Wendy Young | November 7, 2007, 10:05 pm
Google Your Name & Rugby – Wendy Young Rugby
So I was bored at work today, so I decided to Google my name. That didn’t bring up much exciting things, so I added rugby on the end of my name – Wendy Young rugby.
I found some interesting results:
1) Your Scrumhalf Connection, my blog is listed of course!
2) USA Rugby – I’m in the pool! The USA Rugby Women’s National Team Pool that is! I’ve known that I was in the pool since June 2007, but its just nice to see your name in print!
USA Rugby Women’s National Team Pool
Not sure if you have read Goff either, but they are estimating the cost of the England Tour to be around $1500 bucks a player. This is a huge cost, but who can say no to a tour with the Eagles? I am a reserve, so no traveling for me unless someone gets hurt.
Stay healthy all you scrumhalfs, but just know that I will have my bag packed and ready to go in a heartbeat if you get hurt…but really, please stay healthy, I would never wish ill on you…
3) Womeneagles.com – has the rosters from the NA4 tournament where I played against Canada.
4) Austin Valkyries – My current rugby club.
5) Rugby Canada – Match report from one the NA4 games.
6) Strr.net – Society of Texas Rugby Referees, one of my match reports for refereeing.
7) and there is even more, but I am sure you are bored of it by now.
Sometimes the internet can be incredibly helpful, but these days we are almost chronicling our lives because of the internet. Google is amazing…but its scary what you can find!
This and more rugby blogs can be found at http://westrugby.blogspot.com. Thanks!
Wendy Young | November 3, 2007, 3:17 am
Thoughts Revolving Around Round of 16
So I have several trains of thought today about rugby, West rugby and Round of 16. After the rather anti-climatic weekend for West rugby and all the teams involved, I really think we have to face facts. What are those facts?
1) West Region Geographically:
We are a HUGE union with a HUGE geographic challenge. Any D1 team in the West that wants to play a highly competitive team (besides CO) has to drive over 6 hours or fly to a destination. I added up how much I spent on plane tickets and driving this year and it was well over $1000. This total does not include any out of state tournaments either, because we simply couldn’t afford to attend!
Yes, this is a challenge with living in the West…but should that challenge by shunned off just because we live in the West? I think not, and the solution is not to move to another territory although that option is tempting! I think we should stick by our union and work to improve it.
We can work on building a D2 program so that teams that aren’t ready to work towards D1 at least have a championship to play for, even if USA Rugby doesn’t recognize it. We also need to start working on building youth/high school in all parts of the West. Colorado has a good program going and Texas is just starting one…these programs will do all good things and most importantly will bring rugby to our cities.
2) Current D1 West League Schedule:I came to Austin right after the team’s had decided to do away with the Best of the West Tournament. I really think this was a good test to try out, but I think we have found that it has not helped at all. I believe one of the main ideas behind the switch was guaranteeing high level matches throughout the year and not having a tournament style. I really think this idea was thought out and implemented well, but the end result was not what was desired. Teams are spending twice as much money and traveling way more.
Where before a team may travel to Seattle, New York or across the country, now there are no funds to do any kind of traveling besides the league matches. I believe this is a detriment to our teams and I wish the league schedule would return to the Best of the West format.
3) Result of all This:So what is all this adding up to? The West will more than likely have two seeds challenged and will have one chance to challenge for a seed. If all goes well, we keep 3 seeds, if all hell breaks loose the West could end up without a seed. Not going to say it will happen, but lets keep an open mind here. The West is in some serious danger here, we could lose all our seeds and have to do something dramatic.
4) West Select SideSo we haven’t even touched on the NA4 schedule that is going to be a financial burden and more on the unions now. Basically if you haven’t heard (amazing how many teams haven’t heard…) USA Rugby is placing more emphasis on the Women’s National Team and the Territorial stuff leading up to it. They are doing away with the traditional ITT’s or All Stars Tournament and moving towards the NA4 [correction…duh I am an idiot…they are having ITT’s]. Check out these blogs from a few months ago for more details: NA4 Details & NASC to become NA4.
So the whole idea is that each territorial will have two "home" games (where is home exactly?) and one away game. These are set to happen in the Spring season and so most teams are assuming that League season should happen in the Fall season. The costs are tripling here if you aren’t counting…the finances for this are getting scary. If I did the math really quickly for me personally I am counting:
2-3 West D1 League games (away)
2 West Select Side games(home)
1 West Select Side game (away)
1NASC (away)
and if I go far enough…
1 NA4 Tournament
1-2 possible overseas tours while preparing for the Rugby World Cup
Scary stuff.
