The Eve of the Australian Trip, The Tournament and Kangaroo Court

About 24 hours from now, on Saturday evening, I will be headed from Los Angeles to Sydney on a 14+ hour flight. First up however is a 6 hour drive from Phoenix to LA with two of my rugby players.  We will arrive at 6AM on Monday morning Sydney time (about a 17 hour time difference from LA time).

Once on the ground, the focus is squarely on the rugby tournament the first week. Team meeting in Australia Monday afternoon, practices on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; and then the tourney will start on Friday next week and matches will be played through Sunday. A few trophies will be awarded. Due to the distance, many clubs are unable to send a team, and are sending individual players, and some clubs are combining to field a full team like my club, with our alumni from Denver.  In all, 24 teams will compete, representing over 30 rugby clubs from about 13 countries.

THE TOURNAMENT ITSELF

The tournament tiers and pools have been announced:

Premier Tier (seeds 1-12)
Pool A: Sydney A, Los Angeles, Chicago, Melbourne A
Pool B: SF Fog, Manchester, New Zealand Falcons, Brisbane
Pool C: London A, Gotham (NYC), Sydney B, Royal Bucks (Charlotte/Atlanta)

Championship Tier (seeds 13-24)
Pool D: Philadelphia, PHX/DEN, Muddy Armada Berzerkers (San Diego/Toronto/Sweden), London B
Pool E: Sydney C, Boston, Amsterdam, MUG (I believe Nashville, Charleston and others)
Pool F: Ottawa, Emerald Valkyries (Dublin and New England), BaaBaas (World Barbarians), Melbourne B

So, my guys will be playing Philly, London and San Diego/Toronto/Stockholm combined team. A very nice pool to play in the preliminary round. This tourney is structured like 2010 with a similar number of teams. If that holds true, then the Pool D,E,F winners plus the next best team would relegate up to the Premier Tier quarterfinals, while the remaining 8 teams battle for the lower Tier championship. In 2010, my club won the Tier 2 championship. This time we want to win the pool and maybe be relegated to the upper tier quarterfinals. We will see.

KANGAROO COURT

Now that the international rugby trip is upon us, and many of my guys are already in Australia, they are all put on notice that Kangaroo Court has been convened, and crimes will be punished. Long a tradition in many sports, especially rugby, Kangaroo Court will punish any and all crimes against the team whilst  on tour. 

Sample crimes include:  Sabotage - passing the ball to the opponent; Conduct Unbecoming a Rugger - being late for team meetings/practices/match warmups, etc; missing team dinners, missing the bus, are also punishable. Finally, Moral Terpitude -conduct that brings public humiliation to the team will be prosecuted including - having 1 too many beers at the pub the night before the match, or failing to sing an appropriate rugby song verse when directed by the lads at the pub! 

Trials will be swift, punishment will be severe and cause appropriate humiliation to the convicted, much to the delight of all the other rugby teams present.

Kangaroo Court does have a Judge. The Judge is the sole determinator of fact, and presents the case to the jury (the team). The defendant can choose a defense attorney but must choose wisely. The court adheres to the Laws of Rugby, and is truly a solemn proceeding as detailed in the photos below:

• Defendants are sworn in by the judge:

• A Defense Counsel is selected by the Defendant, unfortunately, the Defense Counsel violated the Laws of Rugby, and the Judge imposed a 'gag order' and instructed the Seargant-at-Arms (Baliff) to apply the gag order

• The trial resumes with the defendant forced to wear the 'Sombrero of Shame' while evidence is presented of their crime, testimony is offered. Unfortunately, the Defense is unable to present its case due to the gag order, and the jury (the team) renders the only true verdict….GUILTY! The Judge then imposes sentence!!

 

So, Ruggers beware! The Australia trip has begun and the Court……is watching!

Rocky Mountain Phever......Headed to Australia

The Bingham Cup Tournament

(scene from the 2012 Tournament Opening Ceremony, Manchester England - click to enlarge)   

It is just one week away, the Australia trip. As I mentioned previously, I will be headed there for 2 weeks: the first week to coach the rugby team at a tournament, the second week for recreation and sightseeing. The tournament in 2012 pictured above, featured as many as 40 teams from 17 countries. This year's tourney will feature 27 teams from 13 countries, a bit smaller, as it is a tougher trip to make happen. Especially for the smaller and european clubs.

