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It isn’t the LAUs that are sending sixteen teams to Austin and then four to Glendale.
Clearly the CR4 playoffs are meaningless. Then skip the Austin leg and send the winner of CR4 to the Final Four in Glendale. Help the clubs to eliminate $25,000 in travel expenses by not having to send 28 players plus staff to Austin Texas!
Don’t blame the clubs or LAUs or local politics. We aren’t the people who have ever had a say in the placement. Oh the Boulder Magic 8 Ball says Ferndale Washington … Rochester New York … Austin Texas … Albuquerque (what ????). It’s almost as if they want to find the most hard-to-get-to-location possible.
God help Dan Payne as he tries to sort out this mess but local politics has nothing to do with this.
Jason Maloni
Maryland Exiles
Bruce’s comments concerning two day tournaments were right on the money. Asking teams to play two to three rugby games in a two day period is irresponsible and dangerous for the participants, especially in this country where there is such an imbalance in club membership.
For example, a struggling team might only afford to send 22 players (if that) for a tournament while a well sponsored team with 100+ CIPP’d players can send 2 full teams to cover the 3 games in two days.
There is no place that these senseless tournaments are more evident than in the high school game. The high school national championships and LAU high school tournaments are prime examples. C'mon, three full games over two days for kids under 19? That's crazy. Any high school playoff sports with less physical contact such as basketbaIl, soccer, football, baseball, or lacrosse do not do this.
My son participated in a HS rugby tournament early in the season in California. My wife and I watched several players taken by ambulance/ parents to the hospital over the two day period. Most injuries looked minor for knee/ ankle X-rays, but a couple were quite serious requiring ambulances for games in the second round and finals.
Why do we do this when other top tier rugby countries do not? The answer I suspect is because it’s cheap to do it over two days and the tournament organizers get to fill their coffers. Let's keep our youth safe and ban such tournament formats at least from high school.
Jim McDougal
After listening to the latest podcast [Rugbytalk #38], it prompted some thoughts. Is there any correlation between the poor showings of the Northeast and Midwest in the college playoffs, and the season and playoff structure?
Here in the Northeast, we're forced to play this somewhat ridiculous split season, losing any sort of continuity between the Fall and Spring seasons. And with the playoff system structured the way it is, is there any wonder that teams from the Northeast play below expectations after practicing in a gym all winter, getting one or two games in under sloppy conditions, then competing against teams who've got 10 competitive games under their belts week-in, week-out?
I don't have the answer, and I don't envy the people who have to come up with a solution. But, as long as the current system stands the way it is, you'll never see a national champion from the Northeast or Midwest, and you'll see very few Final Four teams. It's impossible to compete under the current conditions.
Rob Chudzik
UConn
Tell your boy Bruce that bringing the South into the discussion on who should lose a seed is a bad idea for a Northeast supporter. The South #1 shellacked the NE #2 and the South #2 edged out the NE #1 who is leaps and bounds better than any other team in that union.
Aside from that, the South collegiate All-Stars beat the NE last year 34-19. Also, Bruce’s assertion that the consolation rounds don’t matter is garbage. Everyone wants to come away with a win at nationals, and the implications for seeding for the following year are huge. Falling somewhere from 9 through 12 is a huge, huge difference in falling somewhere in the 13 through 16 spot.
I think MARFU needs another seed now that they’ve put their Premier competition in place. I’m glad Arkansas State is in the South to help shore up our results at nationals, after Clemson went 0-6 over the course of three years, even with a top 8 seeding they received one year.
For all of the senior players who take the field for the consolations, it is their last match. Do you think players who helped get their program to the national tournament take their last match lightly? I’ll tell you that personally, it mattered a whole hell of a lot.
Brett Jones
Please pardon me for taking 7s seriously, as I know many in our community do not. None the less even for those for whom 7s is nothing more than an entertaining warm up to the main event 15s, there is value in it as an athletic endeavor.
7s deserves a season and competition that benefits the US rugby community on both the social and competitive levels. The evidence suggests that there is no major interest from USA Rugby in 7s, domestic or otherwise. It is a side show and not much more.
For the past 20 years the 15s season has continued to extend further into the late spring and summer, markedly so the last three years. The NA4, Churchill Cup, Eagle camps and matches have all been held on multiple weekends throughout the summer in conflict with the Territorial 7s qualifiers that lead to the national club 7s.
The NA 4 is in July and most of the meaningful territorial qualifiers for the club 7s championship are in July. 2008 is not the first time an Eagle 15s event will be held the same weekend and the national club 7s championship.
The caveat in my mind is that in the US our best bet at selling rugby to the uninitiated in the public and the media is through 7s. No real understanding of the game is needed to enjoy it. Plenty of action and scoring, short attention span and plenty of opportunity for ads.
Top quality athletes new to the sport find 7s easier to pick up and their athleticism shines prior to their skills being refined. If we used 7s properly and marketed it in the US we should be able to crack open the media / sponsorship coffers that would then enable us to fund our 15s programs. The IRB does not want the US to be great at rugby, they want us to be just good enough to get their programs on US televisions and sell to US sponsors.
Howard Kent
I think what ARN does to cover and promote American rugby, and especially the college game, is amazing, but I have to question the thought process on naming an "ARN All-American team".
USA Rugby names its All-Americans and it is an amazing honor for the kids who get the nod. Now there will be ARN All-Americans? Two different All-Americans being named? It just doesn't make any sense. It dilutes the honor.
"Oh well I wasn’t a real All-American but I was an ARN All-American." Lame. It also does a disservice to ARN itself. If you are going to bother to name such a team why wouldn’t you give it a name that would be unique? Unless ARN is trying get in on being an official part of All-American selections just like it is dying to get in on seeding decisions with its top 25 rankings.
Either way I don’t think it is right to name your own All-Americans. It isn't right to try to compete with the tradition and honor of the real All-Americans.
Mike Miller
ARN replies: First and foremost, we're not trying to set ourselves up to be in competition with the establishment. In just about all other college sports, news organizations name All-American teams.
Take college football for example, there is a plethora of All-American teams that are named every year including the AP All-Americans, USA Today All-Americans, ABC All-Americans and so on. As a rugby media outlet, what we are striving to do is acknowledge the efforts put in by college players all season long, not just over one weekend in June.
I think it is a good idea. Currently because most of our young rugby players are not yet on scholarships it is difficult for them to take off part of the summer because of school and jobs.
It is obvious they all love the game. In my mind every college player is an All-American. They all give so much of their time and efforts to the game they love. It’s like baseball used to be. You play it because you love it.
Don Hartley