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Las Vegas a chance for 7s Eagles reset

2012-02-10T13:33:50-08:00

Halfway through a tepid season, this weekend's USA 7s tournament is an opportunity to reset.

With 2d-ranked Fiji joining hemispheric rivals Argentina and Canada as America's pool A opponents, Las Vegas all but reprises October's Pan-Am Games. The unconvincing showing set the tone for a lackluster 2011-12 campaign, which finds the US in 12th place.

Enjoying home-field advantage, the US could halt a string of consolation-bracket outings. The US has generally played well in Las Vegas and (previously) San Diego, defeating Canada each of the last two years while narrowly falling to Argentina in 2008's cup semifinals.

But the tournament could also confirm Guadalajara, Mexico's outcome, underlining that Canadian 7s are again ascendant. While the Eagles skidded to an embarrassing 0-5 showing last weekend in Wellington, New Zealand, the Maple Leafs reached the quarterfinals, vaulting one place ahead in the standings.

The North American rivals square off this afternoon in the tournament's second match.

Matt Hawkins has replaced in Mark Bokhoven in the 12-man squad, otherwise unchanged from stage 4 of the Sevens World Series.

Organizers are expecting a bumper crowd of more than 30,000, easily better than America's largest 15s internationals.

On sources of growth in rugby

2012-02-09T13:08:18-08:00

In its 2009 strategic plan, USARFU identifies ten primary objectives, among which is to 'create the revenues that support the growth of rugby in the USA'.

With the 20th century well behind us, few persist in contending that government normally leads economic expansion. Arbitrary powers of taxation, however, continue enabling it to set aside normal profit-and-loss mechanics.

Therefore I must disagree with Alex Goff, over at Rugby Magazine, when he writes that 'USA Rugby is not set up, nor equipped, nor should it be, to full staff a major event, market it, drive interest year-round, land sponsors, secure TV contracts, and do that all with the expectation of losing a large amount of money'.

USARFU is in fact fairly proficient at event management. Every year, Boulder conducts dozens of championships, and when it has had the opportunity to stage major internationals -- most recently Ireland and Wales in 2009 -- operations have been smooth and attendance credible. Much the same can be said of last spring's BYU-Cal collegiate tilt.

Is Alex not pointing mainly to commercial execution? Indeed he is, and here the case strengthens. Attempts to increase the scope and scale of the union's events have been wanting. The teams themselves, not marketing or business development, drove the aforementioned successes.

It need not be so. There are no inherent reasons a sports non-governmental *national governing* body (an NGB, to use the parlance) cannot succeed in the marketplace, particularly when it enjoys captive 'stakeholders' -- members who accept services in exchange for dues, rather than returns.

Consider USA Swimming, a sport with a large participation base and world-beating athletes but, as proven over the last 40 years, rather little expectation of penetrating the mainstream market. It boasts well-staged, well-attended events such as its Olympic trials (ever try to get a ticket?) and multiyear, multimillion-dollar deals with major corporations.

Alex is of course intending to contrast the enviable progress of the USA 7s, whose parent company also owns Rugby Mag, as he duly acknowledges, with USARFU's lumbering record. 'USA Rugby is invested in growing the game, getting more players to play, and building it from within. To grow the game as a spectacle, as an event, as a business proposition is a capitalistic endeavor, and that takes a different approach', he observes.

Ever so gently, I would suggest the impediment is philosophical or perhaps metaphysical, but not structural. Despite annual turnover which through 2010 had not exceeded $8 million, USARFU embodies a corporatist mindset rather than an entrepreneurial spirit. Understandably so. Its directors work for large companies or as lawyers and financiers, rather than in Main Street's 'real economy', and beyond taxes it draws key subsidies from the International Rugby Board and US Olympic Committee.

The majority of American rugby's growth, whether measured in playing numbers or dollars spent on gear and services plus dues, originates with youth, school, and senior teams: They are adding members. USARFU skims this growth by raising the price of dues -- despite the 2009 plan's stated expectation of holding prices constant -- and gathering them ever more efficiently.

Ultimately it is unlike the 7s, as Alex is wont to point out, because the money it risks is not its own. Redress this mindset, with a few good hires to follow, and the union is eminently capable of commercial expansion.

It is not soon likely to catch the 7s, which has become rugby's leading conduit into the mainstream market since buying the event from a stricken USARFU in 2006, but we should all hope for test matches to gain prominence in the American sports landscape. The international must always be the highest form of rugby.

US falling behind 'tier 2' rivals in IRB rankings

2012-02-08T13:36:47-08:00

The USA will be significant underdogs in each of June's internationals, most notably the opener against Canada.

