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Graham Downes (1957-2013)

In the character of an athletic champion lies the makings of civic distinction.

So thought the ancient Greeks, inventors of democratic society, and so we are reminded by last month's senseless slaying of Graham Downes, the OMBAC test prop and noted San Diego architect.

The second of four boys, Downes earned a degree in architecture at the University of Natal and captained the South African province before coming to southern California in 1986. He intended to stay only one season, but instead became a core member of American rugby's team of the '90s, and went on play a key role in reshaping the USA's eighth-largest city.

With standouts Mike Saunders and Brian Vizard already on scene, OMBAC had captured the inaugural club 7s championship in 1985. Soon Bing Dawson's men would supplant San Francisco's Old Blues as the team to beat, ringing up six national titles from 1988 to 1996. Four of the club's front rowers, including Downes, would become Eagles, and a different quartet of San Diegans would have a spell at the national team's helm.

Downes, widely known as 'Basher', did not need to be team captain to be persuasive. Contemporaries credit him with boosting OMBAC's training standard, and also reorienting an antagonistic, football-style attitude toward opponents into a respectfulness that fueled an urgent need to outprepare rivals. Friend and foe recall him as a ferocious competitor and model sportsman.

Though a career loosehead, at OMBAC Downes took the number three jersey because it was best for the team. There is little question of his skill on either side. Thanks to some administrative sleight of hand, Downes was whisked into the Pacific Coast's 1986 tour to Argentina and joined its 1988 trip to South Africa. Such was his stature that he was asked to lead the Grizzlies against his former team at King's Park, logging a 19-17 victory.

Downes initially lacked a green card, and as international eligibility regulations were then not so simple as the current three-year residency qualification, he was not immediately regarded a national team contender. Eventually he was brought into the 1991 World Cup squad as an injury replacement, without taking the field, and finally gained his one and only cap against Hong Kong in 1992.

A year later, well into his 30s, he hung up his boots. Downes then helped coach OMBAC for three seasons, two of them national title campaigns, before turning to full-time pursuit of business interests.

Known often to return to work after practice, Downes started an architecture firm with the proverbial credit card. By the time of his passing, he had succeeded in retail, hotel, and so-called mixed use projects throughout southern California, Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii. Inevitably, he had branched into real estate development, with as many as 40 staff at offices in San Diego, Phoenix, and Las Vegas.

In his adopted home, Downes' best-known work included the Hard Rock Hotel and Tower 23. More broadly, his vision was considered a 'catalyst for neighborhood renaissance' in downtown San Diego as well as the Barrio Logan and Banker’s Hill districts.

OMBAC and San Diego bear Downes' legacy. For the rest of us, not all rugby players will become champions and internationals, but everyone who competes may broaden his horizons of the world beyond the game.

USARFU the source of competing titles

The irony of controversy over BYU's 2013's national championship claim is the door was opened by the Varsity Cup's rival, USARFU.

In 2009, Boulder began steering top rugby-playing colleges toward self-governing conferences, out of America's traditional territorial unions, promoting the view that schools should manage themselves. But USARFU has not restructured its congress, intended to stand for dues-paying members, thereby creating a textbook instance of taxation without representation.

Though it has generated the most public debate, the Varsity Cup is only one of several fissures in American rugby since 2006.

For 30-odd years, national competitions have been USARFU's primary benefit for American teams and players, particularly after the 1992 introduction of mandatory CIPP (Club and Invidividual Participation Program) dues. The chance to play for a title is what you got for your money.

Regional and national officials saw to it that competitions were fair and transparent, if not money makers. Many US titles, such as the collegiate women's or division 2 championships, started out as unofficial events and were subsequently coopted by the union.

These days startup events no longer automatically aim to become part of USARFU, aware their objectives may run up against the union's international ambitions.

2007 saw the launch of the small college national championship, run by the National Small College Rugby Organization. USARFU showed little interest in the de facto division 3 title, but formally recognized the organization earlier this spring because NSCRO represents nearly 300 men's and women's teams, thought to comprise the majority of American schools, and its tournament has doubled in size over the past four seasons.

