May 2-3 Preview

This weekend is a big weekend for Wisconsin U19 Girls Rugby. Obviously, the big show for the weekend takes place in Carmel Indiana at the Midwest Girls Rugby Tournament. Click here for a link to the official brackets. DSHA (WI #1) and CMHS (WI #2) will compete in the cup bracket, with hopes of bringing home the Midwest Cup to Wisconsin soil once again. Vernon (WI #3) will be representing Wisconsin in the Festival division.

Last fall, DSHA earned the top spot after defeating CMHS is a narrow, nail-biting 5-0 victory. Vernon secured it's 3rd place standing with a 24-7 win over Brookfield in the Fall 2008 conference. The complete play-off brackets from the Fall 2009 season are available here.

Meanwhile, KM has organized the MN-WI Border battle, which will pit top teams from Minnesotta High School Girls Rugby Union (Wayzatta, Armstrong and Orono) against Kettle Moraine, Brookfield, Fond du Lac, Oak Creek, with a guest appearance from Rockford Il. This is a great opportunity to see some diverse competition up in Mauston, WI. Thanks to Noe, KM's coach, for all his efforts putting this together!

Good Luck everybody as we take on out-of-state competition!

Founders' Cup

CMHS retained the Founders' Cup by putting up 31 unanswered points before the game was called due to the stormy weather. CMHS closes out the 2009-2010 season having overcome Brookfield three times to retain the cup in advance of their Midwest run next weekend. The match opened with excellent tactical kicking by both teams. However, CMHS forced Brookfield to defend its try zone for twenty minutes before finally pushing through the opening try of the match. CMHS broke through with a second try as the whistle blew to close the first half with a score of 13-0.

While Brookfield made several incursions into CMHS territory, the CMHS forwards continually forced the turn over and place Brookfield on their heels. With a well discipline attack, CMHS put three more tries on the board, early in the second half before thunder called the game with the final score 31-0.

Good luck to CMHS and DSHA as they travel to Indiana to play in the Midwest Championship Tournament! And Good luck to Vernon as it travels to Indiana to play in the Midwest open tournament!

p.s. It's true, CMHS did not kidnap the pig. Rather, CMHS player's helped return the wayward pig from Iowa after it was lost by a BBRFC player. Although-- the text message was a little ominous.

Founders' Cup Preview

The Brookfield Bruisers RFC (BBRFC) were saddened at the loss of Mr. Pig, the stuffed animal of senior wing Beth F., who originally believed that Mr. Pig was left behind in the hotel after the Iowa tournament. However, late yesterday afternoon, the senior wing received a disturbing text message which read "we've got Mr. Pig -- and if you don't want him to become bacon, I wouldn't go scoring any tries on Saturday."

The BBRFC front office staff released this comment in response to the text message: "We are disturbed that, evidently, Mr. Pig is in the hands of CMHRFC and that they are using Mr. Pig as a means of intimidating our wing, who scored a hat trick of tries last weekend. We intend to take this matter before the arbitration panel to pursue recovery of the pig."

CMHRFC officials have denied that that the arbitration panel has jurisdiction over the alleged kid-napping of Mr. Pig. CMHS officials noted that the arbitration clause was clearly intended to resolve disputes regarding the Founders' Cup and cannot be used to
recover the allegedly kidnapped pig. BBRFC officials noted that "when CMHRFC attempted to use Mr. Pig as a means of intimidating our players in advance of this weekend's Founders' Cup match, they brought the dispute within the scope of the arbitration clause of the Irishfest Accords of 2008."

In a speech to the BBRFC players, Coach Dan "William Wallace" Chanen noted that "they may take our pig, but they cannot keep our trophy."

The Founders' Cup match is set to be played at 10:00 a.m. at Minooka Park in Waukesha, this coming Saturday.

