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USA and Canadian Rugby

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badabing59

badabing59

Cyril Towers (30)
ABs V Eagles Confirmed for Soldier Field, Chicago on November 1st. Too early for snow hopefully. Bears have a bye that weekend, hence the empty stadium.
Will be heading across for this. (and the deep dish pizza too). Anyone interested in meeting up?
 
badabing59

badabing59

Cyril Towers (30)
waiopehu oldboy said:
Being Chicago I'd assumed the ground would have a roof?
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Ummmm no.

soldier-field.jpg
 
Omar Comin'

Omar Comin'

Chilla Wilson (44)
Very interested to see what sort of crowd they get. Would be amazing if it's a sell out or close to it. I think if publicised well they could get a fair few people along for the novelty / event factor.

Hopefully the All Blacks play crap and the Eagles play the game of their lives and keep the score somewhat respectable. I'm guessing the field will probably be a little more narrow than a usual international pitch so that might help them blunt the AB's to a certain extent.

From what I've seen of the US they have some decent players, especially in the back row and out wide...but their scrum and their 9 and 10 are poor.
 
WorkingClassRugger

WorkingClassRugger

David Codey (61)
SevensPhD said:
He (L'Estrange) has been struggling and is injured. I actually hope the Kiwi born Siddall gets the start. He is a little more exciting than the safe L'Estrange.
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He's out with a broken leg, isn't he?

Siddal would be by far the better choice from what I've seen. Does he have a contract yet. There was some talk of one on the horizon. Another option could be the young man who lead St Mary's to the D-1A title over life. Though evidently kis kicking game isn't as developed as it could be.
 
WorkingClassRugger

WorkingClassRugger

David Codey (61)
Another interesring bit of news to emerge frim the States. United World Sports the company that operates both the Las Vegas 7s and the Collegiate Rugby Championship (7s as well) will be running an exhibition of their Super 7s concept at the CRC event in Philadelphia. On live TV.

They are looking at it as a proof of concept to on sell to investors. Evidently it has existed under the name of Marathon 7s for some time. The format involve 4 quarters of 12 minutes, 16 man squads with unlimited interchange. The New York squad who competed in the World Club Sevens and Toronto (Ontario Blues) will be the teams to play in the event.

They are looking to establish an 8-12 team pro league based on a home and away format.

Evidently the exhibition has been greenlit by both USAR and the IRB.
 
Omar Comin'

Omar Comin'

Chilla Wilson (44)
Don't think I like the format. 7's is good because of its shortness and you get to watch different match ups in quick succession. Make games too long and I think it would be tedious. Some games could be 200-0, while the close ones would only get interesting at the end.

A longer 7's format would be more suitable on smaller sized pitches.
 
P

Polynesian Warriors

Frank Nicholson (4)
Would have loved 10 a side rugby to be given the notch as a Olympic sports but I agree that 7's is great as it is and if you extend the clock it will just add more misery to the lesser teams.

Sevens is suppose to be a hit when you have as many teams competing so many fans of those teams and cities/regions can watch both live or on telly. If I was any USA broadcasters I will have a 7's tournaments with all NFL teams using players who missed out on pro contracts.
 
WorkingClassRugger

WorkingClassRugger

David Codey (61)
Omar & PW,

For what it's worth I'm not entirely sold on the use of 7s as the format in the exhibition. I think a 7s game over 48 minutes is too long and as suggested be too high scoring. Effectively it could descend into farce.

I actually think it might work with the 10s format or even 11. It would still provide highly enyertainung rugby but also make scoring a little less easier than 7s. I thibk thet need to accoubt for the fact that 7s when played at high levels players can cover between 3-5 km in a14 min period you could see players being cimpletely shattered come the 4th quarter.
 
Omar Comin'

Omar Comin'

Chilla Wilson (44)
I wouldn't try and professionalise 10's. I think it would over-complicate the rugby landscape. One off tournaments between 15's teams maybe, but I think 7's has won the battle of the shortened formats and it's in rugby's interests to grow it further.

I think if you were trying to start a professional sevens league it would be better to stick to the standard format of the game. But it might be better to limit each day of play to about 8 matches played over 2.5-3 hours. If you had an 8 team competition you could have 2 matches for each team every game day. You could use a league table format, with every team playing each other say 4 times in the league. That would mean 14 game days with a 15th for finals.

If you had 16 teams you could use the same format with 2 divisions of 8, which would make the cross divisional finals day more interesting.

15's should really be the only format for home and away style leagues IMO.
 
WorkingClassRugger

WorkingClassRugger

David Codey (61)
I agree re:15s and I think that will come in time. Probably soon after this if it gains traction. I think we need to accept that UWS will choose the format that best suits their business plan then they'll likely just do it. What is most interesting is that the IRB have sigbed off on the concept.

While U'm not sold on the concept if UWS does succeed in this it would open the door for the full version to get in under their banner ad they are the only group with the track record in the States at present.
 
Highlander35

Highlander35

Andrew Slack (58)
http://www.scottishrugby.org/news/14/06/02/live-coverage-usa-v-scotland

Supporters worldwide will be able to watch Scotland’s opening summer tour Test match against the USA this weekend free on the Daily Record website.

The match in Houston – with new head coach Vern Cotter taking charge of Scotland for the first time – will kick-off at 1.30am on Sunday (8 June) UK time and fans can log on to dailyrecord.co.uk to catch all the live action. The game will also be available to view on the website throughout the rest of the day.

The game is the first of 16 as Scotland countdown to the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England.
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That's 10.30am in the Eastern States. They're in discussions to do the same with the Canadian side. Hooray!
 
p.Tah

p.Tah

John Thornett (49)
Kim Beazley promoting rugby in the US. Well I never

While most of the world is gearing up for the excitement of the Soccer World Cup it was the spirit of rugby union being celebrated in Washington DC this week. Ten years ago a small group of volunteers started introducing young, mostly disadvantaged African-American kids to the joys of rugby. Since then Washington DC Youth Rugby has grown incredibly. The anniversary party attracted both the Australian and New Zealand ambassadors, who've thrown their support behind the program, and a few Americans to whom rugby is still a bit of a mystery
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More in the transcript

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-31/celebrating-the-mysteries-of-rugby-union-in/5492052
 
Lindommer

Lindommer

Steve Williams (59)
Staff member
He DID play rugby in WA and while he was at Oxford. Beazley's been one of the most vocal locals to support test rugby in Perth.
 
p.Tah

p.Tah

John Thornett (49)
Scotland beat USA 24-6 in front of 20,001 (capacity 22,000) in Texas
Japan beat Canada 34-24 in front of 6,400 (capacity) near Vancouver
 
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