So those are the thoughts that are running through my head today…not very good stuff. I have been in the West Territory for almost 7 years now and it is becoming more and more daunting to play here.
This and more rugby blogs can be found at http://westrugby.blogspot.com. Thanks!
Wendy Young | October 31, 2007, 3:32 am
Round of 16…Round-Up!
Haha, I thought the title was pretty clever, hopefully you will too! I thought I would give a little tidbit about each game and it might be rugby related or not! Enjoy!
9:30am: Beantown vs KC Jazz 64 to 5
This game was the first game of the day and nerves seemed to be a factor for each team. The first twenty minutes were also helter skelter as the ball was a little wet from the dew on the ground. Beantown was the first team to calm down and start to control the pace of the game. They did a great job of pounding the forwards up and then sending the centers through the middle. Great game with the Jazz coming out pretty beaten up and defeated.
10 am: SD Surfers vs Atlanta 5 to 20
I was touch judging at the 11:00am game so I don’t really know what happened at this game, but I could hear the crowd yelling as big runs were made and big tackles were hit. The Surfers did very well over all in this game and their next game though. Atlanta didn’t look as sharp as they usually do, but they had some big runs that resulted in big tries.
11 am: Nova vs TC Amazons 17 to 20
This game was incredibly tense and awesome to watch. I was touch judging, so the action was always right in front of me. The scoring was pretty much one right after another and it came down to the wire. Nova drove and drove but it seemed that penalties were really the downfall of this game.
11:30am: ORSU vs Minn Valkyries 17 to 7
I was still touch judging for this game so I couldn’t watch any of it but the end…but I heard about it. Talk about a HUGE upset Evidently Minnesota could never get anything rolling on offense and ORSU was firing on all cylinders. The 7 points that Minnesota scored was in the last few minutes of the game and ORSU controlled the game.
12:30pm: Philly vs N Shore 29 to 16
This game was the game I was looking forward to all day. I really thought Philly was going to be the sleeper that surprised everyone. They have been working hard to recruit good athletes and plenty of U19 & U23 players and that will pay off eventually. These two teams played a very physical match and it was thrilling to watch.
1 pm: Glendale vs Berkeley 0 to 58
During this game I was touch judging the 2pm fight, so once again I didn’t get to see it. I did hear the crowd yell though when Berkely put a try in about 2 minutes into the game. Those that watched the game said that Glendale played hard but that they were shut down completely on defense and couldn’t get anything going on offense. I had never seen the back line of Jaime Lange, Janay Lake, Lynelle Kugler etc and was excited to see it…but evidently they couldn’t do much because Berkeley was so stifling on defense.
2 pm: Keystone vs Furies 14 to 0
This game was great because I had never seen Keystone play before. Keystone came out of the gate swinging and scored pretty quickly. DC never seemed to get anything rolling as they were constantly backed up and having to kick for touch. This game was also physical and the penalties were pretty constant as each team was fighting hard for points. DC never gave up but never could get in the try zone.
2:30pm: New York vs Mudhens 67 to 10
This was the last game of the day and as you can see from the score New York took care of business. They had a great wide game all day and utilized the tactical kicking with great precision. The Mudhens fought the whole game but couldn’t contain New York’s continuity and beautiful rucks.
Beantown vs Atlanta 45 to 0
Clearly Beantown had a handle on this game as they made quick work of Atlanta…the score says most of the game. What the score doesn’t say is that Atlanta fought hard, but couldn’t make it happen. Great game even with the score being what it is.
MN Valkyries vs NOVA 19 to 5
This game was one of the lower scoring games of the day, but was one of the most exciting of the day. The Valkyries clearly wanted to let everyone know that they were still one of the best teams in the Midwest and they played that way. Nova didn’t give up though and was a thorn in their side the whole game. They caused knock on after knock on and almost had several beautiful tries.
Surfers vs Jazz 20 to 12
This game was one of my favorites of the morning…Since Belmont didn’t have their internationals to help them win their league games, I believe the best team in the South was present. I was also extremely excited to hear that the Surfers did it with their own strengths and merits. The Jazz played very well but it got away from them in the last 10 minutes of the game. Making it worse, the Surfer suffered a sin bin and won the game with 14 players on the field.