April 18-19 Score Reports

Wisconsin Action:

Kettle Moraine 40 - Pius 5
Muskego 62 - Oak Crekk 0
Vernon 70 - Fond du Lac 0

Iowa Festival:
CMHS 22 - Hopkins 0
CMHS 53 - Edina 0
CMHS 34 - Orono 5

Brookfield 62 - Edina 0
Brookfield 10- Orono 0
Brookfield 0 - Hopkins 5

Lot's of rugby was played last weekend -- with CMHS and Brookfield traveling to Iowa to participate in the Des Monies Rugby Festival. The festival was a great opportunity to play competitive teams from around the Midwest in a non-tournament format. It was great to play against some very competitive and classy competition.

I have to give special kudos to the Kansas City Dragons who, after borrowing a player from Brookfield to fill out their team at the Des Moines Festival, gifted the player a pair of brilliant orange socks for her efforts.

Muskego's New Home on the Web

Muskego RFC has a new website. Always nice to get information right from the club.

More Scores...

Oak Creek hosted a mid-week game against CMHS on Thursday. Rockford Illinois came up to fill in the B-side. The results are:

CMHS 63 Oak Creek 0
CMHS JV 0 Oak Creek/Rockford 20


The match was played in Cudahy at Gen. Michel School where, evidently, the school district has put in permanent, real rugby goal posts. The official report is that they are "pretty cool."

Score Update...

This past weekend, Muskego defeated Fond du Lac 30-10.

Anyone left to report? Oak Creek? DSHA? Anyone else play matches this past weekend?

KM's Match Report from Ruggerfest

From our reporter in the field (hopefully with pictures to follow):

With several rookies eager to get in their first game, the Knightmare's traveled down to St. Louis for the Ruggerfest Tournament. The WI girls' were able to enjoy the warm sun on Saturday despite strong winds that persisted throughout the weekend. The first opponent was a combined side of Arlington, TN and Des Moines, IA. The Knightmares were able to put up a balanced attack and the forwards and backs each contributed 3 tries en route to a 38-5 victory. The 2nd match of the day came against a familiar opponent in DSHA's b-side. Again, the attack remained balanced as the forwards put in 3 of the 7 tries. Toni Cattani converted 3 of the kicks to end the match with a final score of 39-10.

Sunday brought much colder temperatures and closer games. In a match to earn a spot to the championship game, KM took on an experienced Kansas City side. Kansas City was able to get on the board first with a converted try to take a 7-0 lead that lasted until halftime. After the half, the Knightmares were able to pull within striking distance by putting in their own try to make it 5-7. But the scoring, continued to go back and forth with Kansas City getting a converted try followed up by another unconverted try by the Knightmares. With the score 10-14 and time running out, Kansas City was able to find space to put the game out of reach of a comeback. Kansas City secured a spot to the final against DSHA's A side with a hard fought 19-10 win over the Knightmares. The 3rd place game against Brighten, TN, was a more defensive battle, with the strong wind making it difficult to move the ball. With a strong kicking game, the Knightmares were able to keep the TN team pinned in their half and play under pressure. However, a strong defense was able to limit the score to 5-5 at the end of regulation. To find a winner, the sir ordered dropkicks to be taken at the 22 meter. Both teams failed to convert on the 1st attempt, but Toni Cattani slotted the 2nd kick down the middle for the win.

The rumor is that DS defeated Kansas City 22-0 (unconfirmed)

Thanks Noe for the update!

Spring Sir Assignments

I was told that someone wanted a place on the web to find the Sir Assignments. Well... here it is. Follow this link and it should take you to the sir-assignment list of the Spring 2009.

April 5-6 Results

Here are the scores reported to date:

April 4, 2009
CMH Varsity 27 v. Vernon 0
CMH JV 15 v. Vernon-B 0

April 5, 2009
Brookfield 50 v. Pius 7

Rumor has it that DSHA and KM both had very successful weekends at the St. Louis Ruggerfest, with DSHA winning the cup and KM winning the consolation bracket. But there is no official confirmation on this report.

Getting Support...

Catholic Memorial RFC got a nod from that school's president when he posted about their opening weekend on the presidential blog. Certainly, one element of the CMH team's success on the field is the support the Club receives from the school. Kudos to CMHRFC for creating a positive image for rugby in the school community and congratulations on the win over Vernon.

Score reports to follow?