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BYU-Cal match as good as it gets

Whether BYU and Cal are playing in the Varsity Cup, a USARFU competition, or a parking lot, it has become the most anticipated contest in American rugby.

To earn distinction, sporting events require competitors who push one another to new heights, beyond those which we have known, and also a familiar context, so we can appreciate the stakes of what we are watching.

Three times in the past seven years -- 2006, 2009, and 2011 -- the Bears and Cougars have produced championship matches of technical excellence and genuinely mainstream appeal. No other rivalry can make such a claim.

Those who contend the 2013 contest is not a 'true' national championship have a point, but it is academic.

It is the consensus championship because most rugby people would acknowledge the pair of unbeatens as the teams to beat. Neither is college football's crown fair and exhaustive; but it too is definitive.

Like all good rivalries, BYU-Cal has built up a history which transcends the players. Tomorrow marks the Bears' first visit to Provo in 30 years. The Cougars have never lost a collegiate match at (renovated) South Field.

Of the 30 starters who lined up in the Cal's 21-14 win at Rio Tinto 2 seasons ago, just 7 appeared in last week's semifinals, which underlines traditions of enduring quality. A remarkable six players in the 2006 final were subsequently US national teamers (Cal: Chris Biller, Eric Fry, Louis Stanfill; BYU: Jeff Hulliger, Salesi Sika, Alipate Tuilevuka).

Two of the current elite are BYU number eight and 7s Eagle Ryan Roundy, and Cal center and national team pool player Seamus Kelly. The interesting matchup may be in the halfbacks, where both teams field underclassmen, and Cal has not been settled. And who will be this year's unlikely hero?

Related: Who is Jason Lee and why is he important?

Scots hold tiebreak edge in pivotal 7s tournament

Should it tie with or finish behind Scotland at this weekend's Glasgow tournament, the United States would probably miss out on the 12th and final automatic slot in the 2013-14 Sevens World Series.

The Scots start this season's penultimate round more than 90 match points better than the Eagles in the tiebreaking metric of points for minus points against, according to an International Rugby Board official.

Each team has 46 series points, 8 behind 11th-placed Canada. While it's possible that both the US and Scotland could top the Maple Leafs by 9 or more, it's happened just once this season.

Having finished 10th, 12th, and 11th, successively, since the 2009-10 season, falling to 13th two years after the introduction of US Olympic Committee funding would be a a major embarrassment for USARFU.

As only 12 teams (including host Brazil) will qualify for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, placing among the top dozen is doubly significant.

Though the 9th round of the world circuit, the England 7s, is to be played next week, the three lowest regular teams will not be competing in London's championship bracket. Instead, the 13th-placed team, Portgual, and Spain will meet Georgia, Hong Kong, Russia, Tonga, and Zimbabwe in a competition to decide three automatic qualifiers for next season.

Glasgow and perhaps London are the final legs of a major test of the USARFU's so-called offsite residency program, under which the union has contracted more than 20 players over the past 2 seasons. Though salaries may not be quite so high as in 'Tier 1' nations, players and staff in San Diego as well as administrators and executives in Boulder are comparably professional; America's resources certainly would match up favorably with the five hopefuls.

The US has drawn France, Wales, and Russia this weekend, while host Scotland faces New Zealand, England, and Portugal. The pair cannot play head-to-head until Saturday's semifinal round.

United States to Scotland 7s
Andrew Durutalo (undeclared), Nick Edwards (undeclared), Jack Halalilo (East Palo Alto), Matt Hawkins (Old Aztecs), Colin Hawley (Olympic Club), Luke Hume (Old Blue), Carlin Isles (Gentlemen of Aspen), Folau Niua (undeclared), Blaine Scully (undeclared), Shalom Suniula (Belmont Shore), Zach Test (undeclared), Brett Thompson (Tempe)

Related:
San Diego residency plan for 7s Eagles
American citizenship required for USOC 7s program

California 74 Navy 6 (halftime: Cal 34-6)

(Berkeley, California) Senior center Seamus Kelly scored four tries as Cal overcame an erratic first quarter to rout Navy 74-6 Saturday in a Varsity Cup semifinal.

Fullback Harry Adolphus, trading places with flyhalf Jake Anderson amid five backline changes from last week's quarterfinal against Notre Dame, added a try and 15 points on 5 of 5 goalkicking.

The same day in Provo, Utah, unheralded Central Washington pushed BYU to 19-15 at half before falling off pace in a 53-20 defeat.

By result, college rugby's heavyweights will clash this weekend at the Cougars' South Field for the Varsity Cup championship and the consensus national title. The two teams last met at Rio Tinto Stadium in 2011, the Bears claiming a tense 21-14 victory.

