Monday, February 10, 2014

15s Action this Weekend in Florida and Regional Eagles Training Camp Update

While the Stars are a touring rugby 7s side, all of our athletes participate in the 15s game as well. The men's side of things offers more viability for 7s specialists to focus exclusively on 7s training but seasonality, the lack of tournaments, and the lack of as many qualified 7s programs tends to prevent women in the US from having the same option.

Plus 15s is just plain fun as our Stars in action this weekend in Florida can attest. The FAU collegiate women hosted FIU in a thrilling Friday night match-up that was anyone's game heading into the final minutes. The game remained scoreless for much of the first half with FIU finally putting in a try about 30 minutes into the match. The score remained 5-0 up until the final minutes when two more FIU tries - both set up by breakaways up the middle from flyhalf Kim, sealed the game with a 15-0 final.

The Stars reunite post-game Friday evening

I got some 15s action in as well, meeting up with a few of my Beavers 7s teammates to train with their home club Fort Miami Women on Thursday night; I loved the athleticism and camaraderie of the team so much that I transferred my CIPP and will be playing some additional games with them this spring on the road to nationals!  Saturday saw me start the match against the Jacksonville Sinners as loosehead prop and enjoy every minue of a 56-5 win for Fort Miami. Photos of both games to be posted later thanks to Stars and FAU Coach Eyal Hakim!

aside: Follow @rugbyacademyusa on twitter for the play by play from FAU/FIU action as well as Ft Lauderdale men's match up vs the Miami Tridents on Saturday. The Rugby Academy will be live tweeting games each weekend from all over the South!

The USA Women Eagles were also in action this weekend with 4 regional training camps held around the USA. As a part of their #finalin14 initiative for this year's Women's Rugby World Cup, the Eagles have a thorough training regimen to adhere to (also detailed on Eagles 365 website). The regional camps allow for assemblies including fitness testing, classroom session, and on-field training which then feed into a larger camp this weekend in State College, PA.

More from the USA Rugby website:

Women's Eagles set for February ETCs

Women's Eagles set for February ETCs
BOULDER, Colo. -- The journey to the World Cup continues for the Women’s Eagles with Eagle Training Centers hosting training sessions for pool players. Four sites are set to host smaller assemblies Feb. 8-9, while another hosts its camp Feb. 15-16.

Denver, Minneapolis, Palo Alto, and Chula Vista ETCs will host parts of the Women’s Eagles progression this coming weekend with the State College ETC following a week later.

General fitness assessments will be interlaced with tactical sessions throughout the two-day ETC events.
“There is a lot to be covered from a technical skill standpoint and we need to make sure players are improving in fitness,” Eagles Head Coach Pete Steinberg said. “The camps are essential for us in moving forward and getting to where we want to be come August.”

Steinberg furthered the importance of the ETC sites hosting events leading up to the World Cup.
“Since the U.S. is such a large country, it is incredibly difficult and impractical to have full team assemblies every month,” he said. “The ETCs give us the ability to achieve full team assembly goals but on a smaller scale in terms of participating players.”

For the upcoming ETC assemblies, three on-field sessions will be coupled with two classroom sessions, two weight room sessions, and a video session to pack the limited schedule.

“It’s going to be a lot for the players to handle mentally,” Steinberg said. “However, it is more about extending what was learned in the January assembly and applying it at a faster pace.”
Getting players repetitions is a main priority for Steinberg on the weekend.

“We need players to get as many repetitions as possible so that everyone can improve the skills we need to implement out patterns,” he said. “Since we don’t get the chance to assemble as often as we’d like, we have to give them as many opportunities now to understand the patterns of play we will be using.”

Following the ETC assemblies, the Eagles will travel to Canada for a two-test series with the northern foe April 11-20. Tentative games are slated for April 15 and 19, respectively. Locations and times for the matches have yet to be determined.

The IRB Women’s Rugby World Cup 2014 is scheduled for Aug. in Paris. The Eagles have been grouped with Ireland, Kazakhstan and New Zealand for the tournament.

Support the Eagles in their quest for “Final in ‘14” by following the team via Facebook and Twitter (@USAWomenRugby).

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