Posts Tagged ‘Announced’
After a number of cities and locations put in bids to host USA Rugby Championship Series events, final decisions have been made as to where a number of championship events will be held in 2008. One of the biggest changes to the schedule will be the move to centralize all preliminary levels of the collegiate playoffs. In past years, the first rounds of the collegiate national tournament, for both men and women, were held in different locations across the country which did not allow for “on the bubble” teams to plan trips far in advance. For 2008, the first rounds will be held in Albuquerque, N.M., at the Balloon Fiesta Park. The semifinals and the finals of the collegiate playoffs will be held in their usual home of Stanford, Calif., in May of 2008. The men’s national club playoffs will be held in Austin, Tex., at the Austin Rugby Consortium, which is an organization comprised of three local rugby outlets. The location was deemed fit to host the 40-plus-team tournament after playing host to the women’s club playoffs in 2007 and handling the turnout admirably. The final tournaments to approach approval under the recent announcement are the boys high school national tournament and the boys and girls national U-19 tournaments. The youth events will be held in Pittsburgh, Pa., and will be hosted by the local club team, the Pittsburgh Harlequins.
The event will last a total of 12 weeks, that is, from March 14 to May 30, 2009. The event will kick off with a match between Charlotte and Potomac Athletic Club on the Blue side and between Chicago Lions and Belmont on the Red side. As indicated by the results every year and specially by the rugby results 08, this is going to be as exciting a tournament as ever.
The Rugby Super League was developed in 1996 so that the game of Rugby could be taken to new heights and be given professional status throughout America. The 13 teams that compete in 2 groups of Red and Blue Conference represent 13 main markets all through the United States and have helped in a major way in the exposure of the game to the world and in generating an interest in it.
The competition is held in spring every year since its beginning in 1996. Weekly matches are held that lead towards a playoff and quarterfinals, semifinals and the final championship match deciding the champion of the year is played in May-June. Last year New York Athletic Club won the championship match against Belmont Shore. They scored 31-28 in a thrilling, nail biting match that had everyone sitting on the edge of their seats.
The last championship final played in Infinity Park, Glendale, CO on May 31 was one befitting the most popular event in American Rugby. It went into two overtimes and had to be decided through penalty kicks at the end. NYAC finally put an end to the game by winning a sudden death round. NYAC’s Luke Milton kicked in the match winning goal.
NYAC had made it into the finals by beating No. 5 Denver Barbarians at their home turf on Travers Island. The Belmont Shore team, who also played host at the semi-final, beat rivals No. 8 Chicago Lions 34-15.
This was the second time that New York Athletic Club had won the title. The first time had been back in 2005. That time too they had played the final against Belmont Shore in Hartford, CT beating them by a very narrow margin.
Personally, I believe, it is going to be an exciting season as always. Fans from all over the United States have been waiting in anticipation for the Rugby Super League season to start this year. All major TV networks will be broadcasting the matches live. But in case you are also one of those unfortunate ones like myself who is living abroad and can not watch the matches live, you can do what I always do; log on to an online site that gives live results of the game.
As a fan of ScoresPro i recommend it to all of you for keeping yourself up to date with rugby Rugby Super League Livescore.
After a number of cities and locations put in bids to host USA Rugby Championship Series events, final decisions have been made as to where a number of championship events will be held in 2008. One of the biggest changes to the schedule will be the move to centralize all preliminary levels of the collegiate playoffs. In past years, the first rounds of the collegiate national tournament, for both men and women, were held in different locations across the country which did not allow for “on the bubble” teams to plan trips far in advance. For 2008, the first rounds will be held in Albuquerque, N.M., at the Balloon Fiesta Park. The semifinals and the finals of the collegiate playoffs will be held in their usual home of Stanford, Calif., in May of 2008. The men’s national club playoffs will be held in Austin, Tex., at the Austin Rugby Consortium, which is an organization comprised of three local rugby outlets. The location was deemed fit to host the 40-plus-team tournament after playing host to the women’s club playoffs in 2007 and handling the turnout admirably. The final tournaments to approach approval under the recent announcement are the boys high school national tournament and the boys and girls national U-19 tournaments. The youth events will be held in Pittsburgh, Pa., and will be hosted by the local club team, the Pittsburgh Harlequins.