Flankers Alec Gletzer and Jack O'Beirne each added a pair of scores in Cal's 12-try afternoon. Front rowers Tanner Mohr and Grant Hyjer were also prominent in openfield support that overwhelmed the Midshipmen defense.

The Middies initially looked to have opportunities out wide, and had they taken advantage of early Bear miscues, the game might have much more competitive. Instead Cal efficiently converted its scoring chances and, smoothing the jitters, gained complete control by the second quarter.

The afternoon began with a memorable display of sportsmanship. Led on the field by an active-duty admiral, the Middies were spontaneously honored by Cal's partisans with a sustained standing ovation.

Thirty-two national team hopefuls have been training in Atlanta, in an effort to make up for the canceled exhibition match against South Africa's Golden Lions. The assembly was apparently mounted so hastily that USARFU's web page and media director could not provide basic player info: positions, height and weight, date of birth, club info, and so on.

Matt Hawkins will captain the 7s Eagles at the pivotal Scotland tournament, where the USA must finish ahead of the hosts in order to retain its position as a 'core' member of the 2013-14 7s World Series.

California 74 Navy 6 (halftime: Cal 34-6)

California
Tries: Seamus Kelly (4), Alec Gletzer (2), Jack O'Beirne (2), Harry Adolphus, Brendan Daly, Danny Barrett, Nick Boyer
Conversions: Harry Adolphus (5), Jake Anderson (2)

Harry Adolphus; Josh Tucker, Seamus Kelly (captain), Jesse Milene, Andrew Battaglia; Jake Anderson (Andre Coquillard), Nick Boyer (Lucas Dunne); Tanner Mohr, Grant Hyjer (Michael Bush, Scott Walsh), JP Hurrell (Lyall Davenport), Danny Barrett (Tyler Fach), Brendan Daly (Carl Hendrickson), Jack O'Beirne, Alec Gletzer, Tiaan DeNysschen

Navy
Penalty goals: Jack McAuliffe (2)

Ron Helms (Brandon Willis), Justin Lamascus, Nick Hancock (captain, Chris Hood), Dakota Raymond, Cyrus Wilson; Jack McAuliffe, Ricky Neel-Feller; Darien Green, Matthew Kelley (Joe DiPietro), Alston Harper (Samuel Ramirez), Daniel Gallien, John Thornton, Andrew Stellato, Spencer Wilson, Christopher Rixey (Jacoby Getty)

Referee: Aruna Ranaweera (Pacific Coast)
Attendance: 2,000 (estimated)

United States to Scotland 7s
Andrew Durutalo (undeclared), Nick Edwards (undeclared), Jack Halalilo (East Palo Alto), Matt Hawkins (Old Aztecs), Colin Hawley (Olympic Club), Luke Hume (Old Blue), Carlin Isles (Gentlemen of Aspen), Folau Niua (undeclared), Blaine Scully (undeclared), Shalom Suniula (Belmont Shore), Zach Test (undeclared), Brett Thompson (Tempe)

Senior playoffs reflect vacuum

Traveling to the 1996 national championships, three prominent Eagles were erroneously congratulated for skipping the day's Canadian test in San Francisco, for 'putting their club first'.

Everyone knew the importance and timing of the playoffs, domestic rivals told them at the airport.

In fact the trio had helped the US win that afternoon, and were racing to reach Hartford in time for OMBAC's second-round contest. The San Diego team prided itself on having the depth to make sacrifices for the greater good.

How quaint the story now seems. Nearly 2 decades after USARFU expanded its division 1 title chase to 16 teams, club-country conflicts persist. But very few Eagles play in domestic matches anymore.

Moreover, virtually no one understands the playoff structure. If college rugby is splintered, the senior game is fragile and bordering on entropic.

Northern California demonstrates the depth of disorder. Though it is ostensibly one of the country's strongest regions, it's regular-season champion bowed out of the playoffs. Moreover, prior to the start of the year organizers agreed to accommodate Old Puget Sound Beach, granting exemptions and stipulating the Washington team could finish no higher than second.

San Francisco Golden Gate's withdrawal combined with OPSB's mandated position generated unintended consequences in the crossover round with Southern California. As an ostensibly weaker team was promoted to first place, SoCal's fourth seed seemed to gain a favorable draw compared with its third-place finisher. Not surprisingly, SoCal shuffled its seedings, as first reported by Rugby Magazine.

Elsewhere, two regional playoff spots are simply forfeit, an unsatisfactory outcome of an issue which first reached USARFU last year.

Such problems reflect the disconnect between administrative bodies (whether territorial or 'geographic' unions -- a story in its own right) and the so-called competitive regions that govern the preliminary rounds. Whyever are there two distinct units in a recreational pursuit primarily intended to foster competition?

League organizers normally aspire to a slate of 'hard and fast' matches, so as to promote the best teams and talent. While every organization ought to enjoy a degree of latitude in order to address local conditions, when rivals must change their structures by result, it is a sign supervision is required. None has been forthcoming, as Rugby Magazine noted.