ORSU vs Amazons 12 to 24
This game was played very smart by ORSU, they had seen the Amazons strong back line and clearly took note of it. They chose to keep the ball in the forward and to pound the ball down the field, slowly opening up things on the outside. But the Amazons were able to work around that and started working the ball up the middle as well and around the outside.
N Shore vs Glendale 49 to 12
This game was also highly anticipated for me as the West had already lost a match this morning and we were putting our hope on Glendale. The match was strong as Glendale had several great runs but couldn’t keep N Shore out of the try zone.
Berkeley vs Philly 31 to 10
This game was one of the more highly anticipated in my opinion. Philly played hard and I thought they might have won if the game was only 30 minutes long. It wasn’t a fitness issue, it was more a physical issue in my opinion. Berkeley rucked hard all day long and it was a physical match to say the least. Philly had several opportunities to score again but decision at the back of the ruck seemed to take to long.
Mudhens vs DC 7 to 41
I didn’t see this game as I was watching the Berkeley vs Philly game, but the score pretty says that it was a blowout.
New York to Keystone 31 to 7
Again New York played the last game of the day and the crowd was pretty amped up on rugby at this point. Keystone came out to win and looked strong in the first 30 minutes but then they seemed to wither pretty quickly. New York kept pounding them in the forwards and used their brute strength to control the game.
**Pictures were taken by Ashley Mefford of the Austin Valkyries. She is still working on editing them, so keep checking back for more pictures and albums.
This and more rugby blogs can be found at http://westrugby.blogspot.com. Thanks!
Wendy Young | October 31, 2007, 3:32 am
Round of 16 – Day 1
MATCH SCHEDULE:
Saturday, October 27
9:30am: Beantown vs KC Jazz 64 to 5
10 am: SD Surfers vs Atlanta 5 to 20
11 am: Nova vs TC Amazons 17 to 20
11:30am: ORSU vs Minn Valkyries 17 to 7
12:30pm: Philly vs N Shore 29 to 16
1 pm: Glendale vs Berkeley 0 to 58
2 pm: Keystone vs Furies 14 to 0
2:30pm: New York vs Mudhens 67 to 10
Sunday, October 28
8:30am KC Jazz vs SD Surfers
9:00am: Beantown vs Atlanta
10:00am: NOVA vs Minn Valkyries
10:30am: Amazons vs ORSU
11:30a: N Shore vs Glendale
12:00pm: Philly vs Berkeley
1:00pm: Furies vs Mudhens
1:30pm: Keystone v New York
We arrived at Burr Field this morning with temperatures in the low 50’s and a bit of dew on the ground. As you can see from my "mountain outfit" as my girlfriend called me…I was cold! But soon the sun came out from behind the trees and we had a BEAUTIFUL rugby day ahead of us.
The pitches were lined perfectly and the hard Texas ground was just begging to be touched by all the rugby glory out there. The first few games of the day were highly contested and were very intense. I touch judged two of the games today and played "trainer" for the rest. Need something taped? Wendy can do that!
Over all I think the first day or Round of 16 included some GREAT rugby and an even better crowd. Austinites were out in force and we appreciate the support from the local community here.
One of the great ideas coming from the tournament in my opinion was the "anti-bacterial stations" the Austin Blacks put together. See the picture on the right for a visual: basically its a bucket turned over, with a lovely white towel over it and two anti-bacterial bottles for our sanitation purposes. Cute right?
Also we the Austin Valkyries are pretty excited about the raffle we put together. The items are wide and varied from Mary Kay makeup to the sweetest All Black Jersey we have ever seen! Come on out and buy an armful of ticket…yes you can bring you lock’s long arms…for $10.
Look for more results tomorrow afternoon.
This and more rugby blogs can be found at http://westrugby.blogspot.com. Thanks!
Wendy Young | October 24, 2007, 12:41 am
Rugby Blogger Tshirt
So this morning I created the first (to my knowledge) Rugby Blogger Tshirt! The cool thing about the online service I am using is that YOU (meaning YOU!) can customize the tshirt. Meaning, you change change the color of the shirt, the actual words on the shirt and even the type of tshirt. Pretty sweet!
To customize your own Rugby Blogger tshirt visit here: Rugby Blogger Tshirt**Just click the gray customize button on the bottom right.
Check it out:
**The back of the tshirt has the logo from the top of my blog. See the zoomed in shot to the right of the tshirt.
This and more rugby blogs can be found at http://westrugby.blogspot.com. Thanks!
Wendy Young | October 24, 2007, 12:40 am
Finally Fall Weather!