At home in Kingston, Ontario, the 13th-ranked Maple Leafs will start a full 10 points higher than the 17th-ranked Eagles in the International Rugby Board rankings, meaning the hosts are so heavily favored that they would gain no points from a win. Home field is worth 3 points under the IRB system.

The unprecedented gap underlines the urgency surrounding this weekend's final round of interviews for national team head coach. Presuming a near-instaneous decision from among Dave Hodges, Paul Keeler, and Mike Tolkin, finalists who are meeting with USARFU's nine-member board of directors this weekend in Las Vegas, scene of the USA 7s tournament, Eddie O'Sullivan's successor is facing a three-match assembly less than four months away.

After the Canadian game, 14th-ranked Georgia and 12-ranked Italy are due in the States on June 16 and 23, respectively. A loss to the Georgians, who vaulted above the US following their last meeting, November 2010's last-gasp 19-17 loss in Tblisi, could drop the 17th-ranked Eagles behind Romania, which brings up the bottom of the unofficial second division.

But the real threat lies in failing to keep pace with the top of the 'tier 2' countries. 10-plus point spreads are territory traditionally reserved for teams that reach the World Cup quarterfinals. In recent years, however, Samoa and Tonga as well as Canada -- three of America's old Pacific Rim rivals -- have all pulled well clear of the Eagles.

Poor scheduling has not helped the team's cause. Since 2000, the US has met Canada 17 times, just 4 times on US soil. Only 1 of these has not been part of a home-and-away series such as World Cup qualification. (Another 4 matches have been at neutral venues.) The disparity is the more baffling because USARFU has been seeking additional home fixtures in order to increase revenue.

Canada has announced its international venues (Kingston; Toronto; and Burnaby, Vancouver's neighbor) while the US has not.

American citizenship required for USOC 7s program

2012-02-03T11:08:02-08:00

Olympic rugby is establishing a major new hurdle for making the US national team: American citizenship.

US Olympic Committee regulations require international athletes to hold a US passport, casting them as stricter than International Rugby Board rules, which allow players to gain eligibility by dint of three years' residency or family lineage. The guidelines came into play with January's launch of a San Diego residency training program for 7s squad members.

Immigrants have ever made shining contributions to the Eagles and American rugby in general. But reliance on foreign nationals looks to conflict with the powerful impetus of USOC funding and resources, and so may be cresting.

At the 2011 World Cup, foreign-born athletes accounted for 12 of the 30-man squad, the tournament's 2d-highest total. By contrast, the USA's pool of nearly 36,000 senior players was 6th-largest of the 20 finalists.

Along with the much-touted rise of age-grade participation, this suggested USARFU had done little with a comparatively large playing base, overlooking those in the system in favor of 'America qualified' individuals trained abroad.

7s Eagles may come from outside the USOC program, of course, and the 7s pool is hardly determinative of the 15s squad. Given USARFU's emotional investment in Olympic Training Center, however, quite a few backs and backrow candidates are expected to spend time in San Diego.

Players submit their paperwork to the USOC prior to starting the program. Although there are no such athletes currently in the system, 'Players are permitted to join the program without citizenship providing that they can prove that they are on track to become citizens prior to 2016', according to a USARFU official.

Under-20 tourney a major task for Salt Lake City

2012-02-01T09:32:52-08:00

Salt Lake City faces a major assignment in hosting the Junior World Trophy, the International Rugby Board's second-division competition for under-20 sides.

In scale and scope, the 2-week, 8-team, 16-game tournament will be among the larger rugby events staged in America, with many of the trappings of full internationals. Plus, over the same time frame, USARFU will be hosting Georgia and Italy, the latter representing the highest-profile domestic test since Ireland and Wales in 2009.

As the union aspires to host a World Cup as soon as 2023, the next available tournament, the performance of Utah volunteers could shape the IRB's impression of America's operating skills. Though the USA 7s has demonstrated prowess, the Sevens World Series event is privately managed and entails modestly different functional requirements.

Moreover, while USARFU officials concede the JWT is not likely to be a moneymaker -- effectively it will underwritten by Dublin -- the tests ought to be. This suggests divided assignments for Boulder's full-time staff and national-level officials, and that Salt Lake personnel will be very much on the front line.

In this context, it seems apparent that Boulder's proposal to abandon the college all-start tournament has been influenced by international commitments. The representative competition has traditionally been held in June.

Venues for the Georgia and Italy matches have not been announced.

