THIS WEEKEND
The best Sevens teams in the nation will competing for men’s and women’s titles this Saturday and Sunday at the SF/Golden Gate facilities, using Ray Sheeran Field and the GAA pitch across the street.
Games begin at 8 AM on both pitches, both days, and will be finished about five.
NEEDED: Fourth officials, scoreboard operators, and a radio coordinator.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A REFEREE TO HELP WITH THESE JOBS.
If you’d like to help, please let us know.
Fourth officials keep track of the subs, replacements and sin bins. The paperwork is easy to pick up. We like to have enough so that you only have to work half the games, so we need two for each field.
Same with scoreboard operators: you need to know when to start and stop the clock and how many points to add when something good happens. We’d like to have two per pitch.
The radio coordinators are key players: there will be half a dozen sets of four radios each. These have to be kept together, charged, provided to the team of officials one game ahead, and taken from the off-coming team immediately.
PLEASE DON’T HESITATE TO VOLUNTEER.
JULY 30 RUGBY
Marin High-School Sevens in Corte Madera
Report by Eric Rauscher:
A pleasant Sevens high school tourney. I ended up doing three pool play matches with the last one being the most exciting.
Rio Linda 19 – Kennedy 17
Rio was leading with only 30 sec left in the game. They kicked it to Kennedy and proceeded to commit three penalties in a row which allowed for quick tap-and-goes ending in a try past full time The try was scored close to touch and the conversion was missed, otherwise it would have been a tied game. Shades of things to come.
John Coppinger assigned the matches after the break and told me I was doing the third in line. Just before the start of the game he asked me if I would be willing to do two in a row. I said sure. Little did I know what was in store.
BULLARD 14/31 – Kennedy 14/30
That's right, a tied game that when into overtime and ended up only a one point difference in total score. Needles to say it was a very exciting and tiring event. Then came the second game.
Rio Linda 12/19 – Bullard 12/19
Yet another tied game that ended up tied in overtime play. It was eventually won by Rio in a kick off.
After two back to back games that went into overtime, I was a tired puppy but happy.
I did notice that the level of play by all the teams that showed up was fairly high. This bodes well for the future of 7s rugby.
RENO ZEPHYRS 55 – Bishop, CA 12 Referee: Phil Ulibarri
TJs: Corey Lott and Nelo Lui
Most Bishop players drove into Reno on Friday night in order to get underway earlier than usual on a Rugby Day and beat-the-heat. But, even at 11:30 a.m., the temperature was hovering between 95 and 100 F. Thank goodness the pitch was Terrace Park which is located at the base of Peavine Mountain. So a steady 5-10 mph wind kept players relatively cool.
3/20s were agreed on at the coin toss and Reno kicked downwind to Bishop to open the first stanza. The young Bishop team – while enthusiastic – was no match for the experienced Zephyr 15, even though neither a game plan nor strategy played any part in the Reno win. A dislocated shoulder suffered by Bishop’s touring player from Punta Arenas, Chile, was the only injury on the day. The final tally added up 55 - 12.
After a sweaty 60 minutes in the dry heat at 4,500 ft, burgers, dogs, chicken and ice cold beverages were welcomed by everyone.
Mendocino Round Robin Tourney
Report by Mike King:
At least one side had to cancel, so this Mid-Summer event involved 3 sides: host Mendocino, new club Sons of Jefferson, and the Hooligans select side. It was decided to follow the format of some other round robin events and play 20 minute halves, each team to play one direction, then switch at 20 and go off the pitch after 2 halves. I was fortunate enough to ref several halves with Hooligan player-coach and Pelican ref, Sean Peters, covering the final stanza.
For a while it seemed it would turn into a hot afternoon, but the weather stayed very pleasant. Every side got in some good time and each side got on the board with scoring during the round-robin. The actual play was quite organized given the time since last regular competition and the baptism of many new players on the Sons of Jefferson. It is always heartening to see a new club continue to battle under fire, and improve during the course of the competition. Well played by all.
BROTHERS IN ARMS
Your writer attended the Referee and Laws committee meeting in Birmingham, Ala, last weekend, at the Olympic Training Center at the Lakeshore Foundation .
Rugby has been welcomed to the family of Olympic sports and now can share in some pretty good deals for room, board, and training and meeting facilities.
It was good to see Pelicus Epicuris, Ron Myers, in attendance as the new chairman of the PCRRS.
The Quad Rugby team was in residence at Lakeshore. After their coach and one of their top refs came to speak to the group, it was decided to have an early-enough dinner to attend their scrimmages that evening.
These guys, the current World Champions, are preparing for a tournament in Brazil next month, and then of course the Paralympics are in London next August.
They have a motto – ‘Smashing stereotypes one hit at a time’.
To qualify, the athlete has to have neurologic or anatomic (amputations, birth defects) in at least three extremities. One of the best players on the USA team is a quadruple-amputee, having had above-the-knee and above-the-elbow amputations all around. But ah! – he can move his torso and leverage his hips, which gives him an advantage over those with cervical injuries.
You’ve got to love a sport that allows a fellow who might evoke pity on the street to be Quade Cooper, reading the defense, outhustling everyone, putting in his hits, seeing the field as it will be a few seconds hence and scoring almost at will.
It obviously has nothing to do with rugby except that it's a hard-core sport. But they obviously feel the bond and now, so do we.
UPCOMING
Saturday, August 13: Samoan Flag Day tournament, fifteen-a-side, in San Francisco
Saturday, August 20: Sac Lions Sevens at Witter Ranch Park in Sacramento
Saturday, August 27: Peroni Capital Tens at Danny Nunn Park in Sacramento
Saturday, September 3: Bloomfield Cup, men and women fifteens in the South Bay
(This will be a two-day tournament. Not sure if the other day will be Friday yet.)
The women’s cup season also begins on September 3 with the Triple Threat hosting the SF Fog.
Saturday, Sept. 10: Tri-Tip Sevens in San Luis Obispo. Rooms provided Friday and Saturday night, within walking distance of Saturday’s post-match pub crawl.
Also: Amazons hosting Lady Razorbacks
Saturday, Sept. 17: Amazons – West Bay Angels
Saturday, Sept. 24: Triple Threat – ORSU
Saturday, October 1: Chico State alumni games. Lots ‘o rugby.
THIS WEEK’S PHOTO
On the occasion of David Williamson stepping down as our REO, the East Bay chapter of the NCRRS had a dinner at Crogan’s in Walnut Creek:
Standing, left to right: Chris Nolan, John Cullom, John Coppinger, Rich Anderson, Helen Marcus, Rob Hendrickson, Bryant Byrnes, Eric Rauscher (foreground).
Seated: Guest of honor
HAIL, PELICUS!
For the Senate
Pelicus Scriptoris
