Gainline.us

College plans put National Guard outcome in context

The forthcoming college 7s tournament and 15s 'premier league', promising as they are, presently underline the disappointment of USARFU's lapsed National Guard sponsorship.

Each project is precisely the kind of endeavor that could have used the Guard's multimillion-dollar underwriting as well as full-time staff work, and each would have advanced the service arm's marketing goals. But in both cases, intellectual and entrepreneurial leadership lies outside the union. Meanwhile, there is little to show for the monies that flowed through USARFU's coffers in 2008-09.

A quarterfinal berth at the 2007 World Cup, contracted athletes and regional 'high performance' centers, or even $20 million in annual revenue: Such goals were adopted at the behest of the International Rugby Board and embraced mainly by folks with shallow domestic experience. But the collegiate rugby's real assets attract many of our best and brightest, and so missed opportunities are the more disappointing.

The National Guard may renew its involvement in rugby later this year or in 2011, according to people familiar with the matter. To the degree to which the most interesting developments are not driven by the union, however, any sponsorship might bypass the union in part or in whole.

Announced in fall 2007, the National Guard deal was initially touted as delivering jerseys and equipment to teams, as if solving shortages had been identified as a catalyst for player or commercial growth. Naturally some teams took advantage of the free gear, but the kit was not much seen on top-tier campuses and the college segment's growth rate (as measured by CIPP registrations) essentially matched the decade-long average.

The deal, brought to the union by a rugby parent in the service, also entailed title sponsorship to a number of USARFU 'game of the month', playoff, and international events. Some were dubious, such as the jamboree-like 2008 collegiate round of 16 in Albuquerque; regardless, the union kept all the revenue, failing to offset the schools' event, travel, or lodging costs. 

That would be inconceivable for the NCAA, which is contemplating dilutive expansion of its basketball tournament in order to pay out an additional 32 teams. But as it happened, the main byproduct of the National Guard sponsorship appears to have been servicing USARFU's cash-hungry international program. Much the same can be said of the skewed ratio of collegiate dues paid to services rendered.

Some USARFU assets still identify the National Guard as a sponsor, notably the web site's media center (located at http://usa-rugby.tampadigital.com/) and college rankings. Both are dated to the end of the spring 2009 season. Additionally, the staff roster lists a dedicated account manager.

A college premier league is mentioned in USARFU's strategic plan, while the 7s tournament is implicit. The document speaks of 'explor[ing] the creation of a new elite division 1 competition' and of 'develop[ing] a strategy for college 7s rugby'. Thus has the USARFU product been criticized as 'a plan to make a plan'.

Meanwhile, some 15 teams have committed to a 2011 premier league launch, while NBC has announced it will broadcast a tournament this June. Combined with the inability of any incoming college director to play a role until next season, USARFU's lack of policy and detail means key collegiate decisions will be shaped outside a governing body that is supposed to represent all its members. This is a meaningful part of the US College Rugby Association's critique of USARFU: that dues payers get little substantive attention and have no effective say in their own affairs.

ACC launch unveiled, national league gains steam

Nine colleges at the core of the famous Atlantic Coast Conference will form a rugby analog beginning with the 2011 season, more evidence of realignment with the sports education model.

The move stems from this year's innovative reorganization of Rugby South's university competition, which introduced a four-conference setup including the Carolinas League. But the spring season isn't long enough to permit both ACC matches and national playoff games, so USARFU's championship has been sidelined.

The announcement follows the 2009 debut of the Ivy League rugby conference, and news of a college 7s championship to debut in June, broadcast live by NBC. Meanwhile, plans are firming for a national collegiate premier league, also to begin in 2011. Some 15 teams including BYU, Cal, and Penn State intend to participate in the competition, American Rugby News reported.

The commonality is rugby's capitalizing on the marketability of major college teams and conferences. The upshot is teams are concluding their fortunes lay in their own hands, through the adoption varsity standards (if not varsity status), not in a top-down model.

