Play Rugby USA looking for Executive Director in California

Play Rugby USA just announced they are seeking a Founding Executive Director for their California Chapter. 

The California Chapter was established in 2010 and has successfully piloted flag rugby youth development programs in 20 schools throughout LA. The Bay Area program is due to start later this year. The Executive Director will be responsible for developing funding, networks and programs partnerships across California to support both LA and Bay Area programs.

POSITION(S):
They will be hiring either one or two successful candidates as follows:
1) Full Time Executive Director, Play Rugby USA – California, or
2) Part Time Executive Director and Part Time Program Manager.

Proposed start date: September, 2011.

Compensation: Commensurate with experience and performance based. Please note, as this is a Founding Executive Director position, part of the salary will be based upon the individual's ability to raise the capital required to sustain the chapter.

Reports to: Chairman Play Rugby USA – California & CEO Play Rugby, Inc.

For additional details, please download both the request for proposal (RFP) and job descriptions.

Great article on USA Rugby Referee Dana Teagarden

Received this in our email box from USA Rugby today and was too good to not re-post.

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Dana Teagarden: Enforcing the Boundaries  by  David Halvorson Jr.

Dana Teagarden was born and raised in rural Paola, Kansas and attended the United States Air Force Academy, where she began her rugby career.  In the second semester of her freshman year in 1988 she joined the rugby club and by her junior year of playing at the Air Force Academy, Dana was co-MVP of the 1991 Division I Women’s Collegiate National Championship team.  This accomplishment was quite impressive considering Dana was only in her third year of playing rugby.  She quickly acquired her high-level rugby skills largely due to her athletic and strength base from playing high school sports as well as from growing up on a farm.  But Dana also credits the rapid development of her playing skills partly to her experiences as a referee. 

Dana Teagarden in action (Credit: FSU Women's RFC)

Dana was still fairly new to rugby and its rules in 1989 and she couldn’t get consistent answers on questions she asked players, referees, and coaches.  As a result, she decided to pick up a lawbook and get to know the game more thoroughly.  Her past experience with rules as a referee in high school aided in her dissection of the laws of the game and it gave her an understanding of how to read and interpret the legal intricacies of the game.  The intent to gain further knowledge on rugby was paired with the intent to become a better player by gaining every possible advantage she could.  In this case, Dana felt that supreme knowledge of the laws of rugby and an understanding the game from a referee’s point of view could give her a big advantage as a player.  Her beliefs turned out to be true, as she was selected to the Women’s Eagles player pool in 1991, just three years after she picked up the sport.

Hells Gate 7s tournament, Saturday 23rd July

Tomorrow will see the 3rd annual 7s event, Hells Gate, hosted by the Village Lions take part in New York City.  Four eight-team divisions will square off in the final Met NY Summer 7s Series tournament of the season.  The games take place on the Wards Meadow fields on Randall's Island.

The 32 teams will kick off at 9 a.m. and cap off the day at Van Diemen’s (3rd Ave between 27th and 28th streets) from 6-10 p.m., then Hairy Monk (3rd Ave and 25th Street) from 10 p.m. onward. 

For further details, visit the Village Lions website or email tournament director Bret Costain at bretcostain@hotmail.com.

Where to watch the Tri-Nations this weekend

The 2011 Tri-Nations kicks off this weekend with the Wallabies taking on the Springboks in Sydney.  Current Tri-Nation champs New Zealand start their campaign on July 30th against South Africa.  Full schedule details are below.

But where to watch the games?  For those of you with Direct TV, tune your boxes into channel 490 to catch all the live action.  For the rest, there is a few online coverage options available but your best bet is hit up your local bar.  In New York City, both Baker Stree and The Australian will have coverage.

Baker Street at 1152 1st Avenue (at the corner of 63rd Street) will be showing the game delayed at 11am Saturday, while The Australian  at 20 West 38th Street (between Fifth and Sixth Avenues) will show the live broadcast at 6:05am.  

If you know of other venues in the city or would like to share other places around the US providing coverage, email us or post the details in the comments, on Facebook, or on twitter.

2011 Tri-Nation schedule

7/23 Australia vs South Africa 6:05am EST

7/30 New Zealand vs South Africa 3:35am EST

8/6 New Zealand vs Australia 3:35am EST

8/13 South Africa vs Australia 11:00am EST

8/20 South Africa vs New Zealand 11:00am EST

8/27 Australia vs New Zealand 6:00am EST

Come and join Play Rugby USA in the Hamptons

All are invite to join Play Rugby USA for some awesome rugby events and summer fun in the Hamptons!

