Knoxville, TN – With 13 of the 22
traveling spots taken by USC Men's Rugby
players, the Palmetto Rugby Union
Collegiate All-Stars traveled to
Knoxville, TN to participate in the 2009
USA Rugby South All-Star Championships.
This year's event switched to a new
format, with the top 4 local area unions
(based on last year's results) competing
in the Cup Division while the Palmetto
and Deep South unions played in the Bowl
Division alongside Mid-South II and
Georgia II (the secondary teams of the
tournament's top 2 seeds). Much like USA
Rugby's National Collegiate All-Star
Championships, the Bowl Division winner
would be promoted to the next year's Cup
Division, while the bottom Cup Division
team would face relegation to the Bowl
Division.
Geared up despite the format switch, the
Palmetto team took the field in style,
cruising to two easy victories over its
opposition. With Gamecocks filling over
half the roster, USC Men's Rugby was in
the spotlight for much of the day, with
South All-Star selectors looking on.
The first match of the day was
undoubtedly the closer of the two, as
the Palmetto All-Stars took on Mid-South
II, a team stocked with players from
Arkansas State and Tennessee. Pulling
off their first of two consecutive
blowouts, Palmetto decisively won by a
margin of 30-08. This set them up to
play the winner of the Deep South /
Georgia II semi-final, a match-up won by
the Deep South 13-08.
Bristling with confidence, the mighty
Palmetto All-Stars stormed the Deep
South early and often, winning by the
largest margin of all matches at the
tournament, 66-00. USC players were all
over the field, flying past the best
players from Louisiana, Mississippi, and
Alabama with ease.
The performance led spectators, players,
and coaches to take quick notice of the
mighty Palmetto Rugby Union, and
Gamecock Rugby in particular. No other
collegiate men's side won a match by
more than 18, and Palmetto did it twice.
After the event concluded, South
All-Star selectors personally invited 7
Gamecocks to participate in the 2010 USA
Rugby South All-Star Selection Camp,
while noting that others could still be
invited later in the spring. The South
Collegiate All-Star Team will be
participating in the USA Rugby National
Collegiate All-Star Championships in the
summer of 2010 in Glendale, CO. Last
year, the South won both of its matches
decisively to advance to that event's
Cup Championship Division, downing both
the Northeast and Midwest Rugby Unions.
The 7 invitations is a record for USC
Rugby, and will likely place the
Gamecocks near the top of the camp's
head-count by university.
This year's South All-Star Camp invitees
include sophomores Cullen Clair and Ian
Toomey, senior Calvin Storey, and
study-abroad players Peter Boland, Ollie
Fairbank (Palmetto Co-Captain), Richard
Pyke, and Rich Short.
Other players attending the event on
behalf of USC Rugby include seniors
Anthony Hughes (Palmetto Co-Captain and
USC Captain/President), Josh Skaggs, and
Chris Stevens,
freshman Colin McKeon, and study-abroad
player James Taylor. Seniors Corey Benov,
Justin Schlacterman, junior Nick Hart,
and freshman Matt Hale were also
selected to the Palmetto All-Star team,
but chose not to attend the event for
various reasons.
Club Administrator James Farrar was also
in attendance, serving as the
Administrator for the Palmetto
All-Stars.
The last player invited to the South
All-Star Camp was Brad Kieber ('08), and
the last USC player to make a South
All-Star side of any sort was Chad Baum
('06), who represented the USA Rugby
South Senior Men's All-Stars during his
collegiate career.
The South All-Star Tournament's Cup
Championship was won by Mid-South I,
with a 23-08 victory over the North
Carolina Rugby Union in the final.
Also of note over the weekend, USC Men's
Rugby moved up to #23 in this week's
edition of the
American Rugby
News Collegiate Top 25, a
poll the Gamecocks have remained ranked
in after their October 27th debut at
#22.
___
The next home match for the Gamecocks
will be Saturday, January 23rd, at 1:00
PM on USC's
STWFC Rugby Field. Carolina will be taking on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in
their inaugural
Carolinas Rugby
League match, and both A & B
sides will be actively competing to
finish atop the standings. The Carolinas
Rugby League is USC's new spring matrix,
and consists of the top 7 clubs in North
and South Carolina, including USC, Wake
Forest, Clemson, North Carolina,
Appalachian State University, North
Carolina State University, and East
Carolina University. As the league is a
mixture of Division I and Division II
competition, it will send its top DI
school into the South DI Final Four and
its top two DII clubs to the South DII
Quarter-Finals. The CRL will be naming
its own all-star team, as selected by
coaches and referees, and will reward
the top club with its own trophy at the
end of each season. The brainchild of
former UNC head coach Andy Richards, the
league is intended to limit regional
clubs' travel time while promoting local
growth through rivaled competition.
This Fall,
USC 'A' finished with an overall record of 14-3 for
its Fall season, with the team never
having lost a non-tournament
full-regulation affair (the club lost
twice at
Rucktoberfest
and once in the
SEC Tournament).
One of those losses came at the hands of
#6 Louisiana State University, and the
other two were both avenged in a
full-regulation match in Columbia, with
the Gamecocks defeating AHO [Appalachian
State] on November 7th
(24-08), and N.C. State on October 17th
(19-07).
The club also finished the fall
undefeated at home, and USC 'B'
finished 5-2-1 (9-2-1 if you consider it
was the 'B' side that powered Carolina
to the 2009 Palmetto Collegiate Cup
Championship), also going undefeated at
home. USC 'B' was also the 2009
Rucktoberfest Second Division Champions.
The Gamecocks Palmetto ('C') side will
play in USA Rugby South's Division III
competition, taking on Furman, College
of Charleston, The Citadel, Coastal
Carolina, Lander, and Armstrong Atlantic
State in the Palmetto League - a brutal
conference that has produced the last 7
South Championships while capturing 4 of
the last 7 Division III National
Championships. Such competition will do
wonders for the continued growth and
success of USC rugby, as participation
in last year's league is a large factor
behind USC's dominant run in Fall 2009.
The University of South Carolina is the
only school in all of USA Rugby South to
operate 3 full sides in South matrix
competition, with USC A and B
participating in USA Rugby Division I.
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2009 Palmetto All-Star
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