USARFU's strategic plan echoes the view of college brands as valuable in reaching a wider audience, but developments have exposed the slow-moving organization as trailing rather driving change. Although ACC officials and premier league coaches have taken pains to disclaim ambitions of breaking away from the union, Boulder hasn't much figured in the new competitions; was taken aback by NBC's announcement; and has yet to hire a staffer dedicated to college rugby, after agreeing to the position last fall.

Like the Ivy League, both the ACC and premier league require administration across territorial lines. The ACC league also will mix teams from divisions 1 and 2, something that's already at work in the Rugby South format.

The national league anticipates including a regional promotion/relegation mechanism, which is one reason the Carolinas League quickly advanced to the planned ACC format, according to Wake Forest director of rugby and ACC official Pat Kane. '[The national league] represents a chance for collegiate teams from schools within traditionally high-profile conferences like ours to capitalize on that recognized affiliation,' Kane said in a prepared statement.

A Southeastern Conference (SEC) competition could be next, according to Rugby South officials. Meanwhile, the ACC hopes to take in the 3 schools that aren't part of its 2011 schedule. 'While it would be tough for Miami and Boston College to be involved at this point, again, the door remains open to them as well as Florida State,' Virginia Tech director of rugby and ACC official Andy Richards said in a statement.

The ACC schedule is the latest evidence that spring remains the collegiate championship season. As part of the announcement, officials said the Atlantic Coast Invitational Tournament will move to September and convert to a 7s tournament. Richards cited seven-a-side's Olympic status as well as the crowded May-through-May schedule as the impetus.

Separately, Rugby Super League has rescheduled its final for May 29, Memorial Day Saturday, acceding to requests for all domestic players to be available for the opening national team assembly the next day.

2011 Atlantic Coast Rugby League
Clemson
Duke
Georgia Tech
Maryland
North Carolina
North Carolina State
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest

Televised college 7s tournament on tap

College 7s is to debut this June with a 16-team championship televised live by NBC.

An invitational tournament, disclosed yesterday by the Olympic network, will include three of last year's final four in Army, Cal, and San Diego State as well as recent semifinalists Navy, Penn State, and Utah. Some of the others, such as Dartmouth, Ohio State, or Tennessee, have been playoff regulars; the rest are well-known brands and/or sports powerhouses such as Florida, Harvard, Michigan, or Stanford.

'Rugby Sevens is an exciting, fast-paced sport that is growing in global popularity, participation, and interest. USA 7s is the ideal partner for this event, which features the best collegiate rugby teams in the country,' NBC Sports executive vice president Jon Miller told the Sports Business Journal.

The high-profile launch is the first potentially transformative development following seven-a-side's admission to the summer games. It also underlines the widely held view that American businesses are more comfortable promoting established university brands than attempting to sell unknown senior, representative, or even national teams.

But the college 7s championship is the handiwork of American International Media, not USARFU. The privately managed owner of the USA 7s has previously seeded a network of 7s tournaments with prize money, established invitational competitions around its flagship event in Las Vegas, and is pursuing a purposeful TV strategy.

By contrast, the slow-moving governing body has paid little attention to the college game, its largest segment. It has yet to hire a dedicated collegiate staffer agreed to last September, and been under fire from a rival administrative body known as USCRA for failing to devote sufficient attention to the university game.

USARFU is unhappy that the 7s tournament is set for June 5-6, which coincides with the opening weekend of the Churchill Cup. But having recently staged internationals on top of the Super League and club 7s championships, not to mention invitational tournaments like the Cape Fear 7s or this year's senior divisional championships, there is little room to argue that American rugby's energies should be 'focused'.

USA 7s has offered USARFU the opportunity to sanction and otherwise participate in the event, according to people familiar with the matter. The two sides could reach agreement next week. Many American championships, such as the women's collegiate or division 2 championships, have started out as unofficial events and were subsequently coopted by the union.

