The Allied Rugby Conference enjoyed a brace of tryfests in its XVs season openers as Oklahoma found space in Baylor's midfield and Texas Tech spun the ball wide and often against Sam Houston. With one win each, Tech and Oklahoma enjoy a week at the top of the ARC standings with the Red Raiders edging out the Sooners by a point more in the PD column.
Tech brought their speedsters to Huntsville and profited from getting the ball into their hands. Wing Abdul Sule dotted five tries and center Kyle Kulka found space with four tries accounting for half of the Red Raiders' take. However, scrumhalf Robert Poyser made a difference at the hinge - producing quick ball for his flyhalf to deliver outside, slotting seven conversions, a try of his own, and garnering Man of the Match honors from his coach, Grant Murchison.
Murchison was understandably proud of his charges on the day but noted, "(W)e really started (to get) away from the game plan in the 2nd half and kicked too much possession away. We will work this upcoming week to improve our discipline in that area.” Kicking away possession may work against a inexperienced team, but it is disastrous against teams with the experienced and sizable pace-setters that the Longhorns and the Aggies possess.
Ken Forehand's Sooners rode into Waco with a purpose and realized it, but not without a fight in the trenches. Baylor is big and strong in the scrums and at the breakdown and Oklahoma too often found themselves in reverse at scrum time. The Sooners reacted well to the problem and capitalized on the speed of their backline. Oklahoma backs Michael Al-Jaboori, Brad Henry and Jon “the Flying Frenchman” Gersinger combined for the majority of their tries with Al-Jaboori taking home Man of the Match for his team.
Oklahoma faces rival Texas in Austin next week. Oklahoma had the better of Texas in the October, but they faced a Longhorn side that sat the 12 men from their 7s squad for that match. Since then, Texas' Coach Neuenschwander has been working on bolstering the depth of his squad with his 2nd XV playing in the SWC. Texas-Oklahoma on February 23rd may not be the high-scoring affair it was in the Fall.
Baylor's coach Josh Neff and Sam Houston's coach Frank Rizzo both state that this weekend's routs would stand as learning opportunities for their teams. They will need to seize these opportunities immediately. Baylor travels out to Lubbock next and Sam makes a short jaunt back to College Station.
In order to staunch Tech's tide of tries, Baylor's quick and sure-tackling flanker, Marcus Appleyard, must find a way to shut Tech's 9-10 hinge in the first half to disrupt their backline operations as he did in the second half this weekend against Oklahoma.
Sam Houston has a tougher row to hoe as they meet a very good A&M side that has yet to post a win this semester. Sam needs to find a way to bolster their backline defense to prevent Conor Mills and company from echoing Tech's numbers.
Editorial:
Craig Coates eloquently and magnanimously presented his views on USAR's collegiate eligibility rules. Having fought the eligibility committee in the past as a player and a coach, I understand his purpose and reasons all too well. I was denied eligibility to play for Texas A&M while I attended after my 6 years in the Marine Corps only because I had attended one semester of college before enlisting. While I agree with Craig's position, allow me to offer a countering thought based on the point that the new eligibility rules are firmly in place and need to be dealt with in a positive light (if you choose to see it that way).
As a former college rugby coach (Appalachian St and Texas A&M), I faced an obstacle at my clubs, and observed the same at other clubs, in the presence and influence of older (24 years plus) club members who's eligibility often was questionable, or maybe not in question at all. Some of these Wooderson's (pop culture reference from the movie "Dazed and Confused") had yet to live out or want to leave their college years in a college town. Others were pursuing graduate degrees and just needed a place to get a run in. In five years of coaching college rugby, I can count on one hand the number of legitimate eligibility appeals on those teams (and my case counts as one of that number).
We don't talk about the Wooderson's of our world, mainly because we are coaches and we should be able to marginalize their behavior and influence with a positive and heavy dose of our behavior and influence, right? But we all know that is not always the case.
So I propose the following go-forward solutions for clubs with players side-lined by the new eligibility rules:
1). Establish unpaid coaching internships The American rugby community will need many more coaches in the coming years. Clubs could offer a unpaid internship to now-ineligible players with the following stipulations: complete the coaching certification course, finish out your time with the club as a coach, then the club will reimburse the cost of coaching certification at the end of that time period.
2) Establish an unpaid refereeing internship. Same idea, same reason, same execution model.
3)In the case of a single player in this situation on a club of substantial enough size, assign that player as co-captain of the 2nd XV. The younger players always need positive leadership by example. While this option may occur few and far between, I fondly remember Maxi Freschi and Marcus Drew providing such leadership.
