Silicon Valley rugby classic

https://www.facebook.com/SiliconValleyRugbyClassic

http://www.gofundme.com/siliconvalleyrugbyclassic

RUGBY NEEDS NEW PLACES TO PLAY, take a chance

There is what i believe a major problem off the field that USA rugby should address,crowds. Huston was amazing and a good sign with crowds from last year and this year showing up big. i think we can all agree that the LA and New York market have been over kill, dead horse, bust and USA rugby needs to stay away from those markets for the next few years. USA rugby has now played a few games in the past few years in both markets and has yet to capitalize. so far Huston and San Jose/Santa Clara have both been great crowds for international rugby (hence the reason why i don't understand why rugbylaw will only focus on east coast teams). to a further extent and i maybe out there by my self, glendale needs to be left off for a while, to many games played in one location can exhaust the fan base in the location.

Huston is a plus and for now a permanet location for quite a few years for usa rugby to continue to return to. But what of other locations and what to do for the other home games? this is where usa rugby should rotate games amongst other cities and stadiums. even if they are 10k seat stadiums.
 the bay area has undoubtedly some of the best and still growing rugby in the country, and with two more state of the art stadiums coming online in the next year there are plenty of facilities and support amongst the numers growing clubs in the region. you have Stanford stadium (50k) - levi stadium (68k expandable to 75k) - san jose earthquakes stadium (18k with easy way to bring in temp stands to over 20k) and smaller buck shaw 10k(+) <----- take your pick

also there is the growing argument for usa rugby to finaly make a splash in the NW. oregon is limited to stadiums but still have two great locations for potential matches. portland (20k +) and eugen (54k), alittle further up you have seattle with the aging tacoma dome that can seat 5-20k, then you have centrylink field that has proven to be a huge succes with soccer averaging well over 35k a game and can seat up to  67k. mixed in with a little more smaller more intement in the shadows of the SPACE NEEDLE is the venue memorial stadium 17k.

what i have always wondered is why USAR does not rotate games amongst cities in specific regions to see whats the best fit. example is say we get 3 home test matches , why not play one in the west, another in the east, and the third game in the Midwest region. of course pending who the games are against specific games should be played in specific regions, usa vs Tonga may be played better on the west coast versus some where in the the mid west. when i say west i dont mean just California,Oregon,and Washington i am also including Nevada,Idaho and Arizona. USA soccer is very particular one where games are played to ensure the largest crowds are drawn up. Columbus has proven that when those big games are on the line they are a great place for usa soccer to turn to. Seattle recently has shown usa soccer that they can pull together great fans and atmosphere for national games.

who knows maybe Tulsa or Rochester New York, or even Columbus Ohio will be a great location with rambunctious fan support for Rugby, Indiana has been making some great strides with the youth development. with the potential chance of USA Rugby getting to host the 2018 7's world cup and even the 2023,2027 xv's world cup it would be good to show the IRB that they have more then a few cities to choose from to host events, that they have a handful of cities an regions that could easily support high profile games.

HUGE NEWS: World Arena Rugby Returns

This Is American Rugby: World Arena Rugby Returns: By Grant Cole Fifteen years after the initial offering in Dallas, Texas, World Arena Rugby (WAR) returns for an August 16-17, 201...

This Is American Rugby: Video: A Day In the Life In Moscow, Magleby Checks...

This Is American Rugby: Video: A Day In the Life In Moscow, Magleby Checks...: The men's and women's 7's teams have been pretty busy in Moscow preparing for this weekend, but that doesn't mean they can&...

Spotlight of a Rugby Player

Q&A with new SJSU team President ~

   A few months back I wrote about a Q&A I had with then San Jose State Rugby club team president. Since then the team has gone through their annual voting to see who next seasons club president will be, and this being now the “offseason” of rugby for most college teams. I reached out once more to the new team club president Jeremy Bielby.~

for a refresher on what was talked about last time click here---> http://llrugby.blogspot.com/2013/03/san-jose-state-university-rugby.html

________________________________________________________________________

LLR: What is the history of your rugby playing career thus far and what is your major while at san Jose state.