NBC said it would broadcast 90 minutes live on both Saturday and Sunday, while its Universal Sports property would provide additional coverage. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Separately, Life University has donated the prize money from winning the Fort Lauderdale Ruggerfest to a player paralyzed while competing in the tournament last weekend. The Albany Knickerbockers have established the Mike Jones Supplemental Need Trust and are accepting donations.

2010 College 7s Championship (Projected)
Arizona, Arizona State, Army, California, Dartmouth, Florida, Harvard, Michigan, Navy, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Stanford, Tennessee, San Diego State, Utah

Univ. of California 39 Univ. of British Columbia 7 (halftime: Cal 24-0)

(Berkeley, California) This was no ordinary 5 tries-to-1 mismatch.

Cal yesterday humbled the University of British Columbia 39-7 through a direct, physical approach that rattled the normally formidable visitors. 

Keegan Engelbrecht's precise aerial game plus 7-of-8 goalkicking also played a significant role in a contest the Bears never allowed to become close. Given the long, even history of the World Cup series as well as the Thunderbirds' habituation to BC's Canadian Direct Insurance Premier League, our neighbor's top senior competition, the success of Cal's approach was striking.

Tries in the opening 10 minutes from brothers Danny and Neill Barrett, made possible by the midfield attack of Sean Gallinger and Colin Hawley as well as Engelbrecht's tactical boot, set the stage. But flanker Tom Rooke's one-on-one goalline stop and wing Blaine Scully's ball-jarring tryline collision, on either side of the 25-minute mark, prevented UBC from climbing back into the game.

Engelbrecht then slotted a short penalty goal and the estimable Rooke sold a dummy to ground a 7-pointer, earning Cal a 24-0 lead after 36 minutes. Once more UBC threatened but again knocked on going over the line, the would-be scorer showing the nerves of a replacement, elusive fullback Sean Ferguson having retired following a punishing meeting with a Bear backrower.

In the second period, Engelbrecht added a three-pointer while UBC missed two penalty goal chances; the Bears then sandwiched fourth-quarter tries from Dustin Muhn and Gallinger around the 80th-minute goal of Jon Anthony, who scored here a year ago.

With an injury roll including captain Ben and flyhalf Harry Jones, both BC provincial players, the Tbirds started five freshman and managed little continuity. (Yesterday Charley, the third brother, was felled by apparently serious ankle damage.) Yet the experience of Cal's senior-dominated lineup was less prominent than a kind of blood-in-the-mouth aggression, suggesting last year's national championship loss to Brigham Young, in which the Bears surrendered a halftime lead, has not settled well in Berkeley.

Then too, yesterday's contest looks to have been Witter Rugby Field's penultimate match before nearby Memorial Stadium's multiyear renovation, which will dislodge the rugby team from its enclave of partisans. Next month's homecoming match, against a St. Mary's side that startled Cal a year ago in Moraga, looms as a final, emotional chapter.

BYU, on hand to scout yesterday's game, this Saturday faces 2009 Super League semifinalist Denver Barbarians in a neutral-site fixture. With Cal and the Cougars having contested the collegiate final each of the past four seasons, the club-college game could be another milestone en route to Palo Alto.

Univ. of California 39 Univ. of British Columbia 7 (halftime: Cal 24-0)

Univ. of California
Tries: Danny Barrett, Neill Barrett, Tom Rooke, Dustin Muhn, Sean Gallinger
Conversions: Keegan Engelbrecht (4)
Penalty goals: Keegan Engelbrecht (2)

Univ. of British Columbia
Tries: Jon Anthony
Conversion: Connor Fuller

Referee: Pete Smith (Pacific Coast)
Attendance: 1,100 (estimated) 

Related: 2009: Univ. of California 31 Univ. of British Columbia 15 (halftime: Cal 11-8)

Pathways doubt after All-American post filled

Alex Magleby's quiet reappointment as Collegiate All-American coach is likely to be seen as another letdown for domestic coaching hopefuls.