Montauk Mini Clinic and Rugby Day
The first event is the Montauk Mini Clinic and Rugby Day. Please join the Montauk Rugby club for their first annual Family Day and kids mini rugby camp Sat May 21st @ 10am.  Play Rugby USA and Montauk Rugby will conduct a fun and exciting flag rugby clinic at East Hampton High School Practice Field (Long Lane East Hampton). This FREE one day clinic will reaffirm or introduce children ages 6-14 to the skills acquired by playing this fun, exciting international sport. Stay around after the clinic and join Montauk Rugby for a family BBQ and to cheer on the senior men's team as they take on Connecticut Yankees. For more details and to register, please click the link: http://2011hamptonsclinic.eventbrite.com/

Hamptons 7s Rugby
Later this summer, the 1st annual Hamptons 7s Corporate Rugby Challenge will be held on Saturday Aug, 20th, 2011.  The event will be held at the Ross School on their "upper campus", located at 18 Goodfriend Drive in East Hampton and will feature both flag (non contact) and contact brackets of competition in an action packed 1 day event.  The flag version will enable companies to enter mixed teams of men and women while the contact version this year will be limited to men's only.  Team entry for the competition is $1000 for flag and $2000 for contact and will include player passes and playing shirts or jerseys.  As part of the tournament Hamptons 7s will also create a spectacular VIP area where competitors and sponsors alike can rub shoulders before during and after the day's activities. For more information on the tournament or for a copy of the event's sponsor or team packages please email rugby@hamptons7s.com or visit www.hamptons7s.com

Summer Rugby Camp
The last event this summer is another youth camp being run by our sister company, Elite Rugby America. Two week-long camps will be held at the end of August (8/22-8/26 and 8/29-9/2). For more information on the camps, please visit http://eliterugbyamerica.com/rugby-young.html

Rugby Professionals Network NYC meeting, Wednesday July 13th, 7pm

Tomorrow night the monthly Rugby Professionals Network gathers again from 7pm onwards in Manhattan. The event takes place at Dorian Gray, 205 East 4th Street, New York (East Village) and all are welcome.

I'll be at the event and if you plan to attend, please free to drop me a line.  See you tomorrow!

The Angry Ref - "Another Reason Why Football Needs a Slap in the Mouth"

OK, so I know this isn’t totally topical anymore, nor is it completely on topic, but trust me I’ll try to bring it around.  It wasn’t long ago that the Iranian Women’s football team was disqualified from an Olympic qualifying match  because the player wanted to wear their hijab.  Now there are many issues surrounding this story including FIFA’s general ban on political and religious displays and whether the Iranian team broke a previous compromise agreement with FIFA regarding some sort of cap to replace the hijab.

I don’t want to get into the religious freedom issue, in part because it’s so inflammatory and in part because I can see both sides.  The thing is, from what I’ve seen of the reporting on this issue from both the Islamic and Western press is that FIFA is standing by their contention that the hijab presents a choking hazard.  That’s right.  Instead of standing by their established rule about political and religious statements they are instead putting forth this perplexing nonsense about safety.  Poppycock!

As a referee I would not want to see a hijab in a scrum or a ruck.  I would worry about a player in a hijab on a break away with a defender chasing them down.  I can see safety issues there in terms of both choking and whiplash types of injuries.  But that’s because I referee rugby, a sport that has actual contact as an actual part of the game.  I ask you, when in football is there enough prolonged contact of a grasping or pulling nature as to present a choking hazard?  Mind you, this is “sport” where players fling themselves to the ground, roll around and cry if an opponent passes within a meter of them.  So when the hell is anyone going to have a chance to choke anyone else?  The whole assertion is preposterous.  It seems to me to be a thinly veiled attempt to punish the Muslim world simply for being Muslim.

Get with it FIFA, stop pretending your game has any danger and clean up the egregious flopping before trying to assert any claims about protecting player safety.  Ninnies.

Super 15 Final broadcast Live in NYC tomorrow morning

The Australia bar in NYC will be showing the Crusaders vs Reds Super 15 final "LIVE" Saturday morning at 5.30am.  Full details can be found on their website here  www.theaustraliannyc.com

For those who do not have Direct TV and are unable to get to a bar showing the game, it is available online at http://www.fromsportcom.com/ 

Click on the "Other" tab on the top of the screen and then scroll down to the Reds/Crusaders game. Hey presto you will be able to watch it live from 0530. Generally more than one listing for the match but just click on the first one listed. If that doesn't work for any reason just try the next listing.  Enjoy!