So what is The Phever? Well, taking a team to Australia is a daunting task, actually a task 2 years in the making. Unfortunately not all the guys on the team can make it. That presents a problem, the guys that CAN make it, won't have enough teammates to field a team.

So we reached out to some of our alumni players both locally and out of state. What we learned is that 4 of our alumni that now reside in Denver, well they were experiencing the same issue with their new Denver club. Not enough guys able to make the trip to the Southern Hemisphere. So....we combined! Together we have enough players and coaches going to the tournament.

But this then presents a problem, do we compete as Phoenix?  Do we compete as Denver? How about The Phever!?  A combination of the two. (Rocky Mountain Phever was passed over as a potential team name) And so we set about coming up with a team crest. Every rugby team has to have a crest!

A blending of the Phoenix Crest with the Denver crest. No time to get game jerseys featuring the combined crest, so the guys came up with a T-shirt design to wear out and about at the tournament and social events, a shirt that will commemorate their rugby trip to Australia. For matches, we will alternate wearing the Phoenix and Denver jerseys. For the formal team events, the Phoenix men will wear their team ties, and the Denver guys I assume will do the same.

So, as of today, some of the lads are already headed to Sydney. Some by way of New Zealand, some by way of Fiji. For most, their only opportunity to see these countries. I know 1 has already run with the New Zealand team at their practice. The others are about to be shown some Aussie hospitality by guys from the Brisbane club. Rugby does that, brings folks together.

The Social Event calendar begins a week from Sunday. Some highlights that the guys will enjoy are:

•  Aug 24 - G'Day Welcome Drinks
• Aug 25 - Sydney Harbour and Opera House Cocktail Reception
• Aug 26 - Bondi Beach Touch Rugby; followed by Bondi Beach Sunset Social BBQ
• Aug 26 - Evening of rugby at the Pub with pints & classic rugby games on the big screen
• Aug 27 - Exclusive clinic for all the players with professional rugby club The Waratahs (see below)
• Aug 27 - Official Team Pub Crawl for all the teams
• Aug 28 - Coaching Clinic
• Aug 28 - All Teams Photo shoot at Sydney Opera House on the Harbour
• Aug 28 - Captain's Tournament Meeting
• Aug 28 - Opening Ceremonies, Dignitaries etc
• Aug 29 - Tournament Play - Round Robin Matches
• Aug 30 - Tournament Play - Round Robin and Quarterfinals
• Aug 30 - Recovery Night Pub event - Super Saturday
• Aug 31 - Tournament Play - Semifinals and Championship Finals
• Aug 31 - Closing Ceremonies - Awards - Party

RUGBY CLINIC WITH PROFESSIONALS
So I mentioned the exclusive players clinic with a professional rugby club. The New South Wales Waratahs are the professional rugby club in Sydney. Every year the top 5 professional franchises in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa compete in one of the toughest professional competitions in the world. It is called Super Rugby. It is a 14 week regular season featuring these 15 power teams, after which a playoff is played with the top 6 teams from the regular season. Just last month, the NSW Waratahs won the championship by beating the Crusaders club from Christchurch New Zealand in front of a raucous crowd in Sydney. The "'Tahs" are holding a player clinic for all participating teams at our tournament. It should be a great chance to learn from the best! Here they are in action:

 (Adam Ashley-Cooper scoring a try for the Waratahs in the Super Rugby Final)

(Waratahs celebrate the Super Rugby Championship)