Magleby, a Dartmouth All-American and 7s and 15s international turned head man at his alma mater, possesses well-established credentials but will not be helped by USARFU's yet-unannounced move. The AA program has become a flashpoint for unhappiness with Boulder's so-called pathways: Hundreds if not thousands of coaches work at the university level but have no defined route to top jobs.

Last summer all of the collegiate territorial coaches circulated a letter calling for coaching candidates to have advanced USARFU certification and rise up through an established process. The letter also lobbied for revising All-American selections and match scheduling as well as a coaches association.

Chief executive Nigel Melville responded by agreeing to hire a collegiate director while provisionally endorsing a 60-player training camp and a home All-American match. He reserved appointment of the 2010 AA coach to himself, however, according to notes from a September conference call.

Competitive applications were very much on the mind of the territorial coaches, who subsequently established a breakaway organization called US College Rugby Association. USCRA is scheduled to meet next weekend in Las Vegas in conjunction with the USA 7s.

The decision comes on the heels of Ric Suggit's controversial selection as coach of the women's 7s Eagles.

Meanwhile, the All-Americans' summer schedule has not been determined, and it seems apparent that standout students do not figure in plans for the USA 'A' team to compete in the 2010 Americas Rugby Championship. Last week, Eagles coach Eddie O'Sullivan indicated his preference for domestic Eagles, which suggests the fall tournament ought not be viewed as a pathway competition but a tuneup for established internationals.

Related:
    Territorial coaches call for sweeping college reform
    Collegiate reaction could loose broad changes   
    On sponsoring the All-Americans
    Canadian Suggit wins women's 7s post

Collegiate reaction could loose broad changes

Collegiate changes may be coming in spite of the leaders who are triggering them.

USARFU last season collected millions in dues and sponsorship dollars while student teams paid hundreds of thousands to compete in the game of the month, regional and national championship competitions, and on representative teams including the All-Americans.

The lopsided relationship triggered volunteer uproar and then well-publicized plans for a breakaway organization that's to convene next month in Las Vegas. While the US Collegiate Rugby Association's ambitions are unclear, the threat to one of Boulder's primary revenue streams is evident, prompting the incumbent body to announce in November it would hire a collegiate director.

The tumult's lasting impact could be to drive home the realization that collegiate teams themselves hold the keys to improving their lot.

Presuming USCRA gets off the round, the question of whether a club team may choose its affiliation or must defer to school authorities underlines that the university is pivotal to recognition as well as access to the many resources embedded within the campus environment. Thus teams previously oriented toward rugby's impecunious bureaucracy may learn to refocus themselves on those college officials who allocate fields, approve projects, and so on.

As another example, both groups have drafted strategic plans that dwell on 'governance' and administrative efficiency, hardly the sort of stuff to fire the imagination. Accordingly, important conversations about improved competition -- such as a 'collegiate super league' that would create exciting commercial opportunities -- have taken place among principals, outside official channels.

Political scientists hold that authoritarians yield to democracy not because emerging elements of society wish for representative government, but when expectations of civil conflict make self-rule the more pragmatic option. Witness Eastern Europe in 1989, the subsequent collapse of Soviet Russia, or South Africa in 1992.

USARFU has yet to hire a dedicated staffer, USCRA remains an unproven concept, and so the country's hundreds of college outfits have no collective voice nor practical means of holding the union's directors to account. All that is secondary to the ramifications of schools balking at the continued financing of Boulder's IRB-driven, top-down strategy, a development that would reverberate across every segment of the American game.

Coda: I am indebted to those Gainliners who last week reported key elements of this story, supported by primary materials, as well as to those who provided enlightening debate.

Huckaby succession as Arkansas St gains ground

Former 7s Eagle Matt Huckaby will be the next coach of Arkansas State, succeeding his father Curt, whose tenure enmeshed rugby in the Jonesboro school's fabric.

'Because of Curt’s dedication and hard work, Arkansas State University has enjoyed extensive positive exposure nationally and internationally for our rugby team’s achievements,' chancellor Robert Potts said in a prepared statement. 'We will always be appreciative to him for his efforts, and we are confident that Matt will continue to carry the program forward.'

