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North American 4

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jinxed_nz

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When searching through the net to find forums to advertise this great forum at (see the "we need support in off topic") I stubled upon this little competition. Has anyone herd of it yet? I no I hadnt.

The teams are:
USA Hawks
USA Falcones
Canada East
Canada West.

Interesting little competition that might finally bring a much needed boost to North American rugby! Funny how USA uses names like that but i guess they have to stur a bit of patriotism if they want anyone to switch from NFL NHL NBA or Baseball.

Heres the site if you want to hve a look yourself.
 
****** me off cuz i was down at columbus kicking and they had to start making the field up for the tourny next week, so i got kicked off!! I got in a good 20 kicks though, made one from 45m.. so if you see fred beekman park while watching it, just think of me on that field haha

********.. lol, but yea ill still watch it, should be good
 
The IRB gave a bunch of Tier two nations a fairly substantial wad of cash to get programs going. hopefully this is goign to turn professional in the near future, but as usual, there are f*** ups.
 
Originally posted by fringesportscentral@Jul 26 2006, 04:02 AM
Any idea how this compares with the 6 Nations and Tri-Nations in terms of talent? Here's an article that suggests it could be the beginning of North American dominance, but it doesn't say anything about talent. Of course, it does say Americans and Canadians can't count.
Hahaha...great link that!

Always good to hear Americans lauding our sport! Especially saying that "American football players would be winded, bleeding and crying by the end of a normal match. Basketball players would be broken in half. Baseball players would swallow their chew." lol!

Lets be fair though. The States have fantastic talent in the Gridiron ranks......it is not totally their fault if their game has evolved with more armour protection....or is it?

Some guy on that article said that rugby is played by fat men wallowing in the mud......I think that guy probably wore more Gridiron armour than anyone else when he played....if he played! :lol: When there is no stoppage after 10 seconds an elite Gridiron player would probably start to feel like a fat man wallowing in the mud if he had to run up and down the field tackling everyone he could get his hands on.....

They did experiements to ascertain exactly WHY rugby players needed more time to "recover" from a game than perhaps baseball/basketball/gridiron and even SOCCER! In the end they calculated that the cumulated "stress" load a top level rugby player endured during one game was equivalent to the stres load of running a marathon! Even us who have played at a social level would have to agree that a normal game of rugby has you feeling out of action for the next 2 days. The combined effects of weight load stress/explosive reflex/ and constant motion on muscles that happened in a rugby game was found to be very damaging to the body structure and needed at least 3 days to recover somewhat to a state that was at least ready to train again.

If North America never grows with rugby....it is THEIR loss. The rest of the world will grow, as rugby slowly yet surely increases in many parts of the world. Eventually rugby will be big enough that the States will have to acknowledge that it is a major sport worldwide and worthy of ESPN. However by that time they will be too far behind and will just watch each World Cup in awe knowing that their equivalent (gridiron) is not as hardcore.....therefore being unable to claim they have the most hardcore team playing the most hardcore team game in the world!.....and that is a mighty kick in the pants to the American male eagle....oh....I mean ego. :cheers:
 
6 floggings for you gay guy

anyhow yea i agree with most of what he is saying...

i always get into arguements with football players here over why they condition so much, after 5 seconds of running they get 30 second breather... why why why...

and our talent is **** compared to the 6 nations, undoubtedly though, more games played as "tests" in the NA4 will lead to more game experience and more talent for the usa and canada.. much like the 6 nations did for italy thus far.
 
Easy now...the Yanks are the reigning Olympic rugger champs.

Two questions to any septics reading this :

A) How are the two American teams made up (Geography, amateur/semi-pro,)

B) What do you know about Mike Petri....he's a Penn State Scrum half who's just signed for Waterloo.
 
Originally posted by RoyalBlueStuey@Jul 28 2006, 10:55 PM
Easy now...the Yanks are the reigning Olympic rugger champs.

Two questions to any septics readinh this :

A) How are the two American teams made up (Geography, amateur/semi-pro,)

B) What do you know about Mike Petri....he's a Penn State Scrum half who's just signed for Waterloo.
the american teams here, well theres one national team of course, and we have a super league for rugby union but it is amateur, so we dont really have a pro league, if you want to play pro youve got to go oversees

and for mike petri, well im better than him :p

nah i dont know anything about him, he played for penn state :rahh: though... so he's bound to be a ***** at least in my books as an osu fan..
 