JWT matches, comprising a field of Canada, Chile, Japan, Russia, Tonga, Zimbabwe as well as the USA, are set for Murray Park Rugby Stadium, a municipal facility which has previously staged a 2002 World Cup qualifier against Chile as well as several high school championships. The stand holds 5,000, while USARFU will invest in upgrading the field. Competitors will be housed and train at the University of Utah.

Salt Lake is also to host May 19's division 1 and 1AA collegiate finals, at Rio Tinto Stadium.

On representative rugby and the 'hollow frontier'

2012-01-30T13:13:21-08:00

Why should a national governing body encourage teams and athletes to aspire to elite levels of sport?

The obvious reason is to field better national teams. But does an organization such as USARFU also have an obligation to promote activities that are not in its direct interests? Does it have a practical stake in doing so?

Lee Smith, a renowned rugby thinker who has held posts with both the New Zealand union and the International Rugby Board, recently asserted that one adverse effect of professional rugby is the national union's (and franchise owner's) increased incentive to pursue only those progams which immediately benefit its financial health. In practice, this amounts to the scouting, selecting, training, and monetizing of national teams (or pro clubs).

Smith labels the condition that of a 'hollow frontier' because while the top (i.e., professional levels) look to be advancing, in fact the condition of the settlers -- the recreational clubs which supply players and coaches -- is unstable and may be deteriorating. Links between the top and bottom are severed, and yields diminish.

Smith is primarily thinking of leading unions like New Zealand, but as his experience includes time working in the Pacific Islands, his thoughts are applicable to the developing countries like the United States. The full paper is here. Below, a few of the more interesting passages:

§ Historically the game has been one that depends on mass participation and grassroots involvement. The pyramid goes something like this.

Schools and clubs do what they do best, but when there is a need to have a collective purpose they form a collective body called the local rugby union, to which they send representatives. When they find there are opportunities that they have a collective need for, the rugby unions form a co-operative for that purpose, the national union, and so on up to the world governing body. Each level has its own niche and is responsible for that niche. It is bottom up and not top down. When it is top down you lose support because there is no longer local input to the same degree.

The structure runs into difficulties when each level assumes a role that infringes on those below. In the professional game this has become prevalent especially when it comes to competitions. The effect is to channel money and time away from amateur rugby. This has resulted in the financially weak having less say. This is the vast majority of the people involved in rugby. The effect is to narrow the base of the pyramid making it unstable.

§ What we are looking for is a game for all that supports life-long involvement in a number of roles. It is not a sport with the best playing and the remainder watching. It is part of a healthy lifestyle in which all can find a niche for themselves in a variety of ways that is embedded into the fabric of society and not just one part of it as an entertainment.

§ Rugby has the dilemma of being morally obliged to levels of the game that are a financial cost to run. Some may see this as an investment in many ways. Rugby as part of an ongoing healthy lifestyle is one. With these levels of the game viewed as a cost, rugby has a problem but team owners do not. Their problems are solved by buying in the talent developed by others, frequently, with no return to those who did the developing.

§ [Traditionally] Players from lesser unions within the country could achieve international status. Each union had its niche and potential for a place in the sun. Each could be supported by amateur effort committed to the game as part of their way of life. The game could be measured in a quantifiable sense by the numbers playing but, more importantly, it could be measured by other criteria be they subjective. These criteria were community spirit, camaraderie, loyalty and a code of behavior and ethic that tied the unions together to create the game as part of the national identity.

Obviously the last observation is particularly apropos of the pending disbandment of the college all-star championship. The competition is inefficient and certainly lacks many features of the higher-level All American program. Yet its passing not only feels like narrowing opportunities for collegians at a time when their numbers are growing; but also as if the national union is eliminating one more connection with the folks who provide the players and foot much of the bill.

Smith has some high-level ideas about reconnecting local, regional, and national bodies. Are they applicable to USARFU's formative setup (geographic unions, college conferences, high school states)?

End of college ITTs to wrap up men's rep game

2012-01-27T09:50:43-08:00

The college all-star tournament is facing its end, a move that would draw the curtain on men's representative competition in the United States.

In proposing to replace it with a invitational scouting combine, Boulder is assuming complete responsibility for elite player scouting and development, having discontinued the senior Inter-Territorial Tournament (as the select-side format was originally known) after 2008. This implies the fortunes of the All Americans and the national team will be entirely the result of top-down efforts.

Most top rugby countries rely on an intermediate level of regional teams that identify and train promising players, a system that is seen to create opportunity for outsiders while also bridging the differences between amateur and professional competition. America is thus moving in a direction that runs opposite to its rivals, as well as the course chair Kevin Roberts and chief executive Nigel Melville set out upon taking the helm in 2006, when the North American 4 'sub international' tournament was launched.