Although ASU classifies rugby a club sport, in deference to the NCAA, to enjoy such a ringing endorsement is to be varsity in spirit if not in fact. The program's future, warranting a school-administered search culminating in yesterday's announcement, evidently has the attention of campus leaders.

More specifically, Arkansas State sees rugby as advancing its brand internationally, something that interests many American universities, which covet a broad base of students as well as students who pay full tuition. With a bit less than one-third of the squad coming from overseas, the sport effectively pays for itself, according to the school's release.

The elder Huckaby steps down with a record of 183-44-1 over 14 seasons, including runnerup finishes in the 2001, 2004, and 2006 division 2 national championships. Afterward, the Red Wolves stepped up to division 1, winning consecutive South territorial titles and falling last year to eventual champion Brigham Young in the round of eight.

Matt, who played for his dad, was an unheralded, 6'0", 200-lb flanker who competed 'much harder than most,' according to one contemporary coach. He nabbed All-American honors after the 2001 and 2002 seasons and would go on to claim a handful of Eagles 7s caps and invitations to several 15s assemblies, yet never quite managed full international honors.

Along with Dartmouth's Alex Magleby, BYU's Kimball Kjar, and San Diego State's Matt Sherman, the younger Huckaby is one of promising generation that has moved quickly from being All-Americans in the early years of the decade to coaching leading teams by its end.

Fifteen players have been named to the USA 7s squad competing in the January 21-23 Fiji 7s, an important precursor to February's Wellington and Las Vegas stops on the Sevens World Series.

Three will released before Al Caravelli's troops head to New Zealand, where another failure to score series points could raise questions about America's automatic qualification for the 2010-11 circuit. The roster includes Bennie Brazell, a 7th-round pick in the 2006 NFL draft; Kevin Swiryn, who missed the Dubai and George tournaments due to injury; and Paul Emerick, made available by his Italian club.

United States to Fiji 7s
Marco Barnard (Kutztown Univ.), Mark Bokhoven (Denver Barbarians), Bennie Brazell (Unattached), Nick Edwards (New York AC),  Dimitri Efthimiou (Mystic River), Paul Emerick (Overmach Parma), Matt Hawkins (Belmont Shore), Ata Malifa (Belmont Shore), Malenese Malifa (Belmont Shore), Leonard Peters (Gentlemen of Aspen), Mile Pulu (San Francisco Golden Gate), Trevor Richards (Univ. of Nebraska), Shalom Suniula (Pearl City), Kevin Swiryn (captain, Old Puget Sound Beach), Zack Test (Loughborough Univ.)

Dartmouth, Brown vie for regular-season Ivy title

Unbeaten Dartmouth travels to 5-1 Brown Saturday to determine the Ivy League's first fall, regular-season title.

The Providence, Rhode Island, game pits the 2 schools which have dominated the traditional springtime tournament. Dartmouth has captured 12 crowns, while Brown has earned 11, according to Ivy League Rugby's web site.

The contest will also determine seedings for a four-team Ivy playoff set for October 24. 5-1 Harvard and 4-2 Yale, which clash this weekend in New Haven, Connecticut, join Dartmouth and Brown in having already qualified for the knockout round, but home-field advantage is at stake. Next week's pair of winners gain berths in the eight-team Northeast union playoffs, which begin on November 7 and conclude a week later.

If the knockout matches are an unwieldy finish, the league's launch is notable for both self-initiative and the potential of a collegiate conference with a brand like no other.

Having gotten underway at a time when varsity sports at the elite Eastern schools are suffering significant budget cuts (see Bloomberg report), IVR legitimizes rugby within the athletic department because the essentially predefined match schedule mirrors the varsity. The same effect holds with sportswriters and even commercial interests.

The conference upends conventional union structures, however, in that Penn and Princeton are historically Mid-Atlantic schools while Cornell and Columbia have been outside the Northeast union's New England region. Additionally, the round-robin schedule has to be played in the fall. There aren't enough springtime weekends to contest a 7-game season as well as territorial playoffs before USARFU's title chase begins in mid-April.

