where do I start in this bruiser of a match? It was indeed a bruiser, as it always is with the French. In general, we played the fourth best team in the world close. We matched their first try with one of our own and took an early 7-5 lead. Then the French scored again, but we tied up the match 10-10. That was the story of the first half—trading blows—and France landed the final jab to take a 17-10 lead into halftime.

In the second half, we let ourselves down for about 20 minutes and gave up 19 points in that span. However, we tightened up our defense and closed the match without conceding another point. On the offensive end, we failed to get through the French defense in the second half. We had opportunities, but could capitalize.

Though we lost, there is always a learning opportunity—always take-aways and areas in which to grow. Handling errors plagued us on the attack. We dropped 7 balls, when we were within or close to the France 22. Those errors leave points on the field. The second half lapse is something that has haunted us over our last few matches, and we experienced that once again. And we learned that we need to be patient in our system—that our system works, but sometimes that takes multiple phases.

We also took away some positives and hope to build on those. Our set pieces were good. We won most of our lineouts and stole some of theirs, and our scrum not only hung in with one of the best in the world, it pushed them around at times. Our back line had moments of line-breaking brilliance. We saw space well and hit the occasional offload.

Going forward, these are the things we will fix and build upon. Our errors aren’t those that are hard to sort out, and we are confident in the things we did well. Tomorrow’s match should shape up to be a close one, and with the work we’ve been putting in, we hope to wind up on top.

I’d also like to give a shout-out to our three new caps—Alev Kelter (my fellow ginger), Kate Zackary (“Sam and Kate on 3”) and Abby Gus-gus…the big 6-footer!