The Australia Trip and a Very Special Rugby Tournament - A Preview

THE AUSTRALIA TRIP - A Preview

Just 18 days from today and I will be headed across the Pacific Ocean to Sydney Australia. The rugby club I coach is headed to Sydney to participate in one of the largest amateur rugby tournaments in the world. This Cup is contested every 2 years, and this year marks the first time it will be contested in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Cup is held in memory of an American rugby player that died during the terror attacks on 09/11/01. He was a passenger on United flight #93 and was one of several passengers involved in confronting the terrorists, and ultimately the crashing of flight 93 into the fields of Pennsylvania. Many believe the terrorists were targeting either the White House or The US Capitol Building with that flight. Many of his friends and teammates went on to organize and create rugby clubs across the globe devoted to being open and culturally diverse rugby clubs, using the sport of rugby to build bridges, bring people together and foster a sense of inclusion not exclusion. Why? Well rugby is the ultimate team sport, and has historically been a fairly inclusive sport, and as such provides a tremendous opportunity to reach people that otherwise may have never taken up sport of any kind, and allow them to achieve success and build self-confidence and a sense of team. An international association of clubs was formed to further this endeavor. My club is just 1 of as many as 50 clubs world-wide that aim to carry on the legacy started by that one American rugby player and his friends.

The Sydney Convicts are the current defenders of the Cup and have the support of the national rugby union in Australia and some of Australia's most famous professional players and national team captains (past and present). The picture below shows players of the Convicts (in blue & white) presenting the Cup to the head of the Australia Rugby Union and David Pocock, former captain of the Australian National team, the Wallabies. (click to enlarge the photo) The Cup is one of only a handful of amatuer trophies to be housed in the national headquarters of any sport. An historic achievement worthy of what it represents.

Past hosts of the tourney include: San Francisco, London England, New York City, Dublin Ireland, Minneapolis, Manchester England, and now Sydney Australia. The 2012 tournament featured 40 teams from 17 countries. I am not sure how many clubs will make the trip to Sydney. It is an expensive proposition to take a full rugby team of 25 players plus coaches and supporters to Australia. Just the travel aspect alone is tough, not just the financial aspect. For example, players  from the team from Bristol England fly London to Abu Dabi to Sydney. Quite an ordeal! For the Phoenix ruggers, the trip to Sydney is not much longer than the trip to the United Kingdom in years past. But even we are experiencing a tough time getting folks there.

Tournament activities begin Monday August 25 with many social events such as: Beach Rugby day and BBQ at the famous Bondi Beach; Opening Ceremonies with government dignataries and pomp and circumstance; Team Photos at the iconic Sydney Opera House and numerous pub crawls. Mix in some practice time on the fields and that makes for a busy week leading into the tournament. Tourney play will begin on Friday August 29th and continue until the Cup is awarded on Sunday August 31st. Sunday night, a formal banquet and awards and then a closing night party will close the 2014 edition tournament.

It's too soon to know what bracket we will be assigned or what teams we will be facing. We expect to find many composite teams from Europe and America. A composite team is made up of 2 or more clubs that combine to form a tourney team. We expect this due to the high costs associated with bringing clubs to the Southern Hemisphere.As a result, many clubs combine with other clubs to form a tourney team of 25 players. Ideally you would wish to bring your entire team, but finances can make that tough. My club will be competing as a composite team, but more on that in a  future post.

For now, it's all about logistics, and coordinating the travel for all our guys, making sure all of our paperwork is in order such as personal travel documents like Passport and Visas. But to take a rugby club overseas you must get official permission to tour internationally from your home country's administrative Rugby Union, then submit that to the destination country's home rugby union and request permission to compete in their jurisdiction. We've obtained all approvals, from all requisite jurisdictions, and should be good to go.

In addition to the rugby tournament, many of us are spending some extra time in Australia and I will chronicle that as well. Some are going a week before the tourney and others like myself staying a week following the tourney to get some rest and relaxation as well as sightseeing done.

Right now, it's time to get the guys prepared for some rugby Down Under! It is going to be a tough tournament, with some very strong rugby sides. I wish I had our full team from this past Arizona rugby season going (pictured below, in action back in February here in Phoenix).  That team was a mix of guys from my club and Camelback Rugby club. We competed as team this past season as a means of benefitting my players and their exposure to upper division rugby.

As it stands we will have a team participating and representing our local club along with some alumni that are going with us to represent their old club (us) and their new club (Denver).

I'll end with the quote that is inscribed on every trophy awarded at this tournament. It has become part of our team's rugby lore and tradition ever since we won our division championship at this tourney in 2010. The quote comes from Shakespeare's Henry V -

"For He Today That Sheds His Blood With Me, Shall Be My Brother"