In 2010, the Collegiate Rugby Championship, a 7s tournament, debuted shortly after the abbreviated code was admitted to the 2016 Summer Games. American International Media, which also owns and operates the USA 7s, offered USARFU the opportunity to sanction and otherwise participate in the event; but Boulder declined in order to try its own hand at a 7s competition, which came online nearly 18 months later.

Though USARFU's fall tournament makes sense from a calendar perspective, with a national television contract and a Major League Soccer venue, the CRC is seen as more prestigious. Earlier this year, NSCRO validated the consensus view by tieing up with the CRC to launch a small college 7s championship.

Just this week, an organization devoted to women's division 1 and 2 schools called the American College Rugby Association surfaced, pledging to 'work with' -- not as part of -- USARFU 'in providing an alternative competition structure that aligns with the fall and spring college semesters'.

In rearranging high school and senior administration, USARFU hasn't provoked the same degree of independent activity. But it is clear enough championships are sacrosanct.

Last year, Boulder sought to dismantle the national high school championships, the thinking being that devolving administration to state rugby organizations (e.g., Rugby Virginia or Utah Youth Rugby) obviated the American title competition. The backlash, led by schools including New York's Xavier, home of current Eagle coach Mike Tolkin, forced Boulder to retreat. But the schools could easily have gone out on their own.

Club competition is in disarray because the slow-moving transition from territory to 'geographic' union has created many anomalies, and some senior teams are talking of creating their own leagues. But following the steady withdrawal of franchises from the now-defunct Super League, there is thought to be little appetite for an independent commerical venture.

Then again, most observers believe that the prime opportunities lie with the school segments, because the brands are better known and the demographics are superior. Put another way, the splintering of college rugby looks to be most indicative of the trend.

Related:
College championship the beginning of the end
New college 15s championship points to business goals   
Small colleges get 7s national title

On old boys and new opportunities

Last weekend Santa Barbara's Grunion RFC celebrated its 35th anniversary, having been founded the same year as San Diego's Old Aztecs.

Sometimes in the 76-year-old Southern California union's first division and sometimes in the second, the pair are like dozens of other middle-aged clubs around the country in that they are old enough to have developed robust alumni networks. Some have, many have not.

The sports education model presumes alumni a strength, as Americans strongly identify with their alma mater. 'Old boys' are the senior club's equivalent. Their raison d'être should be the current generation.

Not only Southern California's traditional heavyweights -- Belmont Shore, OMBAC, Santa Monica -- but also such outfits as Back Bay, Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, and San Fernando Valley claim somewhat longer lineages than the Grunion and Old Aztecs.

So too major metropolitan sides like Boston, the Chicago Lions, Dallas Harlequins, Denver Barbarians, New York's Old Blue, and Washington. Old foes Old Blue and Washington, as well as SFV, the Grunion's nemesis, this year all turn 50.

Of these, Chicago's 'Grey Lions' are among the most interesting. The midwest club aggressively recruits players from American college ranks, but generally eschews finding jobs and housing for newcomers. Its old boys are otherwise deployed in developing one of the country's more far-reaching urban rugby setups.

In the Windy City and elsewhere, retired players have been the primary driver of growth in youth and school teams. Sure enough, the Grunion reunion brought together teammates now coaching (and refereeing) in California, Oregon, Washington, and Texas.

But not every old boy is cut out to run an age-grade program. Beyond fundraising for routine operations, too few organizations have created opportunities for alumni to do what they can, and too few of us have found constructive roles in support of the teams on the field.

In my time with the Grunion, one avoided using 'Santa Barbara' in the same breadth. In the mid-1980s the club had escaped disbandment in part by merging with nearby Ventura.

These days there is again a second-division team to the next county south. More important, there is the Santa Barbara Rugby Academy and the Santa Barbara Rugby Foundation. So the ball is in our hands.

Hong Kong downed the USA 20-12 in the bowl semifinals of the eponymous 7s, the most famous tournament on the world circuit. The loss, embarrassing in as much as the Chinese province is not a 'core' member of the Sevens World Series, leaves the Eagles outside the top 12 with 2 tour stops left on the 2012-13 calendar.

Related: On traditional American rugby

On USARFU's outsourcing

Whatever the trajectory of the abbreviated game in America, the primary significance of the USA 7s lies in blazing international rugby's commercial path in the western hemisphere.

