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Written by Pat Clifton
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 20:02 |
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Krewe Brings New Crew to Nationals |
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Clubs -
Men's DII Clubs
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 When a men’s club wins a national championship, and even more specifically, when a DII or DIII men’s club wins a national championship, there is often a rash of retirements the offseason thereafter.
Some guys figure they’ve reached the top of the mountain and there’s nowhere to go but down, and some were taping their body parts together just long enough to reach the pinnacle. For whatever reason, national championships beget retirements.
The Tampa Bay Krewe, defending DII national champs, were no exception after taking the title in a dramatic final against Doylestown last year. That, plus some defections for other reasons, has Krewe defending its title in Glendale, Colo. this weekend with a new crew.
“What we were faced with in the fall is, like every team that wins a championship, we had guys that were going to retire,” said Tampa coach Dai Morgan.
“We had a couple of guys who said, ‘That’s it for me, now I’m going to go out on a high,’ so we had to replace them. We had a couple of guys move away, move out of state. We have a lot of military people involved with the club, and one of our guys transferred, and that’s what you deal with when you have a military influence in your group.”
Morgan says about 10 starters from the 2010 national title team are back this season. That’s a loss of 33-percent. But Tampa has bolstered its roster with a rash of new players.
Headlining the list of newbies is Leslie Mango, formerly of the Maryland Exiles and Atlanta Old White 7s. The powerful Kenyan goes about 6-6 and 240 pounds and is a bruiser in Krewe’s back row.
One of the key losses for Tampa was a guy who, like Mango, moves faster than his stature would imply -- wing Shane Stewart. Stewart was a beefy wing, weighing in well over two bills and proving a tough tackle on the perimeter. He took a job opportunity in his Texas hometown. A newcomer and a veteran returning from a tour in Afghanistan are helping fill the void left by Stewart.
“Everyone said ‘Oh my God, how are you going to replace Shane?’,” recalled Morgan. “We picked up a young boy from USF, Travis Miller, who we think a lot of, and Jeff Brill was part of our club for half the season last year, then he got posted to Afghanistan before the playoffs, but we’ve had him all season this year and he’s developed into a fine player.”
One of the most exciting newcomers is Jason Grant, who was a scholarship quarterback at Florida Atlantic before transferring to South Florida and picking up rugby.
“We changed him from a No. 8 to a center, and while he’s a little raw, it’s his first season in men’s rugby, the guy’s been a standout all season,” said Morgan.
“We switched him as soon as I saw his feet, and if you’re an option quarterback, think about being an inside center. You can see all of those holes appearing and closing on offense and defense. He’s had to adjust to playing top-flight rugby, and he’s had to adjust to changing positions. He’s only been playing rugby for two years, but he’s come on really well.”
The infusion of new talent, coupled with the core of the old guard, has Morgan seeming confident in his team’s chances to repeat.
“I think we’re a more complete team this year,” he said. “We’ve managed to fill out the squad with players who are as good, if not better, than the guys that have left. I’m pretty happy with the squad this year.”
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Wednesday, 01 June 2011 17:40 |
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Eagle Front Rowers Working on Scrum |
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National Teams -
USA Men
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 The England Saxons team may be a young one, but they will still be a challenge to the USA in Saturday’s opening match in the Churchill Cup.
And of all the challenges, the biggest one is the scrum. The USA has a new scrum coach in Fiore Screnci and everyone working in the front row knows that pack-down time will be important.
“Anytime you get a new scrum coach you get some new technique, some new lingo. It’s going pretty good so far,” said hooker Phil Thiel of Life University. “We’re picking up some new little tricks and stuff like that. Fiore is getting used to us and we’re getting used to him.”
“We’ve been working [the scrums] in,” added prop forward Eric Fry. “It’s definitely something we wanted to work on because not all of us have been together as much as we’d like.”
The big question has been how Screnci slots in as coach of the scrum after Bill LeClerc was let game last fall after several years with the USA pack. Screnci has a different philosophy than LeClerc, and this is the first time he has assembled with the full national team.
Screnci brings more of a European approach to the scrum, preferring a tighter bind throughout the front eight, and a conventional strike from the hooker (usually right foot, sometimes left foot, hooking the ball between the legs of the loosehead prop).
This compares to LeClerc’s New Zealand style, which calls for a looser (and therefore more comfortable) bind, and the hooker pushing the ball back between his legs.
Both work on similar concepts of how to prepare your body to push, and both, in the end, recognize that the Eagles are still stressed in the scrum, and need a quick strike.
“As with a lot of scrum coaches you want to get the ball in and out as quick as possible,” said Thiel. “When you’re against the Saxons you want to get the ball in and quickly move it out of there. But most teams are going to work on that.”
The players themselves have been working on things, too; most obviously Fry, who has put on weight and power and worked hard on converting himself from, essentially, a college lock/flanker into an international prop.