Dartmouth, which has scored 400 points this fall while allowing just 17, is expected to prevail. The Big Green toppled Harvard 31-0 on October 3, a week after the Crimson downed Brown 69-11.

Territorial coaches call for sweeping college reform

A call to reform All-American selections and training has given unexpected voice to a more revolutionary view of collegiate rugby.

'All aspects of the college game (all divisions, select sides, tournaments and tours, the A[ll] A[merican] brand, 15s and 7s) must be independently managed and administered by a national college rugby association in partnership with USA Rugby,' according to an August 27 letter written by 2009's collegiate territorial coaches to chief executive Nigel Melville.

The far-reaching conclusion, timed to precede the coming weekend's board meeting, can been seen as a sign of confidence among university leaders who believe rugby is finding a home on campus as well as further evidence that the segment feels ignored by USARFU. The latter view is the more surprising since the territorial coaches are almost definitionally 'insiders'.

Indeed, within a week the group secured a September 3 conference call with chief executive Nigel Melville, who agreed some of the tenets, according to circulated minutes. But Melville deflected committing to a modest, guaranteed budget allocation for the All-American program or staffing a college director at the national office.

The coaching letter begins by making an establishmentarian case that territorial coaching hopefuls must have advanced USARFU credentials, in order to establish a transparent route to representative appointments. But the missive quickly turns to sponsorship and program funding, a sore spot because of the disparity between monies generated for Boulder and plowed back into the growing college segment.

Just last year USA Rugby informed the A[ll] A[merican] players that they had reached the point in their rugby careers where they no longer had to 'pay to play' yet on late notice this year's AAs were obligated to raise $1,000 per player. This reflects poorly on our union and the AA program and should not happen again.

In a section labeled 'In General,' the group calls for a collegiate coaching association and asserts that  'By establishing a[n] empowering, working partnership with college rugby programs and support networks, USA Rugby stands to gain an immensely powerful ally in every conceivable aspect of the [sic] rugby's growth.'

The corollary: 'Unless USA Rugby recognizes the inherent value of college rugby and acts to support and develop it to its potential, we feel the colleges will ultimately move to organize themselves with or without USA Rugby.'

The majority of USARFU's $2.7 million in (projected) 2009 dues come from collegians, and its leading commercial sponsor, the National Guard, is premised on reaching the university audience.

The call minutes note 'anticipate' the 2010 collegiate Inter-Territorial Tournament will be immediately followed by a weeklong 'academy' in Boulder, Colorado, for 60 players perforce named All-Americans, and observe that a collegiate manager in the national office 'would be a significant help promoting the game to athletic directors and the college community.'

There is no mention of the $200,000 thumbnail budget which the coaches estimated would suitably cover the territorial championship, the academy camp, and the annual All-American tour as well as operating cost for a coaches association. By way of comparison with a comparable national team feeder, the International Rugby Board has allotted approximately $150,000 to the USA's 40-man, 2-match program in the Americas Rugby Championship.

The signatories are Rich Cortez (Wyoming and West), Jonathon Griffin (Stanford and Pacific Coast), Greg Jones (Kutztown and Mid-Atlantic), Mike Hodgins (Northeast), Rich Pohlidal (Army and Military Services), Vince Atkinson (South), Ron Bowers (Ohio State and Midwest), and Jeremy Ognall (Southern California).

On sponsoring the All-Americans

There are two very different ways to view American International Media's ponying up to support the Collegiate All-Americans, which depart today for a three-game trip to South Africa.

The sponsorship is eminently sensible for the owner of the USA 7s, in that the 7s Eagles have made effective use of the collegiate all-stars and South Africa also hosts a World Sevens Series event. Still, it's far-sighted and even generous move for a business that is presently relocating to Las Vegas from San Diego.

For Boulder, the last-minute announcement raises searching questions about the here and now of fundraising and budgeting.