The tournament is the region's preeminent property, no matter one's rugby politics. Jon Prusmack's American International Media, which runs the tournament, has surpassed all others in attendance and TV arrangements, key conduits for reaching the coveted US sports consumer.

The world is not terribly interested in the USA's becoming competitive. There are sundry contenders, while some established powers fear America's bringing its athletes and technical resources to bear would irretrievably diminish their own status. But for these small- to mid-sized countries, nothing is so promising as our marketplace.

In a year that saw modest growth of 5 percent, the self-supporting Las Vegas event sold 67,000 tickets. By comparsion, a marquee 15s international in the US or Canada may sell up to 25,000, while the College Rugby Championship 7s invitational (another AIM property) garners roughly 20,000.

A BYU-Cal match, the top college drawcard, can pull in crowds of 12,000 or so. USARFU's properties, including the IRB-subsidized Junior World Trophy or the women's 7s tournament, generally clock in at half as much.

Meanwhile, AIM has built its Las Vegas Invitational into a significant property in its own right, and last week the CRC persuaded the National Small College Rugby Organization to tie up with the June event rather USARFU's fall tournament.

Turning to broadcasting, recall the USA 7s wrangled national exposure, on ABC, before the 7s gained entry to the Olympics. The CRC too has a two-day national presence. The upshot is the 7s has been driving American rugby's broadcast profile.

Kevin Roberts' USARFU has delivered no such record. While its events have progressed from the days when the USA 7s nearly bankrupt the union -- thus forcing a firesale to AIM -- since 2006 Boulder's commercial gains have primarily relied on a series of dues increases.

As players from the 1980s-90s have taken up running teams for their sons and daughters, Boulder is capitalizing on organic growth at the high school and collegiate levels and selling the member base to such service agencies as Zurich or AIG insurance.

The Emirates deal, reportedly worth $850,000 a year, is valuable but doesn't match Jack Clark's 10-year, $10 million BSkyB pact. No other sponsor pact is in this frame.

It seems evident there is an outsourcing deal to be done. Although USARFU and the USA 7s sometimes skirmish, perhaps in part because the union's leadership still includes folks who mismanaged the tournament's Los Angeles era, the duo are obviously symbiotic. Whatever the revenue splits, the general growth of American rugby will redound more to the credit of the 'national governing body', which should take the high road by calling for help.

Related: USA 7 defining rugby's commercial value

Todd wins referees' Shanagher Award

Ed Todd has earned the Denis Shanagher Award for distinguished service as an American rugby referee.

The honor is conferred based on individual merit, as determined by past recipients. Since Keith Seaber in 1992, just 10 have claimed the laurels.

The accolade underlines that in technical standards combined with advancement from the grassroots, so as to create an organic connection with American rugby, officiating is one of USARFU's stronger departments. Todd has been Boulder's director of referees since 2006.

The core problems of refereeing, however, are no longer simple proficiency and sufficient personnel. The union has struggled to produce more than a handful of officials seen as capable for international duty, partly because in 2009 the average age of an American referee was 41, according to its strategic plan.

Having played at USC, Todd was an 'A panel' referee who won international honors in handling a 1987 match between Northern California and Tunisia and a 1992 Pelicans game against Hong Kong. In 1996 he refereed a pair of women's tests involving France, New Zealand, and host Canada, and a year later had change of the South territory's contest against Wales.

Also in the 1990s, Todd chaired the Northern California referee society, during a time when it hosted a successful national conference and began inviting domestic colleagues to visit for observation and coaching. Additionally, the outstanding Pelican's Beak newsletter became the de facto national standard.

Todd went on to contribute heavily to the national Referee and Laws committee, before becoming the union's first referee manager.

Dennis Shanaher Award recipients
Keith Seaber (1992), Ian Nixon (1994), John Mellish (1996), Bryan Porter (1998), Don Morrison (2000), Jim Russell (2002), Don Reordan (2004), Donal Walsh (2009), Peter Watson (2009), Ed Todd (2013)

Related: Ref scholarship to underwrite NZ berth

All-American in Argentine tryout

A 2009 High School All-American is trying out for one of Argentina's A teams, los Pampas.

