Practice Report

I really need to start posting this on Sunday.

I think the tryptophan is hitting everyone early cause everyone seemed to straggle in late.  We'll work on that.

Practice was good.  It always is.  Aiden, in the picture, is showing his ball that his mom customized for him.  After about five minutes of playing with it, the red ink rubbed off. Oh well. Rugby, whatcha gonna do?

80th Minute

credit: Reddit user/Siickaant

The Irish fans face says it all.  New Zealand wins in the final minute.  Such a heart breaker for Ireland.

College Sevens National Championship This Weekend!

Alright everyone! There is some rugby to watch this weekend! Both GA Tech and Life University are in the College Sevens National Championships.  Sevens Rugby is played with just seven per side and each half is only 7 minutes, making for very exciting matches.

And Life University is no joke.  Life won in 2011 and they were the runner up last year, so expect them to advance to the knock-out rounds on Sunday.  Cheer for 'em!

You can watch the matches live here:  http://usarugbytv.com/ or on ESPN 3.

On Saturday, Life will be playing at 11am, 2:40pm and 7pm.
On Sunday, you will need to check the schedule for match times.

More here:  http://usacollege7s.com/

Happy Birthday, AYRFC style

Gavin's birthday was this past weekend. We piled it on! Check out Soma getting physical in the ruck with the forearm smash to the back of Coach Paul's skull!

18 Kids!

Great practice Saturday.  Fall weather.  We had eighteen kids in the first group!

Makaio holding the ball entirely wrong. But he is running for a try, so we will forgive him.

We had seven kids in the middle school group.  We are slowly getting to our goal of having a full team!

We ran tackle drills for the first time this season. Boys in middle school are hard-wired to tackle and wrestle so they had a great time.

Keep spreading the word on rugby, folks!  We need about 6 more kids in the middle school group!

Haka and Highlights

Did you miss the New Zealand Maori All Blacks vs The USA Eagles match?  No worries!  We got the haka and the highlights right here!

First the haka!

And here are the highlights!

USA vs Maori All Blacks Today

USA vs Maori All Blacks today at noon on Fox Sports 1!

Coach Paul says, "I watched the Maori All Blacks vs Eagles match lasst night and it was unbelievable. Probably the best US showing in years. "

Check it out!

http://usarugby.org/partner-news/item/fox-sports-1-to-air-inaugural-black-and-blue-match

November 9th, 2013 - A Day Where We Were Awesome

Josh starting play

What a great day. We had a great turn out which made for a great practice and great scrimmage.  Colin! What has that kid been doing over the warm months? That kid is nuts on defense. And Max! You came so close to scoring! So close! Man...  that was so fun to watch.

We had some new faces too! Four kids came out to give rugby a try. We ran through some drills and had a scrimmage. Good stuff.  I asked Grant if the drills were boring and he said "no". Sweet!  We are doing something right!  

We also had doughnuts! WHA!!? Everyone took a break and had a doughnut. Owen went in for his second only to be denied by having the last one taken already.  Tough break Owen. I shed a tear for you.

Justice and Jackson, The Russian Bear, returned for their first practice. And hey Cam, Karl, Joseph and Gabriel! They asked about you!  "Where are those guys!"  Next week!  

Seriously, huh? Where is that kid.

Rugby Clinic / Rookie Day

Attention all middle schoolers: Atlanta Youth Rugby is recruiting for the Winter season now. We are holding rugby clinics for boys in grades 6-8. Come try the newest Olympic sport!

What is rugby, you ask? Rugby is a fast-paced, contact team sport, where everyone touches the ball and there is a position for every body type. There is a lot of running, anyone can play, and everyone has a blast. In the clinics, we will show you the basics of ball handling and run a scrimmage so you can get an idea of what a real match is like.

Clinics will be held Saturday November 9th and 16th at 11am at the corner of Hurt and Edgewood in Inman Park. Go to atlantayouthrugby.com

Book Recommendation: Winger

"Winger" by Andrew Smith

This is for the Middle School and High School set.  There are cuss words, fights, poker, drinking for the first time and falling in love. There is also rugby. There are not a lot of books out there about rugby, so when we hear of one, we take note.

Here is what Amazon sez, "Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy."

The NY Times says, "Of all the young adult genres — the Dystopian Hellscape, the ­Human-Monster Romance, the Elite School-or-Camp for Nonmortals — the most popular right now may be the quietest: Aspiring John Green. GreenLit, as I like to call it, consists of realistic stories told by a funny, self-aware teenage narrator. These novels tend to have sharp dialogue, defective authority figures, occasional boozing, unrequited crushes and one or more heartbreaking twists."

A twelve year old I happen to know says, "I stayed up all night reading the last 200 pages.  It was really good."

Check it out.
http://www.amazon.com/Winger-Smith-Andrew/dp/1442444924/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383493632&sr=8-1&keywords=winger

First Day

The Gang's All Here!

The first practice of the season is in the bag.  We did some of the more unusual drills of rugby, like "The Signing Waiver" drill, the "Saying What Your Name Is and What School Your Are From" drill, the rare "Here Is A Sticker" drill and the totally awesome "Here Is Your Ball" drill!

Caden and Ben Practice Passing

After those heavy workouts, we did some more traditional drills. The passing race seemed to go over especially well.  Then we pulled out the flags, split the group into two teams and Coach Paul and Coach Ron ran a scrimmage.  Newcomer Soma scored 5 tries, or something like that.  That kid was going nuts!  Aiden and Solomon got their defense on. Everyone did great.

We wrapped things up with a "Let's See If We Can Get Vince To Yell In Disbelief" drill.  This was a drill for the coaches.  We told the kids that they had to go home, throw the ball in the air above their heads ten times in a row without dropping it.  Vince let out a "WHATTT!!!"   Success!

Soma Prepares for Kick Off

Ready!

Tomorrow we start our second season!  The balls are pumped!  Check out those beauties!  It's going to be an excellent winter!