So this morning I awoke to a very Harry Potter like day. You know the days that the book talks about where the wind is whipping everything about and the rain is relentless? A day where in the great hall, Dumbledore would have changed the sky to sunny and bright. Hey, by the way did you hear that Dumbeldore is gay? Who knew!
Anyways, loving the fallish weather and excited about carving pumpkins on Wednesday night! I know this may be hard to read for those of you that are experiencing snow and bitter cold, but it was in the fifties for the first time last night. I love this kind of weather and I love that it is the middle of October and we are just starting to get cold. LOVE IT!
So check out a few of the cooler pumpkin carvings…err pumpkin arrangements I found on the net:
Haha, after I had looked for a few pumpkin designs I liked, I came across this website: http://www.extremepumpkins.com. Very similar to Ace of Cakes (Extreme Cakes) on TLC where they light cakes on fire and reguarly have fireworks included. SWEETNESS!
This and more rugby blogs can be found at http://westrugby.blogspot.com. Thanks!
Wendy Young | October 23, 2007, 2:32 am
Houston Tournament – Oct 13, 2007
Houston Tournament – Oct 13, 2007
Sorry this post is so late…been really crazy with work, rugby and school. But the good news is, I finished my math class (got an A!) and have finished out the semester. Overall the grades were MUCH higher than they usually are, so I am quite proud of myself. Only three (maybe four) semesters to go and I will have finally finished my Bachelor’s degree. Considering I have hated school since I started it, this will be a big accomplishment in my life!
Anyways, so rugby…wow rugby, you consume my life, ruin my life, elevate my life…what to do with this love hate relationship? Maybe I will write more about that topic later!
So the majority of the Valkyries arrived in Houston Friday night and stayed at our teammate’s parents house. The house was rather large and was decorated with many many elephants. Jake my dog, came with us and he had never experienced wooden stairs, so the first run up was pretty hilarious for those of us downstairs. He was slippin’ and slidin’ everywhere and almost fell a couple of times. He is still such a puppy, all gangly and silly. But I love him so much…I don’t care if his legs are three times longer than his body!
So we slept pretty good as most people had a bed, couch or air mattress. This team is so smart, they invested in 5 air mattresses for the team, so we never are without comfort! The next morning we awoke and headed down into downtown Houston for the tournament. We knew this weekend was going to be a different weekend as were going to play all our Bside players and do what if situations. What if the starting flyhalf, scrumhalf etc goes down? So we were mentally prepared to maybe play out of position or to be on the sidelines for a half.
The first game was against the University of Texas at 9:45am. We played well as we outmatched them even with a few players out of position and a few of the more experienced girls on the sideline. We worked hard to try and remember that yes, we can run around them, but why not work on our game plan and work on the fundamentals? UT played very well though and were hard hitting in the scrum and the rucks. I believe this was the game where we took out the starting flyhalf and moved someone in to get some time there…always good to be prepared!
The second game of the day was against Texas State University…we won by several tries but again tried to focus on not running around people but active support with good decision making. In this game I believe we had the starting scrumhalf sit one half and then had some players moved around where they might not usually play. It is good to see the versatility of most players as they can be a forward, back, center, wing, hooker etc. Love those utility players!
Then we had a pretty long break for lunch and until our next game. A few of the Valks played for other teams as most of the teams only had a few subs. A few Valks and myself played in the SHSU vs TX State because HARC had loaned a few players and TX State was getting stomped all over. It was fun to play with a different team and I even played fullback for a few minutes. I never liked that position, I like to be close in tot he action, hence being a scrumhalf! LOL.
For the final we played A&M and the game was very evenly matched again. We stuck to our guns again all day and played the Bside girls again. Both teams played very well but A&M won with a buzzer try with no time to spare. Great game girls.
Good weekend in all, look forward to a similar tournament in Austin in the Spring…
This and more rugby blogs can be found at http://westrugby.blogspot.com. Thanks!
Wendy Young | October 23, 2007, 2:31 am
FREE THE GRAPES!
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Blog: Join the discussion
I found this site this morning after checking out woot.com. If you don’t know what woot.com is, check it out…they sell really cheap stuff that is awesome! Yea not the best description I have ever come up with in my life, but kind of out of words this morning.
I know there are bigger issues in life, but the graphic was just kick a$$! Have a great weekend,GOOOOOO ENGLAND!
This and more rugby blogs can be found at http://westrugby.blogspot.com. Thanks!