USA Rugby said the All-Americans will be chosen on the basis of season-long performance, a change from past criteria, while a report from the collegiate playoffs in Albuquerque said the 48-team assemblage made it harder than in previous years to scout rival teams, and faulted the union for basic safety and organizational matters.
Incumbent coach David Smyth of Brigham Young will lead assistants 
John Everett (St. Mary's) and Craig Coates (Texas A&M). The squad will be named following the collegiate Inter-Territorial Tournament June 13-14 at Infinity Park in Glendale, a Denver suburb. Alex Magelby (Dartmouth), Curt Huckaby (Arkansas State), Bill Sexton (Truman State), Don Ferrell (Penn State), and Kevin Battle (UCSB) will join the proceedings as advisors ('selectors').
Ever since last summer's poorly managed college representative tournament in Rochester, New York, marked by sub-standard facilities, late-arriving personnel, and one team skipping the entire affair, USA Rugby's 2008 collegiate postseason has been under scrutiny. With some fanfare, Boulder this year consolidated venues for the round of 16 and quarterfinals, raising the ire of some opposed to the National Guard sponsoring a collegiate tournament.
While those concerns have fallen away, reports suggest that the schedule did not allow time to watch other matches. One coach said that teams went to Home Depot to buy ladders, in order to facilitate filmwork.
'How hard would it have been to put up some scaffolding at each field?' wrote Tennessee assistant Marty Bradley, who also serves as director of the well-regarded Tennessee high school league.
Bradley and others pointed to the irony of the massive balloon field having short in-goals, and the fields themselves being too close together.
The restraining barriers were about 15 feet off the field and featured iron fence posts. That seemed very dangerous and unnecessary considering the amount of space that appeared to be available. Probably the biggest issue though was a set of bleachers that had been rolled in for the Cal match that were only that same 15 feet from the field. I know at least two players went into those things during the Cal game. Given the available space, it all seemed very dangerous to me.
The consolidated venue has been described costly for the participants -- with some teams paying $20,000 and more to travel. USA Rugby takes in sponsorship and other event revenues, but does not offset team expenditures.
Reached by email, a USA Rugby official said she was traveling to this weekend's collegiate finals in Stanford, California, and could not immediately respond.
The Glendale venue is purposefully built for rugby. After this weekend's finals, the ITT is next on the collegiate docket, six weeks away.
Separately, Gainline incorrectly identified the most recently Under 19 player in the Eagle squad mustering next weekend in San Diego. It is Justin Boyd. (Thanks Broni.)
Related:
Collegiate ITT tournament seen in disarray
National Guard: The devil in the details, not the partner
the thing I couldn't understand is why USA Rugby couldn't do the most essential thing and put up some damn scoreboards. Watching the games half the entertainment was watching the rugby, while the other half was watching the two teams' fans discuss (or argue at times) what the scores were for the games. From what I heard as well was that USA Rugby got a lot of the scores wrong over the weekend. Games are won or lost based on scores. Playoffs are made for teams to win or lose. Shouldn't a premier playoff event like the albuquerque event(or future events) have a mode of telling joe-fan what score is? It was was small thing, but huge at the same time.
Posted by: Rugby Fan | 30 April 2008 at 10:35
Scoreboards were cost prohibitive because USA Rugby spent so much of their budget on athlete fees, transport and accommodations. Oh...that's not it...Scoreboards were cost prohibitive because the sponsor spent all their budget on temp seating for fans. Oh...that's not it....Scoreboards were not at the event because the event managers are incompetent and lazy...DING DING DING! That is it!
Posted by: What's The Score | 30 April 2008 at 14:11
Go CU, beat the old guys!!
Posted by: Go CU | 01 May 2008 at 08:08
"Reached by email, a USA Rugby official said she was traveling to this weekend's collegiate finals in Stanford, California, and could not immediately respond."
Bullshit. What was this liar doing, walking there? It's a f***ing two hour flight to Stanford. I bet she hasn't even left Boulder yet, which gave her plenty of time to email back. Stay on her case, Kurt, she's trying to BS you.
Posted by: Flynn Hagerty | 02 May 2008 at 08:21
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Posted by: tfsognwvh hqtbrzev | 22 February 2009 at 05:26