Then there is the halfway status of eight teams from the rump Super League, this year designated the Elite Cup. It is evident that financial worries do not entirely explain the demise of a competition which debuted back in 1997. First USARFU designated the Super League the union's top competition, a dubious technical proposition, then turned its back as regional administrators hounded RSL members.

Real skill is required to manage nationwide competitions in a continental nation; Americans have it. The wonder is how USARFU managed in the amateur age, when there were a handful of full-time staff and annual revenue barely exceeded $1 million. These days intake has increased tenfold and there are nearly 50 paid staffers.

The 2012-13 senior playoffs open next week.

Long road to trio of college championships

Three separate organizations are staging collegiate playoffs this weekend, a confusing state of affairs.

College rugby continues to grow organically, facilities are improving, and it is easier than ever to promote and follow the action. Yet the Internet age is paradoxically becoming an era of unfulfilled promise and even division.

At the time current students were born, phone and fax were the best media for team management, while marketing required specialist skills. But the road to the national title and representative honors was uniform, and the American union sought to be comprehensive.

Regular-season affairs have since become the responsibilities of local conferences, which have no representation on USARFU's congress. Earlier this spring, Boulder went further in acknowledging the National Small College Rugby Organization manages the postseason for 200-plus schools.

At the top end, the union's Division 1A championship and the Varsity Cup, which recently announced Texas has joined its postseason chase, are mutually exclusive. If the same cannot be said the USARFU's college 7s title and the Collegiate Rugby Championship, the spirit is similar. Then there is the matter of All-American selections, which now depend on invitations to a June tryout weekend.

However email, YouTube, and the like have changed media, it has not become any cheaper to conduct nationwide competition. That the teams which have previously won nearly all of USARFU's top honors have gone it alone suggests the depths of their unhappiness.

USARFU's undeniable achievement has been to more efficiently tax the student playing base, which has gained for almost two decades. But the monies are generally spent elsewhere, and the disputed benefits of mandatory health insurance have not surmounted issues ranging from controversial eligibility changes to inability to distribute income from matches attended by 10,000 and more.

NSCRO's semifinals and finals headline this weekend's slate. New England College meets Duke and St John's (Minnesota) goes against Denver at Glendale's Infinity Park.

Elsewhere, the Varsity Cup's final four sees Navy visit Cal and Central Washington heading to Brigham Young. Like the NSCRO games, both matches are scheduled for webcast. The two hosts are expected to advance, which would set up a heavyweight tilt next weekend at Provo's South Field.

In USARFU's Division 1A quarterfinals, St. Mary's meets Colorado, Colorado State plays Cal Poly, Arkansas State tackles Kutztown, and Life goes against Army. Another 16 teams begin the hunt for USARFU's second division crown.

Though the Gaels, Red Wolves, and Running Eagles might argue their merits, Boulder's contenders come off second best in head-to-head comparison with the Varsity Cup, while at least two conference champs declined to participate. Finishing up in late May, beyond the college season's traditional close, also does not help its profile.

While that may be particularly harsh for the 1A trio, USARFU's policies have been several years in the making and the costs are universally borne.

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

Scrum trial sign of Pacific success

A burgeoning tournament for Pacific Ocean A sides includes scrums that maintain front-row contact between the 'touch' and 'set' phases, as the International Rugby Board seeks to remedy serial setpiece collapses.

After referees call touch, props permanently bind their outside arms on one another, theoretically reducing the distance and speed the two packs travel. The approach got started in this past weekend's opening leg of the Pacific Rugby Cup, comprising the second strings for Fiji, Japan, Samoa, and Tonga as well as reserve-grade teams for the Australian and New Zealand Super Rugby franchises.

Now primarily played in the Antipodes, thereby creating a sturdier economic footing, the 6-week, 27-match competition contrasts with the 10-day, 6-game Americas Rugby Championship. While both the PNC and ARC launched in 2006, the former has become a vigorous development competition, and the latter a tepid reprisal of the old Pan American Championship, little more than warmup games for the November international window.

As developing countries have all but abandoned arranging international and 'cross border' competition for themselves, improving on IRB-directed tournaments has become a primary measure of a union's effectiveness. Put another way: What opportunities are Boulder, Richmond Hill [Toronto], and the like creating for elite players that did not exist 5, 10, or 15 years ago?

Infamously, in 2009 Canada expanded its ARC representation to four teams from two, while America saw its share reduced to just one. In 2013, the PNC's expansion to Melbourne and the addition of Japan complements the scrum trial.

For nearly 100 years, forwards around the world managed their own engagements. However sensible the experiment may prove, the current woes were begat by the IRB itself, which in 2007 mandated the now-discarded crouch-touch-pause-engage sequence. As safety measures go, Dublin's efforts to reduce dangerous tackles and concussions have been more productive, with fewer unintended consequences.