The bid is highly unusual in that 20-year-old inside back Matias Cima has played virtually all of his rugby in the United States. The son of a diplomat who's been in America for 13 years, Cima is a product of Washington DC's Gonzaga College High School and the University of Maryland.

The United States has a reputation for fast-tracking foreign-born and -trained players into its national teams, the latest example being Luke Hume, whose Australian citizenship does not meet US Olympic Committee eligibility standards, but who nonetheless won 1 of USARFU's 16 Olympic Training Center contracts for 2013. Cima's trial suggests that American schools are now capable of producing international-caliber players -- measured according to standards higher than ours -- from scratch.

Whatever the youngster's odds of selection, the presence of a 'Yanqui' in the Argentine camp has caused a minor sensation. Some 30 of the 40 trialists will go on to compete in the South Africa's Vodacom Cup. It's therefore a real possibility Cima could be 'captured' for Argentina, and so unable to play for the Eagles. Once an athlete has played for a national team or its next-highest side, he is ineligible to play for another country.

The 2011 Atlantic Coast Rugby Conference co-MVP, the 6'1", 205-pound Cima is normally a flyhalf, but is being evaluated at inside center, a common way to groom young pivots. He was on 2012's preliminary roster for the USA Under-20 team, but a hamstring injury cost him much of the season.

Prop Andrew Durutalo and center Blaine Scully return to the international duty for this weekend's New Zealand 7s, replacing Nate Augspurger and Brett Thompson. Both USARFU-contracted players had been injured and missed the season-opening Dubai and South Africa tournaments.

Matt Hawkins takes over the captaincy in place of Shalom Suniula. The US has drawn England, Spain, and the hosts in pool play.

United States to New Zealand 7s
Andrew Durutalo, Nick Edwards, Jack Halalilo, Matt Hawkins (captain), Colin Hawley, Luke Hume, Carlin Isles, Folau Niua, Blaine Scully, Shalom Suniula, Zach Test, Maka Unufe (all USARFU)

On the Dodgers in Sydney

Late last year, Major League Baseball shot down a report that the Los Angeles Dodgers would play its 2014 opener at Australia's famous Sydney Cricket Ground.

The story is interesting for bringing to light that MLB 'bankrolls' a 2-year-old, 6-team competition in the Lucky Country. Previously, in 2001, the US organization set up the Major League Baseball Australian Academy Program, which has 'led to a 40-percent increase in the number of Australians playing professional and college baseball', according to the Australian Baseball League.

Attendance typically ranges from 1,000 to 2,000, more or less the size of rugby crowds at such elite colleges as BYU or Cal. ABL organizers hope to lift game attendance to 3,000-5,000, 'which along with increased corporate support, would help the ABL realise its goal of self-sustainability'.

In 2002, USARFU and Canada won England's backing for commercial competition in North America, but poor sales led the Rugby Football Union to abandon the Churchill Alliance after 2011. The highest-profile outcome of America's strategic relationship with New Zealand, signed in 2008, has been the same year's outbound, three-match Collegiate All-American tour as well as sundry player placements. Plans for hosting a Bledisloe Cup match in Denver were aborted; discussions of a North American Super Rugby franchise have never progressed much.

Aussie pro baseball features teams in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth, an expanse almost exactly the size of America's 'lower 48' states. Further, as the ABL's season runs from November through February, it's the opposite of the US season and several players player 'winter ball' in the US minor leagues.

Talks of the Dodgers playing Sydney are ongoing, an MLB executive told Bloomberg, 'but we’re a long way from actually signing paperwork'.

On the Dubai 7s, and Vegas

If fans make the game, as Sevens World Series marketing contends, then the Dubai tournament should be profoundly different from the Las Vegas event. Is it so?

At first glance, they would seem plenty similar. Both are played at out-of-the-way venues in desert resort towns; neither are top stops on the International Rugby Board's world circuit; both communities see sports tournaments as a way to draw more visitors.

At this weekend's Dubai 7s, organizers touted reaching 1 billion viewers worldwide, via IRB broad- and webcasting. That is a proud claim for a city well on its way to becoming a global financial center. Yet it would not mean so much to a US locale more concerned to be seen as a domestic sports hub.