'After discussion between the internal departments of events, college, and high performance, we have decided that it would be the best course of action to not hold the men’s collegiate [national all-star championship]...', USARFU operations director Jim Synder wrote in an email earlier this week.

'With the All American program not finding value in the event as a selection vehicle, and the events department having a difficult time placing the event with a host since there is little to no revenue prospects, and some of the traditional teams not fielding teams, it seemed like it would not be successful on any of those fronts.', he explained.

The combine idea is still on the drawing board, perhaps in part because the All American head coaching position has been vacant. 'We will be fleshing out the details of the replacement event over the coming weeks', Synder wrote.

If the senior ITT was crowded out by the failed NA4, marred by ineffective technical systems and centrally managed franchises that were alien to the American rugby landscape, the collegiate version has been undermined by the ongoing shift to organization by conference. All of the division 1 teams no longer pay dues to the territories, which not only fielded the teams but provided crucial funding.

Many conference officials would prefer to concentrate their energies on invigorating the young organizations, and see representative competition as a distraction because it is not commonly found in the mainstream sports environments they are trying to emulate.

The technical perspective is decidedly mixed. Some contend that since the ITT was a one-off event which inevitably fell short of the ideal of drawing all the best players, it wasn't worth the effort. Players didn't have the opportunity to develop over time, and so were indifferent about participating. '[The Mid-Atlantic] never sent its best team in any year so far as I know. Sure, some guys just aren't available no matter what. But what's the point of sending less-than-the-best? They aren't national team caliber', one official said an email.

'Frankly, the team the [Pacific Coast] put on the field last year did not represent the deep quality of players in the [territory]. [The coach] was literally begging kids to go', another official observed.

The countervailing view is that aspiring players no longer have a fair shot at representative teams, at any level. '[The West] were unhappy when the senior men's all-stars were discontinued without an alternative and/or viable replacement. Likewise we are unhappy that the collegiate men's all-stars are being discontinued without a clear plan in place', a third territorial official observed.

'We need to be careful about doing away with a talent identification system, albeit flawed, without having something “better” to take its place', one prominent coach said in an email. 'While the majority of All Americans are already identified and pre-scouted, the ITTs help to identify the top players at lesser-known schools. How do we make sure we don’t miss the next Paul Emerick…' he said, referring to the product of the unheralded University of Northern Iowa.

USARFU would welcome the territories re-allocating their respresentative budgets to underwriting players' costs to attend, Snyder wrote. The pitch would not seem likely to succeed, since the territories no longer see themselves as a stakeholder in Boulder's elite programs.

United States to New Zealand 7s and USA 7s
Mark Bokhoven (Denver Barbarians), Miles Craigwell (Old Puget Sound Beach), Andrew Durutalo (Old Puget Sound Beach), Matt Hawkins (Belmont Shore), Colin Hawley (USARFU contract), Folau Niua (USARFU contract), Roland Suniula (USARFU contract), Shalom Suniula (captain, USARFU contract), Mike Palefau (Utah Warriors), Zack Test (USARFU contract), Peter Tiberio (USARFU contract), Maka Unufe (USARFU contract)

College leagues looking at new ref arrangements

2012-01-25T08:40:55-08:00

College leagues are exploring new ways of working with referees on behalf of their members.

The experiments address the problem of securing trained officials without aggravating American rugby's general scarcity, which had been a primary worry about the university game's separation from the legacy territorial system, and also look to streamline administration.

'We recognize that local societies are short on refs, and are still trying to figure out how to transition from supporting a single union to supporting multiple conferences as well as [high school leagues]', one college official said.

The eight-team Atlantic Coast Rugby League is planning to assemble a panel of conference-accredited referees from the Potomac, Virginia, and Southeast societies, according to a league representative. The move specifically aims to the relocate responsibility for match officials from teams to the league office, which will shift compensation to an invoice system.

Drawing on traditional sources, the panel would include refs of all stature: level 1 officials for varsity matches, level 2s and 3s for touch judges and junior varsity games. The approach borrows from a system used by the Mid-Atlantic territory, which used to run a regional division league, the official said.

Similar plans have been discussed by the Southeastern conference, according to another official, which shares concerns about the impact on scholastic and senior matches, but also is considering whether the model could be applied to state high school leagues.

The Northeast conference, a division 2 organization that includes Holy Cross and Providence College, last fall employed a blended approach that saw both individual teams and the league work with New England referees. One outcome: Refs who have often been paid once per season received compensation more quickly, according to a third college official.

'I expect we'll continue to rely on a local society for some time as their ability to train and provide growth opportunities for referees is far above anything we can offer at this point', he observed.