'[The trial does] not quite end... the crouch, touch, set nonsense that tends to lead to early engagements or collapses, a free-kick or a penalty, but [goes] some way towards it', London's Guardian opined.

A Salt Lake City-area newspaper and TV station will narrowcast Brigham Young's home matches, the school announced last week. The tie-up is evidence of rugby moving into conventional media at the ground level.

The United States has drawn New Zealand, Canada, and Georgia at the 7s world championship this July in Russia. With the abbreviated game's joining the 2016 Summer Games, the tournament had been declared the last of a six such events; however, with only 12 teams to qualify for Rio de Janeiro, fully half of the 24 World Cup qualifiers will be left out, prompting the IRB to indicate it may reconsider.

Related: Pacific Rugby Cup wins initial praise

Where are the overseas internationals?

Chris Wyles' 74th-minute try clinched Saracens' 32-27 win over Leicester Saturday, a match which saw the visitors score 4 second-half touchdowns.

With European interationals away for Six Nations games, scores of reserve players were thrust into Premiership lineups. The contest between 2d- and 3d-place teams produced one of the bigger comebacks in English history.

But Wyles and Northampton's Samu Manoa were the only Eagles in action. The scant total underlines that USARFU's 'player export' approach to improving the national team is stillborn.

The plan neither accounts for every other aspiring country having the same approach, nor addresses the twin problem of American players being low profile and yet counting against overseas player quotas. Moreover, when it comes to the inevitable club-country conflict, Boulder has often fared second-best: Manoa, like Biarritz wing Taku Ngwenya, has tended to side with his employer.

Last fall, Wyles became only the third Eagle player to reach 100 English games, joining forwards Dan Lyle and Mike MacDonald, according to This is American Rugby. Wyles, of English parentage, learned the sport after moving to greater London, however, and so can hardly be considered a product of American development.

Notwithstanding, the 29-year-old has played more games at fullback, 27, than any other American international and quietly moved to 7th on the all-time scoring list, with 9 tries and 101 points. It is not too much to say he merits mention among Mark Williams, Gary Hein, Vaea Anitoni, Kevin Dalzell, Phil Eloff, and Paul Emerick, the best of the Eagle backs.

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

7s Eagles climb to 13th with 3 tour stops to go

Matt Hawkins' Eagles scraped into the USA 7s winner's bracket, thereby climbing to 13th in the 7s World Series standings with 3 tour stops left.

As many as 8 teams on the circuit face the prospect of falling below 12th and so missing automatic qualification for all of the 2013-14 circuit. Perhaps not coincidentally, only a dozen teams will qualify for 2016's Summer Games 7s tournament, so missing next year's cut would be foreboding.

In Las Vegas, won by South Africa for the 2d time in 3 years, Folau Niua's conversion of Nick Edwards' try on the last play of Saturday's 22-7 pool-match win over Spain earned the US pool D's runnerup postion. Despite dropping matches to Australia and Samoa, 26-7 and 12-7 respectively, the Eagles advanced based on aggregrate points differential and so claimed 10 series points, lifting the season's total to 28.

Following a credible 21-19 quarterfinal defeat to Fiji, the Eagles could have nabbed at least 2 more, but squandered the winnable plate semifinal against Canada, 24-19 in overtime.

Poor tackling led to a 19-7 second-half deficit; failing to convert a centered try left the US tied at full time. After Zack Test's 4th-minute touchdown brought America to within 7, Luke Hume identified Niua many yards away, and seeking to conserve time, stepped up to take the normally automatic extras. The sensible tactic failed as Hume steered the ball underneath the crossbar.

Should this year's campaign falter, it may be tempting to cite Hume's miscue as the turning point. It will not be.

In next month's Hong Kong and Japan tournaments and May's Scotland event in May, there is ample opportunity to pass 12th-placed Scotland, 5 points ahead of the US; the Wallabies, 7 points ahead; and even the Maple Leafs, 11 in front.

Two quarterfinal berths should prove enough to avoid the re-qualification tournament, an 8-team affair at May's England 7s. The US has posted a 3-12 record in its last 3 outings, yet twice reached the top 8, collecting 21 points.

This suggests Alex Magleby's squad is sufficiently capable and even building momentum. Whatever the outcome of 2013's remaining 15 to 18 matches, the reflexive perspective may again focus on individual players.

In assessing a 7-month, 9-tournament campaign, however, scrutiny should comprehend USARFU's off-site residency program at the Olympic Training Center, particularly its premise that contracting a squad of 20 or so is the most effective way to get the most from America's playing base. The matter extends past the coach to the union's technical program and ultimately all the way to the board room.

Related: 7s Eagle development program underway in earnest