“I am feeling more comfortable, but definitely have a ways to go,” said the former Cal captain, now with Las Vegas. “It’s definitely been a challenge. At Cal I played one year at tigthhead and it was difficult for me at the college level. When I came up here [to the USA team} it was even more difficult. A lot of the guys have been doing it semi-professionally and professionally. So it has been a challenge, but it’s good to be challenges, and I have been working hard at it.”
The set piece will be enormously important for the USA as time goes on. Since scrums occur at so many different situations: knock-ons, forward passes, ball not coming out of a ruck, ball not coming out of a maul, option on free kick of penalty, option on kickoff not ten meters, option on not straight lineout throw, then the USA needs to be better at it to be better internationally.
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Written by RUGBYMag Staff
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 16:23 |
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Audio: Lou Stanfill |
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RUGBYmag Premier -
Video and Audio
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USA loose forward Lou Stanfill checks in with Bruce McLane leading up to the Churchill Cup.
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Written by RUGBYMag Staff
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 16:26 |
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RuggaMatrix America: Show 57: Birds Chirpin' |
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MultiMedia -
RuggaMatrix America
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 Spring is in the air, but it's not the birds (or the bees) that force some of our RuggaMatrix panel outside ... it's a computer virus. So the birds are chirping in the background and they are squawking in the foreground as Alex Goff rants about unjust player bans, Bruce McLane rants about the Eagles and what they really should be doing at the Churchill Cup, and Pat Clifton riffs on frustrations surrounding the USA 7s team.
To listen click here, or right-click to download.
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Written by Pat Clifton
Wednesday, 01 June 2011 14:41 |
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Palmer, O-Club Seek First DI Title |
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Clubs -
Men's DI Clubs
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 Olympic Club has been to the national semifinal twice before, in 2007 and 2008. Palmer has been three times, last year (2010), 2001 and 1995.
Both storied clubs have members who feel they should already have one of USA Rugby’s eagle-shaped trophies in their respective cases, but after Olympic Club and Palmer meet Saturday at Infinity Park in Glendale, Colo. in the 2011 semifinal, only one team will still have a shot at the bronzed bird, while the other will go home disappointed, again.
Asked if he thought this felt like the year they’d win it all, Olympic Club center Matt Rose said simply and earnestly, “Yes.”
Palmer center Mike Junk elaborated a little more when posed with the same question.
“I feel like we’ve got some good drive. We’re ready to be there,” he said. “We only lost a few key starters from the pack. Although we’re smaller, we’re definitely fit and ready to be out there and see what the Olympic Club’s got. I think everyone’s just excited to try and bring back a championship.”
Olympic Club’s lineup features some pretty familiar names. Cal All-American Keegan Engelbrecht is their flyhalf, Cal All-American and Eagle Rikus Pretorius is at No. 7 (Well, No. 6. He’s South African), Eagle No. 8 Kort Schubert anchors the back row, and former NFL and Stanford defensive tackle Carl Hansen is a cog in the engine room.
Palmer’s bunch perhaps possesses a little less star power. Jarod Selby is an international 7s player, but for Canada, so his name probably raises fewer eyebrows in the American club scene. English scrumhalf Luke Stringer is a very skilled player, but just in his first year of American rugby, he too isn’t a broadly known talent. Ryan Duklas is a UW-Whitewater All-American and the Dragons’ No. 8, but he probably isn’t as famous as Engelbrecht.
These two talent-chocked rosters should create some interesting matchups. How will Duklas handle lining up across from Schubert?
“I would wage caution comparing any American No. 8 to Kort Schubert,” said O-Club coach Ray Lehner. “Kort’s a pretty special player, and there’s a lot that Kort does for our club, but I don’t know a lot about this Palmer kid, so we’ll have to wait and see how they match up.”
Pretorius is arguably O-Club’s best player, but will he find his usual measure of success against one of Palmer’s best defenders, strong-side flanker and former Kutztown standout James Fitzgerald?
Engelbrecht has as accurate a boot as there is in DI, but if he misses when going for territory, the ball will likely find its way into the hands of Selby, a lethal attacker. This matchup, amongst all others, could be the key to success or failure for either club.
“The No. 1 goal would be to not kick (Selby) the ball, and if we have to, we hope to turn him around,” said Lehner. “We don’t really treat is as a special order, it’s just kind of good rugby tactics to never kick the ball to a fullback with a wide field in front of him.”
Controlling possession with forwards and territory with smart kicking is Olympic Club’s gameplan. To disrupt it, Palmer needs to play strong one-on-one defense.
“They sound like a pretty well-balanced team,” said Junk of O-Club, “and I feel if we catch them with our forwards, if we make good tackles right at the breakdown, don’t let them suck us in too much and shoot it wide on us, I feel defensively, if we tackle hard and keep them short yardage at every breakdown, we should be able to hang with them pretty well.”
Olympic Club and Palmer kick off at 4:30pm local time. The winner plays either host Glendale or the Boston Irish Wolfhounds 4pm Sunday.
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