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IOC recommends Golf and Rugby for 2016 games

Will Tiger Woods and Michelle Wie be able to earn gold medals for the United States. From AP-

International Olympic leaders selected golf and rugby Thursday for proposed inclusion in the 2016 Summer Games, rejecting bids from baseball, softball and three other sports.

The International Olympic Committee executive board narrowed the field to two from a list of seven, which also included squash, karate and roller sports.

The board will submit golf and rugby sevens — a faster-paced version of the standard 15-a-side game — for ratification by the full 106-member IOC assembly in Copenhagen in October.

“In the end, the decision came down to which two would add the most value,” IOC President Jacques Rogge told reporters.

“Golf and rugby scored high on all 33 criteria,” Rogge said, adding this was still a proposal and it needed to be validated.

Anyone who visits this blog knows how much a fan I am of golf but Olympic golf just doesn’t interest me at this time.

 

College Rugby National Champions

The USA Rugby Collegate National Championships wrapped up this weekend with University of California winning the Division I crown (no big suprise there) and Middlebury College winning the Division II crown.

Division I Results

Division One Final Results

Division II Results

Division Two Final Results

On a related note Penn State won the Women’s Division I (22-21 over Stanford) and Iowa State won the Women’s Division II (26-19 over UC Santa Cruz).

 

College Rugby Results

The first two rounds of the 2007 USA Rugby (not NCAA) Collegiate National Championships were completed this weekend. Up to date results follow below, but you can pretty much pencil Cal in to win the Division I National Title again.

Division I Results

Division 1 Results

Division 1 Con

Division II Results

Division 2 Results

Division 2 Con

 

Collegiate Rugby National Championship Brackets

With the last of the league championships wrapped up, the final brackets for the Division I & II Collegiate Rugby National Championships have been released. Now you won’t see any of the games on ESPN, or even CSTV, but if you are in the area for any of the games go out and catch some of the play you may be suprised and actually enjoy it. Don’t worry if you don’t know whats going on, just ask someone because most rugby fans are more than happy to help someone get more interested in their sport.

Division I Bracket
Division 1 Bracket

Division II Bracket
Division 2 Bracket

 

Rugby World Cup Schedule Released

The official match schedule for the 2007 Rugby World Cup has been unveiled with games beginning in early September. While the pools for the tournament have been established, two of the spots are still waiting to be filled by qualifiers.

Pool A
England
South Africa
Samoa
USA
Repechage 2
Pool B
Australia
Wales
Fiji
Canada
Japan
Pool C
New Zealand
Scotland
Italy
Romania
Repechage 1
Pool D
France
Ireland
Argentina
Georgia
Namibia
Repechage 1: Winner of Uruguay v. Winner of Morocco v. Portugal
Repechage 2: Winner of Tonga v. Korea

An early look at the schedule the USA opens the tournament by getting spanked by England and then closes the tournament by getting spanked by South Africa. Now that’s going to be some fun. Expect the knockout stage qualifiers to be the teams in te top two spots listed above, but look out for Argentina and Fiji to pull an upset and sneak in.

 

California Rugby Starts 125th Season

Rugby is still an obscure sport for most in the country, relegated to a side show status at most parks played purely by amateurs and retired professional players. In the college ranks rarely do the teams get school support as an athletic program (usually because of insurance costs and Title IX compliance) however; the Cal Bears are one of the lone exceptions. This year marks the beginning of the teams 125th season and the quest for a 23rd National Title, in the past 24 years Cal has posted a 391-64-5 record and 18 national championships.

Of course in 2001 Cal was involved one of the most embarrassing moments in rugby when Stanford University forfeited to Cal because the team was “very afraid to get injured”. Committing the cardinal sin of rugby led to Stanford’s demotion to Division 2 (where they promptly won a national title) as well as being the laughing stock of the entire rugby community.

If you’re interested in an opportunity on US soil to see world-class rugby being played at the USA Sevens Tournament in San Diego on February 10-11th is a perfect opportunity.

 
 


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