Jeremy Bielby: I started playing rugby my sophomore year of college 3 years ago (I will be going into my 5th year at SJSU) with some pretty amazing guys under head coach Rick Humm and we ended up being nationally ranked. The following season under Ken Bousfield was more of a struggle, but I still learned a lot that season more so about how the rugby team was run and how to organize and keep the team running. This past season under James Fonda went great and the club is going in directions that I didn't think were possible when I first started. I'm majoring in Justice Studies and SJSU.

LLR: You are the new club president of sjsu rugby, the process is different from club to club around the country, what is the process and how can one stay in that position whether its president or treasure and so on.

JB: I have been working with the school through the SJSU Club Sports program for the past 2 and half years I came into being the new president by being last year’s vice president and learning what the club needs and what has to happen behind the scenes to have a successful team on the field. We also held elections were current players could run for officer positions and people would vote on who they felt was most fitting for the position. The president position in our club kind of comes with experience and number of years with the team, but most importantly the person’s dedication to the team. A person keeps the position by fulfilling their duties and by being re-elected by their teammates.

LLR: Christopher Eyre the last president stated that this team has a bunch of underclass men playing, is there or are there plans going into the off season to get those guys and the team more rugby games before next season starts.

JB:  Some of the young guys have joined various 7s programs over the summer depending on where they are living for the summer. We also are in the process of setting up a good pre-season schedule for the fall and winter.

LLR: Has there been any discussion to maybe travel to other locations to play games against other college clubs.

JB: There has been some talk of trying to take a trip to Southern California this upcoming season if we can afford it to do a tour and play a number of teams down there. There has been talk that in the future when the team can build good financial foundations that they could travel out of the United States to possibly Italy and some other European countries to play rugby.

LLR: Can you tell us what the current conditions are and the facilities that you guys have to work with there at San Jose State.

JB: Currently we practice and play at the SJSU south campus on the field that is most commonly known as the "tail gate" field for the football games next to the stadium. It’s not bad but the field especially during football season takes a beating and can be a little rough to play on. One of the future goals for the club like many others would to be having their own pitch with a club house.

LLR: Like anywhere else in the country rugby has to battle with “soccer” for land space and playing fields, has there been any idea thrown out there to try and land a Rugby Specific field for SJSU or have a partnership with any other clubs in the area to make it happen.

JB: Currently we share the field with every club sports team that requires a grass field for example lacrosse, men's/women's soccer, and ultimate Frisbee. We also have to share facilities with intramural sports like football and soccer. And there has been some talk/dreaming of acquiring some land by campus to have a rugby stadium that could be used by primarily us but by a women's team if one eventually come to SJSU again.

 

I will be doing another Q&A with SJSU rugby after next season kicks off. If you have any further questions please feel free to comment below or reach me at @LLRugby and please feel free to visit sjsurugby.com

Independence cup - postponed reaction

with the recent news of YET again another rugby game that was suppose to bring in big media attention and potential start of a PRO-LEAGUE we all want being postponed or delayed, how ever you wish to read it, i feel like i should write about some reactions including mine of when i heard the news at first and now that time has passed how feelings are now.

now some may say when RugbyLaw first came out with the news of  a game in august against London Irish that there is not enough time to bring in the 30k they wanted. We now see that they to realized that. My question is then why did they even break the news with so little time if they knew it would have been hard to bring in that many people. at first I was just as mad as many of those out there that this game was postponed , but now time has set in i am happy that rugbylaw has seen the writing on the wall before it goes too far and blows up in everyone’s face of it being a total failure. they claim that everything is still in place for next year and they will go with the game, there main point really is to make sure they can sell those 30k butts in the seat.

i have a few issues with all this. First why target a NFL stadium, Why not a MLS stadium? I understand the main target for potential owners is deep NFL pocket owners to use their own stadiums in the off season, but do you really need a 60-70 thousand seat stadium to show that? To be as ambitious as to think 30k will be the norm is outrages. Super rugby and Aviva barley get over 20k on good matches. So what makes us think we can do so much better?

With both back to back big showings in Huston now with last year’s match and now this year’s 20 thousand crowd you have to think that it has to have gotten some attention amongst the few wealthy.  What of the so called 10 million investor from New York who poured her money into the supposed Grand Prix 7s, or why not target mark Cuban.  He has not been quite about his college playing career and how rugby has helped shape him. With being in Dallas also I sure hope someone is busy trying to get his attention.