Those are only three ideas. I'm sure the rugby-verse can invent many more positive ways to deal with this issue. We can continue to grumble about it or we can grab it by the horns and give it upside.
Tech brought their speedsters to Huntsville and profited from getting the ball into their hands. Wing Abdul Sule dotted five tries and center Kyle Kulka found space with four tries accounting for half of the Red Raiders' take. However, scrumhalf Robert Poyser made a difference at the hinge - producing quick ball for his flyhalf to deliver outside, slotting seven conversions, a try of his own, and garnering Man of the Match honors from his coach, Grant Murchison.
Murchison was understandably proud of his charges on the day but noted, "(W)e really started (to get) away from the game plan in the 2nd half and kicked too much possession away. We will work this upcoming week to improve our discipline in that area.” Kicking away possession may work against a inexperienced team, but it is disastrous against teams with the experienced and sizable pace-setters that the Longhorns and the Aggies possess.
Ken Forehand's Sooners rode into Waco with a purpose and realized it, but not without a fight in the trenches. Baylor is big and strong in the scrums and at the breakdown and Oklahoma too often found themselves in reverse at scrum time. The Sooners reacted well to the problem and capitalized on the speed of their backline. Oklahoma backs Michael Al-Jaboori, Brad Henry and Jon “the Flying Frenchman” Gersinger combined for the majority of their tries with Al-Jaboori taking home Man of the Match for his team.
Oklahoma faces rival Texas in Austin next week. Oklahoma had the better of Texas in the October, but they faced a Longhorn side that sat the 12 men from their 7s squad for that match. Since then, Texas' Coach Neuenschwander has been working on bolstering the depth of his squad with his 2nd XV playing in the SWC. Texas-Oklahoma on February 23rd may not be the high-scoring affair it was in the Fall.
Baylor's coach Josh Neff and Sam Houston's coach Frank Rizzo both state that this weekend's routs would stand as learning opportunities for their teams. They will need to seize these opportunities immediately. Baylor travels out to Lubbock next and Sam makes a short jaunt back to College Station.
In order to staunch Tech's tide of tries, Baylor's quick and sure-tackling flanker, Marcus Appleyard, must find a way to shut Tech's 9-10 hinge in the first half to disrupt their backline operations as he did in the second half this weekend against Oklahoma.
Sam Houston has a tougher row to hoe as they meet a very good A&M side that has yet to post a win this semester. Sam needs to find a way to bolster their backline defense to prevent Conor Mills and company from echoing Tech's numbers.
Editorial:
Craig Coates eloquently and magnanimously presented his views on USAR's collegiate eligibility rules. Having fought the eligibility committee in the past as a player and a coach, I understand his purpose and reasons all too well. I was denied eligibility to play for Texas A&M while I attended after my 6 years in the Marine Corps only because I had attended one semester of college before enlisting. While I agree with Craig's position, allow me to offer a countering thought based on the point that the new eligibility rules are firmly in place and need to be dealt with in a positive light (if you choose to see it that way).
As a former college rugby coach (Appalachian St and Texas A&M), I faced an obstacle at my clubs, and observed the same at other clubs, in the presence and influence of older (24 years plus) club members who's eligibility often was questionable, or maybe not in question at all. Some of these Wooderson's (pop culture reference from the movie "Dazed and Confused") had yet to live out or want to leave their college years in a college town. Others were pursuing graduate degrees and just needed a place to get a run in. In five years of coaching college rugby, I can count on one hand the number of legitimate eligibility appeals on those teams (and my case counts as one of that number).
We don't talk about the Wooderson's of our world, mainly because we are coaches and we should be able to marginalize their behavior and influence with a positive and heavy dose of our behavior and influence, right? But we all know that is not always the case.
So I propose the following go-forward solutions for clubs with players side-lined by the new eligibility rules:
1). Establish unpaid coaching internships The American rugby community will need many more coaches in the coming years. Clubs could offer a unpaid internship to now-ineligible players with the following stipulations: complete the coaching certification course, finish out your time with the club as a coach, then the club will reimburse the cost of coaching certification at the end of that time period.
2) Establish an unpaid refereeing internship. Same idea, same reason, same execution model.
3)In the case of a single player in this situation on a club of substantial enough size, assign that player as co-captain of the 2nd XV. The younger players always need positive leadership by example. While this option may occur few and far between, I fondly remember Maxi Freschi and Marcus Drew providing such leadership.
Those are only three ideas. I'm sure the rugby-verse can invent many more positive ways to deal with this issue. We can continue to grumble about it or we can grab it by the horns and give it upside.