Generally speaking, senior teams work individually with referee societies that are contiguous with local unions. The Super League, however, directly contracts nationally recognized officials.

Coaching, admin roles showing signs of split

2012-01-23T11:34:09-08:00

As school and university teams evolve, coaching positions are diverging from administrative roles, possibly to the game's overall detriment.

A California high school looking for a women's coach is touting the opening as a 'dream rugby coaching job' because scheduling, logistics, and related chores are the responsibility of the school's director of rugby and its athletic department. Around the country, college leagues too are finding that many prefer technical specialization.

'Most of the coaches who are actually paid to coach can't / don't / won't serve in administrative roles', one league official said in an email. 'It is left to guys who have full-time jobs outside of rugby to both coach and administer competitions'.

As the game attempts to populate America's continental expanse, volunteerism is likely to persist, no matter whether it is organized by territorial or geographic union, state, or conference. Coaching stirs the blood because it's close to the action, while administration is not only thankless and obscure but also a responsibility shared with rivals, meaning no one wants to devote too much time and effort.

But separating how the game is organized and packaged from playing and coaching risks unmooring the sport from its primary competitive nature. Coaches, a team's single most influential voice, ought to be part and parcel of game development, to help shape routine administrative practice.

As one example of schism, staging the 2008 collegiate round of 16 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, made sense in terms of event registration and staff logistics, but created superfluous travel while taking playoff matches out of the campus environment. The following year, broad unhappiness with the collegiate territorial (all-star) competition led to calls for a coach's association.

USARFU has recently made direct grants to school leagues for professional administration, with mixed results. Some policymakers are now discussing whether the geographic unions that are to replace the territories might employ full-timers.

Since the GUs are meant to govern senior rugby, however, it is unclear how such staff would work with the independent high school and college organizations that have already taken root. The conversation is preliminary, according to people familiar with the matter.

For their part, should school leagues develop commercially, they would soon enough have to decide when and how to reinvest in expanding capacity.

James Paterson used an illicit narcotic during the World Cup and therefore has been sidelined for four months, the International Rugby Board announced Friday.

During routine drug testing, Paterson acknowledged taking oxycodone for a shoulder injury, on the recommendation of the national team's medical staff.

'This was a very unfortunate case in the sense that it could have been avoided by referencing the [World Anti-Doping Agency] Prohibited List which is provided to all unions and was proactively made available to all participating teams and players prior to and during RWC 2011,' IRB anti-doping manager Tim Ricketts said in a prepared statement.

In addition to being the only failed drug test at the quandrennial championship, the case has attracted attention because the 24-year-old is native to Christchurch, New Zealand, and has played Super Rugby for the Crusaders.

The snafu is a major black eye for USARFU, which separately had recently been audited by the federal Department of Labor regarding improper player payments. Unlike most of American rugby, the national team is professionally managed.

The suspension began last October and extends through February.

All American coach on tap next month

2012-01-20T12:27:45-08:00

The next All American coach is to be named in February, USARFU has pledged, half a year after Alex Magleby bowed out with a series win over New Zealand Universities Under 21.

Matt Sherman of Stanford and Kevin Battle of UC Santa Barbara, both of whom were part of World Cup management team, are thought to be leading candidates.

The collegiate opening is pregnant because the senior team has started a new four-year World Cup cycle, while last year's decision to sanction fall as the school 7s season has transformed the university calendar into the longest of any American segment. The recent world championship pointed up the comparatively short US playing season.

Regardless of whether they compete for Atlantic seaboard or midwestern teams that traditionally play 15s in autumn, most leading university players are now training from September or October through April, with a modest winter break. This positions the All American program to leverage development work done on campus, something that school-age and senior programs structurally cannot match.

America will not have a senior representative competition in 2012, USARFU officials have said, while the 'A' team that competes in October's Americas Rugby Championship is really a trials camp punctuated by a pair of matches. Domestic-based Eagles, many of whose clubs are out of season, essentially compete to make a November squad lately predominated by overseas players.

USARFU stages annual December assemblies for high school and under-19 players, something it does not do for the collegians who are generally far closer to making the senior squad. But the camps do not surmount the shorter, typically springtime seasons of scholastic players.

The 2008 All American tour proved vital to the USA's 2011 World Cup squad by advancing six new players (seven, counting an injured forward who missed the New Zealand tour). The 2011 All American assembly, which lodged a 2-1 victory over the Kiwi students, was among the best since the 2001 trip to Ireland.

The 2012 All American schedule has not been announced, though the union has spoken of playing in England. The students' match program typically requires more active groundwork than the senior or U20 schedules, which take their cues from the International Rugby Board.