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Back at you with another round of Talking Rugby. Perhaps the final one of 2015? Who knows? Still a few weeks left in the year, but the way this Fall has come and gone, I’m finding it difficult to keep track of the days.
Enough with the formalities, let’s talk about some rugby.
Flip Flop
It wasn’t even a year ago when I still held to the absolute belief that any hope of the USA winning a medal in Rio rested on the shoulders of the Women’s team. As the Olympics drew closer, the only the battle the men were in was the one to stay as a core team on the World Series. Meanwhile, the women were putting the heat on teams like Canada and Australia at the top of the table in Women’s 7s.
The rapid rise of the men’s team is something the entire Eagle fan base desperately wanted. Head Coach Mike Friday put in a system of accountability that resulted in record performances from the men. All the while, the gap between the USA and Canada was becoming wider and wider. Still, the women were still a team that I considered to be in the hunt for a medal in 2016. Just not likely to get the Gold.
The men continued their rise last weekend with a 3rd place finish in Dubai that included two wins over New Zealand and one over South Africa. Were it not for a bit of poor luck against England, they would have played Fiji for the championship in Dubai. If Friday wanted to throw down a marker for the rest of the season, his charges did exactly that.
Meanwhile, the women stumbled to a 1-4 record in Dubai and finishing 11th out of 12 teams. A far cry from the Top 5 in which they had been regulars. It is still a long season and plenty of time until the Olympics to get things sorted out. There has been some turnover in the squad and a coaching change at the end of the Summer. This is far from the end of the story.
The Women’s World Series has become more and more competitive each season leading up to the Olympics. The Eagle Women need to close that gap fast or risk being an afterthought at the Olympics when our rugby nation needs them to inspire a generation of female players in the USA.
Streamlining Club Rugby for the PRO Competition
I need to be careful here as this is a subject where I tend to ramble. This subject could have its own article. We’ll tear into it here though, because why not? Unless you’ve been away camping on the moon you know about PRO Rugby. I’ll make the rundown brief. Professional Rugby Competition in the USA. Six teams. Spring Season. That’s it.
One of the biggest questions I’ve been asked, read, or seen is how does it all affect club rugby? There are many facets to this question that I intend to delve into in the coming months. This time around, we’re going to talk about the club rugby season. With a Spring season for PRO Rugby, they need butts in seats. That’s prime time for a lot of club rugby. Granted, PRO Rugby officials have stated that they intend to work around the club schedule by playing games on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons. I love it. No need to try to swim up a waterfall.
Still, April-late May in club rugby has traditionally been playoff season. Lots of clubs from around the country paying exorbitant amounts of money to pursue championships scheduled almost seemingly to part clubs with hard earned money. This will almost certainly have some degree of effect on PRO Rugby financially, but where the rub will start is when clubs challenging for these titles are stripped of players during the most important time of the year. Six teams = 180 players. That’s a lot of guys about to get paid something to play rugby. They have to come from somewhere. The Eagle pool only has about 40-50 guys in it and half of them play overseas. Most club players will certainly jump ship to pursue the professional opportunity.
It doesn’t have to be that way and every indication is that PRO Rugby wants to work with clubs to make the process smooth. I believe they’ll come to an agreement. However, that won’t stop me from taking a stab at it. Especially since it could finally fix one of my biggest pet peeves with club rugby.
Here we go…
Club rugby should use a standardized club rugby season that runs from the middle of August through the middle of November. Areas that aren’t called the Midwest or Northeast could probably push that to the beginning of December if needed. That is approximately 12-15 weeks to play a full club rugby season. Note that I do not mention any sort of National Championship as I don’t the believe that it should continue. It is not only costly, but time consuming. Why not take all of those dead weekends during the playoff period and fill it with competitive matches? I believe that the club rugby season should stop at regional championships that take one or two weekends at the most to complete.
At this point, you’re wondering about the Spring. We can’t leave it completely empty just to accommodate PRO Rugby. Of course not, I propose that the Spring should be used as a pseudo-representative season. Players that are on the fringe of the PRO teams are going to need meaningful games to continue their progress and showcase their ability for scouts. Use the existing ARP and PRP teams as the starting point for a “minor league” to work in hand with PRO Rugby to develop players. Then create some city-based or territorial teams to fill in the gaps that exist such as the massive divide in competition most of the teams in the ARP and Life in Georgia. A few well placed territorial teams could be a big help to the ARP. Funnel promising players from club teams to territorial teams in the Spring.
When the Summer and Fall rolls back around they return to their home clubs. No one gets feelings hurt about losing players, players get more competitive game play, and they bring back a wealth of knowledge to their clubs to share. It’s a win for everyone.
Does this sound familiar? Could it be a similar system to what they use in New Zealand? Club to Territorial to Professional. The Kiwis are pretty good at rugby. Right? Granted, their whole country fits inside of Ohio or something like that, but you get the idea. This system can be scaled.
What if you’re not playing for a territorial team or pro team? Clubs can still play some friendlies, support the rep and PRO teams, better yet… coach youth rugby (which is a Spring sport). Most of all… have fun with it. Right now, our rugby clubs are playing almost year round. It probably has something to do with the horrible attrition rates we see at the club level. We burn people out and only the most die hard of us remain. Even if your club plays in the Spring, use it as a relaxation season and ramp things up for the Fall.
Just my two cents.
Have a great week everyone. If I don’t crank out another Talking Rugby this year, I wish each and every one of you a Merry, Blessed, and Safe Holiday season shared with friends and family. And with rugby, of course.