One of the chief objectives of 2006's reconstituting the board of directors was to bring 'rainmakers' into the game. Yet USARFU's principal commercial sponsors of the past three years, the National Guard pact, originated with a rugby man whose daughter plays. And when the All-American team needed cash for an annual trip, it reverted to pre-2006 techniques like hitting up senior clubs and asking students to stump up funds, before AIM stepped in.

The larger issue is how a union whose budget has grown due dues increases and International Rugby Board development grants could allow the situation to arise? Collegians comprise more than one-third of USARFU dues payers, creating something of an obligation to fund the team.

And save for Peter Thorburn's and Scott Johnson's squads, past All-Americans have comprised the plurality of Eagles. The pathway to the 7s Eagles has been still more pronounced.

But the Americas Rugby Championship rules out student players because it's scheduled for the start of the school year, raising further doubts about the union's commitment to the All-Americans.

Alex Magleby's squad departs from Denver, where the Under-20 and High School All-Americans also trained this past weekend.

In response to a recent post observing that 'youth and college segments ... are growing no faster than the start of the decade', Ed Hagerty wrote to point out that the high school segment has added 254 clubs since 2004 -- a robust growth rate of 46 percent.

I was referring to USARFU registrants (CIPP dues payers), not clubs, but the discrepancy suggests that either established clubs are decreasing in overall size as players fan out, or many high school (and Under 19) players are not registering with Boulder. That would suggest little value is perceived in Boulder's services.

San Francisco Golden Gate appears to be leading the national marketing of the club 7s championship, based on an email that circulated last week.

Typically the venue manager (host) has been responsible for local marketing, and USARFU handled national (including membership) promotion. But last year the union scheduled a 15s match against a French club side on the same weekend, and in the wake of several resignation, this season finds Boulder without a marketing or a competitions manager.

An Eagles 7s team competing in the World Games finished fifth of eight entrants in the multi-sport competition, 2-4 on the weekend.

Won by Fiji, the Taiwan event is something like the Pan-American Games, where rugby will debut in 2010 and the US will be expected to contend with Argentina and Canada for the title.

2009 All-Americans to South Africa
Forwards: Eric Barrett (Central Michigan), Paul Bester (Life), Joey Brown (Mesa College), Cameron Dolan (Life), Roland Evans (Arkansas State), Mike George (Wyoming), Richard Herbert (Cal Poly), Tom Katzfey (St. Norbert), Eddie McKenna (Cal State-Dominguez Hills), Chris Parker, Chris (Texas A&M), Tommy Pasque (Colorado), Brenden Purcell (San Diego State), Casey Rock (Metro State), Ross Silverman(UC - Santa Barbara), Steve St. Pierre (Brigham Young), Mike Su'a (Brigham Young), Nardus Wessels (Arkansas State)
Backs: Chad Clark (St Mary’s), Keegan Engelbrecht (UC - Berkeley), Kyle Grossheider (Life), Ryan Harris (UC - Berkeley), Colin Hawley (UC - Berkeley), Duncan Kelm (San Diego State), Hunter Leland (Texas A&M), Dylan Lubbe (Brigham Young), Benny Mateialona (Life), Aaron McMaster (Life), Dustin Muhn (UC - Berkeley), Brendan O'Meara (St Mary’s), Alex Ross (San Diego State), Blaine Scully (UC - Berkeley), Peter Tiberia (Arizona)

United States 7s to World Games
Marco Barnard (Kutztown Univ.), Corey Blair (Belmont Shore), Tai Enosa (Tempe Old Devils), Colin Hawley (Univ. of California), PJ Komongnan (NOVA), Ata Malifa (Belmont Shore), Jone Naqica (San Francisco Golden Gate), Thretton Palamo (captain, San Francisco Golden Gate), Leonard Peters (Aspen), Jason Pye (Gentlemen of Aspen), Blaine Scully (Univ. of California), Steve St. Pierre (Brigham Young Univ.)