Now consider the invitational competitions that complement the IRB events. In Dubai, the competitors rely on expatriates. In Nevada, natives predominate.

In Dubai, the primary audience comprises British and South Africans who work for multinationals drawn by the region's oil. The demographic is sufficient for rugby to overlook the cricket- and soccer-loving Indians and Pakistanis that make up nearly 50 percent of the emirate's residents.

Though there are many more Commonwealth expatriates in the US, they are spread across a continental nation and their pastimes are equally varied. There is no question that American organizers must rely more on indigenous fans

In Dubai, rugby harvests proven revenue streams. In Vegas as in America, the game's path is uncertain.

Unified season hopes derailed by college 7s

The prospect of a unified national season has receded, though not because of America's intractable geography.

The lightning rise of collegiate 7s, contested in the fall rather than summer, is a significant and perhaps enduring break with the senior schedule. Since the academic calendar governs university competition, reconciling the two would probably require the clubs to shift, an unlikely prospect.

Given impetus by the Olympic Games, college 7s looks to be more evidence of America's frequent variation from overseas norms. Like the US seniors, most countries turn to the abbreviated game in summer.

There is little to suggest the situation results from considered USARFU policy, so the tasks of adapting may fall on team officials. Colleges are mostly governed by self-organizing conferences and clubs by a hodge-podge of regional bodies, while Boulder's priorities often reflect the monetary stimulus of test competition and International Rugby Board subsidies, which take little account of domestic conditions.

The premise of the unified season is that every team, no matter its location, should have an equal run to a national championship. But regional weather patterns historically conspired to shorten someone's buildup to May/June or December tournaments, while more recently international considerations have undermined the ideal.

Club 7s, which gets underway even before representative 15s concludes, can hardly be expected to revamp as the newly revised 15s title chase embraces fall matches, to accommodate regions which cannot stage league games entirely in the spring. Meanwhile, college 7s tournaments have grown so quickly in part because they've been scheduled by the teams themselves, taking account of local conditions.

The bifurcation is not entirely unprecedented. For several seasons the collegiate women's schedule, which is identical to the collegiate men's, has been distinct from the senior slate. USARFU has traditionally allowed the senior women broad latitude in managing the segment's affairs.

The US posted a 1-5 record at the Sevens World Series' season-opening tournament on Australia's Gold Coast, including a 22-21 pool loss to Canada and a 40-5 defeat at the hands of Scotland in the shield final. The 2012-13 campaign marks Alex Magleby's first full year as head coach.

Also last week, Argentina's Jaguars handled USA 'A' 39-3 in Langford, British Columbia. America meets Canada tonight.

On 7s and Olympic TV programming

Like many, I taped the Olympics primarily to observe my (other) sport on a big screen, and to skip past features and adverts.

A segment about 1972 standout Olga Korbut, however, was instructive of rugby's 2016 prospects. The Soviet gymnast, whose fresh style and sunny personality created a media sensation, propelled the hitherto little-known sport into the ranks of swimming and track, then as now considered anchor competitions.

Though it is more feasible than ever to televise virtually every discipline, not discovering the next big thing but audience ratings and advertising revenue are television's main goal. The formula which coalesced at those Munich Games hasn't changed much: 1) feature swimming and diving, gymnastics, and track and field along with a few fads (in London, beach volleyball), 2) focus on US medalists, and 3) highlight personalities (preferably American).

For most sports, hopes for exposure turn on the latter two categories. Rugby will be no different. Indeed, the rise of online programming, watched by diehards in real time, has liberated American producers from pretending they are concerned with a broad range of live competition.

The niche of marathon swimming illustrates this dynamic. Prior to its 2008 debut, the 'open water' benchmark was the 25-kilometer (15 1/2 mile) race, but as with the International Rugby Board's campaign for seven-a-side, swimming officials scaled back to the 10K distance in order to be added to the Summer Games. Still, the distance races lack the pool's US stars. Consequently, no prime-time coverage.

Meanwhile, boxing and wrestling are two examples of once-powerful sports that now lack medal contenders, and so have fallen off the prime-time radar.

Of course, America first must qualify for the truncated 12-team field, in a process which has not yet been determined. Otherwise, seven-a-side's prime-time moments may well be limited to glimpse of the haka.