Originally posted by DC13@Jul 29 2006, 04:19 AM
the american teams here, well theres one national team of course, and we have a super league for rugby union but it is amateur, so we dont really have a pro league, if you want to play pro youve got to go oversees

and for mike petri, well im better than him :p

nah i dont know anything about him, he played for penn state :rahh: though... so he's bound to be a ***** at least in my books as an osu fan..
Specifically what about the Hawks & the Falcons though?

Surely you American types should adopt 'loo as your team now we've nabbed one of your Ivy league superstars! ;)
 
Originally posted by RoyalBlueStuey+Jul 30 2006, 10:31 AM-->
<!--QuoteBegin-DC13
@Jul 29 2006, 04:19 AM
the american teams here, well theres one national team of course, and we have a super league for rugby union but it is amateur, so we dont really have a pro league, if you want to play pro youve got to go oversees

and for mike petri, well im better than him  :p

nah i dont know anything about him, he played for penn state :rahh:  though... so he's bound to be a ***** at least in my books as an osu fan..
Specifically what about the Hawks & the Falcons though?

Surely you American types should adopt 'loo as your team now we've nabbed one of your Ivy league superstars! ;) [/b]
nah not ivy league my boy!

Big Ten League ;)

actually i read on USA Rugby he's the best college player here this past year..
 
USA completely made a mess of this tournament what IRB should of done is given all the money to Canada an d let the game exand here where it actually has a real chance of expanding. In Canada rugby is a decently popular fringe sport and I'd say in rural areas is just as popular as soccer. Actually it is very popular in BC and is growing in Ontario and the rest of the country. Almost every high school where I come from has rugby and more high schools have rugby then football.

University rugby is getting better and better and the quality is going up and up. In Ontario it is now a full varsity sport and school import their players on athletic scholarships just to play rugby. I know at RMC where I am going Rugby team trains 3 hours a day every day.

Canada has a decent number of professional layers overseas and our national team is pretty much all pro now and given the right nurturing we could compete with the rest of the world eventually. The national team also has some decent sponsorships with Guinness and Sony and you can find most rugby canada gear in major sports stores. Alot of sports stores also carry fully rugby sections in their stores now right alongside soccer gear. For instance I was in Montreal downtown and I walked into sports experts and Quebec by no means is a rugby hotbed and I found a full lineup of super 12 guinness prem jerseys along with international. They also were selling a whole wall of kooga, cxanterbury, barbarian, and adidas rugby wear scrumcaps, pants, boots you name it they had it.

Canada has a real chance of growing the game way more so then US and the rugby community is decently large. Also rugby is just the sport we need for the summer in Canada ad if nurtured properly would compete just fine with football. We play ice hockey in the winter which is probably one of the fastest team sports in the world and is just as brutal and violent as rugby and the players are conditioned perfectly for rugby especially at top level. We could bring a few props etc from football and put a bunch of backs from the ice hockey ranks.

Trust me rugby ahs a lot of potential in Canada especially since we like vioent sports. The International game could go far to if its anything like Ice Hockey.
 
* asterisk denotes that the canadian rugby union is as old as the new zealand rugby union

i say that is an absurd idea to give all the money to canada.. the USA just created the U17 team, and soon enough we will start growing.. the rate at which Uni and High School rugby have grown here is tremendous.. soon enough the USA colleges will be on scholarships for rugby.
 
The IRB gave a bunch of Tier two nations a fairly substantial wad of cash to get programs going. hopefully this is goign to turn professional in the near future, but as usual, there are f*** ups.

The money isn't going in the proper locations here in Canada. The money really should be going into grassroots development across the board. I mean last year when i played for Ontario we went to BC, it costed me about $500 just to play for Ontario(that covers gear and everything else), then i'd say another $500+ in petrol money to get to toronto and back and then about $650 to go to BC for the national championships(which we won, first u16's team from Ontario to do so). And should we have been selected for the Canada U17's camp they were going to charge us another $500. That camp should be free to encourage more people to play and you're selecting us, why do WE have to pay. I just thought that was a bit much.

Any idea how this compares with the 6 Nations and Tri-Nations in terms of talent?

Very below standard. Not one guy who played in this competition could even get into the 30 man squad of a super 14 team. Hell i doubt they could get into a NPC team. It is mainly made up of club players. Although there were some solid young players. Jordan Kazina and Steve Piatek are two U21's canada players that were on the Canada east team both from my club.

Eventually rugby will be big enough that the States will have to acknowledge that it is a major sport worldwide and worthy of ESPN.

