The Undefeated...

Here is the report from the final game. Catholic Memorial made Wisconsin proud and return from the first international tour by a Wisconsin team undefeated with a 1-1-0 record. Here's the report from the last match againt Shannon RFC:

The girls battled it out with the women of Shannon today. the team was unbelievably tall and strong, yet the crusaders were able to walk away with a 14-5 victory using their speed to their advantage. "It was awe-inspiring playing in the shadow of the 60,000 seat Munster stadium against a rugby club founded in 1884" professed Coach Wal-Dog.

--Mo Brady

The CMH Tour continued...

On Wednesday we headed across Ireland to Galway. Most of the day was spent traveling and shopping. The rural city was considerably cleaner than Dublin. The small town feel made the stay enjoyable for all. The next day we hopped on a ferry and headed to the Aran Islands. The quaint community had more pubs than churches. We took a bus tour around the 27 square kilometer island enjoying stops at a cafe, and several locally owned shops. We hiked up a large stone hill dating back 150 BC and enjoyed the breath taking views of the ocean. The quiet atmosphere and the friendly people made for a meaningful cultural visit.

We got another view of the coast on Friday when we ventured out to the cliffs of Moher. Despite the intense winds coming off the ocean we were all happy to see more of the scenery. That afternoon we met up with a member of the Connacht Rugby Club. We spent the duration of our muddy training session learning how to incorporate new skills into our contact drills. The rain let up towards the end of practice leaving the team huddled up under a double rainbow. That night during dinner we were offered free tickets to the sold match between Connacht and Munster. The closely contested match and the exciting atmosphere made for an exciting night. We topped off the evening with some local music at the pub where we received the tickets.

Saturday was another rugby day. We met up with a guys team from Maryland and got a chance to watch another pro match. The galwegians lost in a physical match to cork constitution. After the game we got back on the bus and headed to limerick, our final city of the trip.

--mo brady

News from the Tour...

Here is our first update on the CMH tour to Ireland, including the match report from their first game against Gorey's RFC on Tuesday, provided by Mo Brady:

After a long day of travel we finally arrived in Dublin early on Sunday morning. We celebrated Easter service with the Archbishop of Dublin at St. Mary's pro-cathedral. Members of our group were invited to participate in the mass as we experienced the beauty of Irish music and culture first hand. Later that day we saw the President of Ireland at the Easter parade. We spent the rest of the day walking around the city and continued our tour on Monday morning. The day began with a tour of Dublinia, a visit to the Guinness Brewery, and a look inside Trinity College and The Book of kells. That night we enjoyed the local hospitality and relaxed in preparation for our game on Tuesday.

We traveled an hour and a half outside of Dublin to face the girls club from Gorey. Wings Claire Warren and Emily Schober scored trys for the Crusaders. Junior center Kayla Reilly was one for two on conversion kicks. The closely contested match ended with a tie score of 12 - 12. "It was bloody rough out there" said senior captain Lauren Maddente. "But we hung with them and used our speed and skill to our advantage." The physicality seen on the field differed greatly from the atmosphere of the social. We enjoyed the company of the other team and more about the Irish culture.

Congratulations on the tie!

The rumors are true...

Not to be out done by its neighbors, Catholic Memorial, who are touring Ireland this spring, the Bruisers are considering a tour. The Brookfield Bruisers held their pre-season meeting and now it's official: The Bruisers are "considering" a tour in the spring of 2009 to the home nations, most likely England and Wales.

Wisconsin teams get around...

Winter in Wisconsin is simply unpleasant... with the snow piling up and the bitter cold. Fortunately, for the girls high school rugby community, we can look forward to the spring touring season. While not everything is in place, we're looking forward to sending out our teams to see what they can do.

• The first up-coming tournament is the March 22-23 tournament in Fulerton California. Tony will be leading his new Oak Creek team. Tony led Northshore to victory at the same tournament last year. We all wish Oak Creek luck on its trip.


• Perhaps the real big news of the spring season --Catholic Memorial will be the first club team to tour internationally this April with a trip to Ireland. Arrangements are being made to post updates about the tour on this blog -- hopefully with pictures (and maybe video) -- of some of the action. I am a bit jealous -- so if there are any teams abroad that want to host my club next year, please feel free to leave a comment.


• Also, in April, several Wisconsin teams (tentatively DSHA, KM, and Brookfield) will be traveling to Des Moines for the U19 Girls Rugby Festival. We are all looking forward to an opportunity to play against the challenging competition from around the country at this excellent venue.
• In May, DSHA and Vernon will be filling the Wisconsin #1 and #2 seeds at the Midwest tournament in Elkhart, IN. Hopefully they can repeat their success from last year and keep Wisconsin in the top two spots.
• Also in May, KM is setting up a min-tournament by the Dells between Wisconsin and Minnesota teams. I don't believe the details are final, but its always nice to compete against Minnesota as they always have good clubs.
• Throughout the season, a number of our clubs will be scheduling fixtures with our neighbors to the south. There is a natural rivalry between us Wisconsinites and the flatlanders, so those should be fun matches for all involved. I don't have any details, but as match reports come in, we'll post results.
• It's simply too early to talk about the National Tournament -- but it will be exciting to see how the new USA Rugby sponsored championship will pan out. After years of coaches from across the country banding together to create a National Invitational Tournament, this will be the first USARFU sanctioned event. It will be interesting to see how this works out. Receiving the official nod from the union is a demonstration of how far high school girls rugby has come over the past decade.

All and all it should be a great season. If you are a potential player in Wisconsin -- follow the links to your nearest team and get in the game. Most teams (except for Catholic Memorial and DSHA which are school affiliated), accept players regardless of location or school affiliation.

So you want to tour the states...

I've noticed that about 20% of the traffic on this site actually comes from abroad. If you happen to be connected with a girls high school/U19 club (ages 14-18) and you are interested in coming to the States, we would be glad to help set up hosting with our local clubs. I discussed the idea with a couple of other coaches and I am sure we can find games and hosting arrangements if there are any interested teams out there in the world.

You may not think of Wisconsin as a place to tour, but the reality is we have a 8 teams all within close geographical proximity to Milwaukee. Moreover, our girls high school teams have perennially produced teams in the top 5 at national invitational tournaments.

So, if anyone out there is affiliated with a team and is interested in touring, you can post a comment to this site, and I will be sure to get back to you.

And yes, I know it is ridiculous to simply offer an open challenge to teams around the world, but it is offered with the best intentions.