One issue everyone doesn’t really see is that by having the game one the nfl network you actually limit your audience. Not everyone and not every provider have NFLN. Besides lining up the nfl network there should also be a push to get the two matches shown on the NBC (since they seem to be the only ones interested in showing any usa rugby games) or why not shoot after fox sports 1. The further you toss your net the more people eyes you’ll catch.

My last problem I have with rugbylaw is the recent “bashing” against USA rugby and Nigel. If you are a follower on twitter you are able to see some exchange between the two. It is not very professional to call out the CEO of the sport you wish to professionalize, let alone attack him for the public to see because you never know when both paths may have to cross down the road. Rugby maybe my number one sport I am passionate about but like many of you I to have other interest, soccer being the other. With Rugbylaw constantly putting down the MLS and stating they are/were a developmental league and that the Rugby League they wish to start must be full on professional from the beginning is also a bad move for those of us who sit on both sides of the fence. Regardless if you are a soccer fan or not you can’t deny then fact that what the mls has done for usa soccer is what we all wish any rugby league can do the same for the Eagles.(soccer in the USA has three tiers, MLS,NASL,USL PRO and each are slowly every year gaining more and more fan support and better deeper pocket owners) Developmental or not there should be rules set in place to cater more toward the USA/Canada rugby player, such as it is in northern and southern hemisphere. It took MLS almost 15 years before more than one club was profitable because even they knew that bringing in big players from the beginning was a big mistake, then and only then when there was a clear set path to pull each club out of the red did they start to give the okay for clubs to sign major stars. To say that each club will have that right from the get go is not only crazy but horribly wrong decision for owners. What if said owner of franchise team C is only getting 8k a game and he already has three or four players signed up for 900k to 2 million. That owner is going to fold. Start slow and build your way up.

Regardless what all your opinion is of Rugbylaw, this is the best we have so far the, the closest we will have. The best thing we all can do is when and if this game is played next year gather as much people as you can and attend the game. And when the league gets going support as much as you can, because if the league fails a few years in then you bet it will be a huge setback for any future development of any other start up rugby league. Now I am a little sad that this will only take place on the east coast but after thinking I would be open to a 2^nd league starting on the west coast with obvious potential of merger, and to a small degree welcome Super rugby to the west coast.  It’s just getting to the point where a majority of us just want something already!

This Is American Rugby: Video: USA-Ireland Highlights, Post-match Reaction...

This Is American Rugby: Video: USA-Ireland Highlights, Post-match Reaction...: Take the jump to read more.

Reaction to USA V. IRELAND match

now that time has passed since the ending of todays game in which usa lost by only 3 points, I feel calm enough to write my reaction to todays game.

First off let me say that due to being at work during this game I had to miss pretty much the 2nd half. but was able to catch the last 7 mins.

there are going to be two types of people after this game, first type are going to walk away and say usa played a great game and this showed a good sign in what's to come. not long ago usa was being blown out by 15 to even 30 points by tier 1 nations. but now to play a good game last year against Italy and to lose by only 3 this year to Ireland. imagine 5 to 10 years from now when we should start to really see the benefits of the youth boom of rugby in America these last few years. France should be scared next year. Then you'll have the second group who I was with at first, saying that usa should of won this game. Ireland didn't have there strongest team and to many child penalties were given. enough moral victories we need W's now. USA has to pull a few wins in the rest of the PNC and beat Canada in RWC qualifiers.

regardless what your stance is there are a few things you have to take away form this. one being usa did play Ireland great and if you look at the bigger picture they actually held them to low points and no try's. lost by 3 and was only a few extra steps (hume on his pick up off his own kick) and a lucky bounce (manoa kick that ngweny could of gotten) away from actually winning this game. plus the other plus side that you should look at off the pitch is that yet again another record was set for most watched usa test match game. over 20k showed up despite what was expected to be very hot weather. you bet next years match will be in Huston yet again. my only two cents about this is I hope they (USA rugby) promote the other home games just as much as they did this one down the line. if USA rugby where to put even half the effort they put into promoting this game into all the others you bet more then likely numbers will rise at those venues. (im sorry but as nice as Glendale is enough games there, start spreading home games to other cities and venues you never know you may strike another Huston gem, this rant is for another time)

over all im happy with what was played and look forward to next weeks match against Tonga. #USARUGBY