RSL: Off-field matters vie with playoff races

The Super League's 2010 campaign figured to be turbulent, yet off-field matters have remained front and center late in the season.

2006 champion OMBAC postponed this weekend's away game against the Chicago Griffins for personnel reasons, a rarity, if not unprecedented, for the 14-team circuit. Last week, the league rescheduled its championship, again.

As with last fall's unexpected withdrawal of past champion Belmont Shore and then Santa Monica -- the season's first blow -- such events don't make it certain the self-administered competition will collapse. So long as the teams are willing to foot the bill, the RSL is 'in business'.

It's safer to say the Super League is a delicately balanced operation that can't take much for granted, makes some good and some bad decisions, and perpetually faces unintended consequences. The silver lining is the league by and large controls its course, to a far greater degree than most of American rugby.

Moving the final to San Francisco Golden Gate's Rocca Field, for example, is a cost-saving measure for a league that evenly shares expenditure. But the shift from Denver could also create home-field advantage for unbeaten SFGG, should it qualify for the final.

Why change at all? Having agreed USARFU's request to stage its final the first weekend in June, the league then acceded to Boulder's wish that it bring the game forward to Memorial Day weekend, in order to accommodate the start of a national team assembly. 

Once it did so, the rationale for staging the title game in Denver fell apart, according to people familiar with the decision. No good deed goes unpunished.

OMBAC is already out of the playoff hunt, as are the Dallas Harlequins and the Boston Irish Wolfhounds, but Saturday's penultimate round looms important to the heavyweights vying for homefield advantage. An SFGG win over surprising 3-1 Old Puget Sound Beach would all but sew up three playoff games at Treasure Island, should the the defending champs advance that far.

Only the Denver Barbarians, who like SFGG have already qualified from the western conference, can overhaul Paul Keeler's troops for first place. The 4-1 Barbos, who fell to Golden Gate in week 2, travel to Seattle next weekend in a game that may determine the west's second home seeding.

In the east, Life and the New York AC, both unbeaten, are similarly guaranteed to be playing on May 15, both likely at home. They meet next week in New York.

Old Blue (2-2), which plays Life this Saturday in Atlanta, could catch Life if Old Blue logs two bonus-point wins and Life fails to register any more points. More probably, 3-2 Boston, which is inactive this weekend, will claim one of the remaining slots and next weekend's Old Blue-Charlotte (1-3) contest in New York will might settle the other.

Comments

[SD Hitman]

Sadly, OMBAC Rugby knew they would be heading down this path nearly two years prior. A schism by divided factions on their rugby board is creating a debacle on the field and among the teams. Equally pathetic is the fact that the team is gifted 10s of thousands of dollars each year from the parent club. With these contributions, they still can't manage to parlay that into a competitive team. Current and potential Eagles no longer want to play there and there is no youth program affiliated with the club to provide next generation players.

So sad indeed.....

[wtf]

I don't get it.They have over 100 players cipped and they can't field a side this weekend?

[John and Kate plus 8 short of fielding a proper team.]

Strange, the slide for OMBAC...looks more like an implosion?

More dirt please, inquiring minds want to know.

[SD Hitman]

120+ CIPP'd and only 35 max to training on Tues & Thurs. Morale is at an all time low. Think of anything involved with running a successful rugby club in the USA and its not happening like it should at OMBAC>>>>

[College]

Hitman-

Tell us why. Is it coaching? That really seems to be the only possible explanation. So the short term solution seems simple-get a new coaching staff.

If it's something else, what? One would think that the simple fact that SDSU is there and graduating a dozen or so players every year would give OMBAC a good recruiting base. If those players aren't playing for the team, why is that?

This is one of the most prestigious senior rugby programs in this country. Someone should be able to fix this.

[coach]

perhaps the old boy support that was assisting players with expenses or providing monthly stipends, jobs etc has dried up with the economy.

I suspect those clubs that either invested in building youth,HS and college program connections and teams in cities not as affected by economy(NYC) or teams like Life(their situation is unusual) will become the front runners for the next 2-3 years as things settle out.

[SD Hitman]

coach & College -

Both your points are among the many symptoms. The last credible coach who knew what he was doing brought the club an RSL ring in '06 (Eddie Pollock). He was a great teacher, analyst, and leader to whom everyone responded. Everyone since has tried real hard and put the time in but are clearly not the same caliber as EP. There is more to be told, but the two issues you raised were key rocks thrown into the pond that caused a ripple effect. Suffice it to say that the people who give of themselves the most (the players) are being misguided by a small minority with flawed agendas.... Sound familiar???

[wtf]

Did the RSL award a forfeit win to Chicago and give Griffins a 5 point win?

[SD Hitman]

I have heard about the forfeit win scenario but not from a reliable source.

OMBAC shouldn't travel to Chicago anyway.

Their Div3 team just won a spot in the sweet 16 to be held in Austin. Any cash on hand should go to that side and not toward a now meaningless RSL trip.

[IrishMurphy]

what do the past two years of rugby super league say to the commoner? national leagues are not susstainable - no matter what the format? mixed messages from leaders stating that RSL is important as a brand,etc....I give this league one more year and it will have run its course in the USA capitalist economy...no socialism here boys..

[about faced]

USArFU continues its successful, incremental dismantling of the game.
Only a couple more years to go before unforeseen circumstances produces an implosion. This will of course herald in the savior to the bankrupted USArFU, the FoMRFL.

It will only cost your club a 20,000 bond (non-refundable) and the dues structure will be in place only until the league gets "off its feet".

"This is an incredible opportunity to produce professional rugby in America, on the heels of the successful World Cup and Olympic 7's marketplace".

"It is a no-brainer, a real opportunity".
"This is a win/win for everyone involved", claims Mr .......... interviewed poolside at The ........ Hotel, sipping a pina colada with Mr. ......... and two well tanned young men.

[SD Hitman]

BTW There's a Pommie sitting in a key decision-making role on OMBAC Rugby's exec board. Not a slam against all Poms/foreigners - just him. Very narrow-minded and unrespected among OMBAC admin, players, and old boys.

It amazes me how much stock our domestic rugby powerbrokers place in foreign/commonwealth viewpoints. The American rugby game, the American athlete, the American youth landscape, and the American sports commercial market is best understood by......Americans.

[former Eagle]

What makes him even more of worthless Pommie was when he was the US coach he let the foreign players coach the team because he knows...nothing.