Doubt it the media hardly recognizes soccer as sport, therefor rugby will never be acknowledged. The USA tends to not recognize foreign sports at a professional level. It's ironic because 3 of the 4 major sports in the US aren't even American but Canadian.

i always get into arguements with football players here over why they condition so much, after 5 seconds of running they get 30 second breather... why why why...

It's because of the shots to your knees and shoulders. Let's not forget the pads make the game more dangerous not safe. Simple physics more mass = more force. Football players also have more concussions because of the helmet to helmet hits.

actually i read on USA Rugby he's the best college player here this past year..

He must be amazing then....just kidding he might actually be.

USA completely made a mess of this tournament what IRB should of done is given all the money to Canada an d let the game exand here where it actually has a real chance of expanding. In Canada rugby is a decently popular fringe sport and I'd say in rural areas is just as popular as soccer. Actually it is very popular in BC and is growing in Ontario and the rest of the country. Almost every high school where I come from has rugby and more high schools have rugby then football

Although i agree that the US isn't going anywhere for a long, long, long time in rugby and no doubt Canada will get much better, much more quickly you have to provide money to the US. I'd argue that you have to provide more money to USA then you do anywhere else in the world simply because of how huge the US market is. If you can get even 5% of sports fans you're making millions. I can't even begin to say how much the American market means to rugby.

The sport is evermore popular here than it is in the US. Here in Ontario even small schools have rugby. I'm talking 500 people or less. And it's even THE most popular sport in my city Brantford. And as you know Brantford is the home of Wayne Gretzky the Greatest Hockey player ever.

University rugby is getting better and better and the quality is going up and up. In Ontario it is now a full varsity sport and school import their players on athletic scholarships just to play rugby. I know at RMC where I am going Rugby team trains 3 hours a day every day.

It's very true. University teams are stacked now. They carry international players. The Pletch brothers both play for Mac along with a couple others. Everyone on the team has played for Ontario at some point in time.

Canada has a decent number of professional layers overseas and our national team is pretty much all pro now and given the right nurturing we could compete with the rest of the world eventually

There are 11 or 12 i think last time i checked, with more to come. Mensa-Coker will get a contract soon that's for sure along with a few of the forwards that don't already.

We could bring a few props etc from football and put a bunch of backs from the ice hockey ranks.

Personally i'd rather not have rejects from other sports but players groomed from the grassroots. From U7's programs and such. There are a bunch of those all over Ontario now. And in BC rugby starts in grade 8 which is U14's which isn't bad and they have huge numbers participating.

* asterisk denotes that the canadian rugby union is as old as the new zealand rugby union

Actually not really. Although a "Canadian Rugby Union" was founded in 1860 something it was what is now known as the CFL. It was a hybrid game you could say. Not football we see today but not rugby either. The real canadian rugby union was founded in 1929. And their first game was in 1932. Then they disbanded after world war 2 and didn't reform until 1965. The USA rugby union was founded in 1975.

the USA just created the U17 team, and soon enough we will start growing..

But you've said it yourself this team is basically an open try-out. By the time you have gotten to U17's the talent should have already been identified. You're already about 10 years behind Canada right now in terms of development of youth. Sad but true.

the rate at which Uni and High School rugby have grown here is tremendous..

It's also doing so in Canada. It's the fastest growing sport in Ontario High Schools or something. But the real problem for the US is the amount of choice a young athlete has. There are already 4 major sports to choose from and now lacrosse which is growing a whole lot faster than rugby unfortunately and then soccer which has a major stranglehold on grassroots programs in the US.

I'll say this though if the US wanted to be good at rugby they could be the best in the world in a heartbeat. They have more athletes than any other country. What USA rugby should be focusing their money on is getting people into the poor black comunities and getting some of those black athletes to stop playing basketball and start playing rugby. If you can get just 2% of American athletes you could dominate world rugby.
 
Although I'd agree that grassroots development is important, we also have a duty to develop the talent in the now. perhaps dividing the funds to incorporate grassroots, and pro senior rugby could be an option.
 
Well that's the thing they are only spending the money on the national team level in developing the player of now. Instead they should be spending more in not necessarily grassroots as such but in lower levels of canada eg Provincial youth develop like Ontario U16's.
 
i agree with what you said above for the most part especially with the choices... lacrosse is ****
 
Originally posted by DC@Aug 22 2006, 01:20 PM
i agree with what you said above for the most part especially with the choices... lacrosse is ****
Wait what? i can't believe you actually agreed with what i said. I thought for sure i was going to get a fair bit of negative feedback
 

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