Click on the NACRA logo to buy tickets for the upcoming 2015 NACRA Sevens
Championships at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.  Matches between national
teams from across North America and the Caribbean, in both men’s and women’s
competition, will take to the pitch Saturday, June 13, and Sunday, June 14, at
WakeMed Soccer Park to earn a qualification place at the Rio 2016 Olympic Summer
Games.  The men’s and women’s teams from both the U.S. and Canada are favorites
to qualify for the 2016 Olympics either through automatic qualification
opportunities that conclude in May or through the 2015 NACRA Sevens
Championships. The regional tournament in Cary will see any not-yet-qualified
U.S. and Canadian teams taking on teams such as Bermuda, the Bahamas, Jamaica,
Mexico, and Trinidad and Tobago in hopes of punching their ticket for the first
ever Rugby Sevens competition in the Olympics.

Fellow coaches, parents, representatives, players and rugby enthusiasts,

Rugby camp June 15-19
There is still time for you to sign up for our summer camp.  Please do so. 

As  you will see in the attached flyer, we are conducting a YOUTH ACADEMY in  conjunction with the Glendale Raptors week of June 15thon the campus  of NC State University (Method Rd).  This is our third year.  Last
summer we had about 50 players attend and received great instruction from our  staff, including guest coach Andre Snyman. This is an opportunity for the kids to get tremendous coaching from some of the best players in the World to
have ever played the game. 

Coach Snyman,
who was is a previous USA Eagles 7’s Team Defensive Coach, is returning again this year.  Coach Snyman is the head coach of Glendale Raptors which just won the national championships. Andre had a tremendous rugby playing career with the South African Springboks (33 caps) and with professional clubs in Europe.  

Below is a video highlighting some of Andre best tries for South Africa:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HZ7f8U3BhE

Mani Delaibatiki,
ll one of our guest coaches. Mani is the head coach of the Arkansas State Red Wolves. His program has grown in prominence over the last several years. They were 15’s national semi-finalists in 2011, 2013 and 2014 with them making the championship game in 2012. Their 7’s team was 2012 and 2013 USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Champions. The program offers scholarships and we are extremely pleased to have him this year.

Craig Everett,
will be one of our guest coaches. Craig is still an active player with Merthyr.  He has also represented Wales at U21, played professionally for Cardiff, Carmarthen Quins, Aberafan, Scarlett’s and Worcester Warriors. He is a back row
forward who will complement greatly the coaching staff. In addition to being an active player, he is also a Welsh Rugby Development officer, responsible for  the development of the players and the game for the Welsh Rugby
Union.

Mike Stanaway,
originally played in New Zealand, then was scouted to play professional Rugby in Edinburgh Scotland. After a three year stint in Scotland Mike was again offered a contract in San Diego for the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club (OMBAC) elite team. Mike then made the USA Eagles National Rugby team with many tours around the globe.

Campers may register for the ½ day, full day or resident option.  Those choosing the resident option will stay in the dorms at NC State with the other players and coaches so the camp will be convenient for out of town players as well as any local players who want to benefit from the extra evening training and fun that the resident option provides. 

The deadline for the Resident Option is June 6th. If you are interested, please register soon. Camp details can be found at www.redhawksrugby.com.

International Olympic 7s Qualifier Tournament in Cary June 13 and 14. 
At Wake Med Soccer Park, both the Women and Men’s’ US National 7s team, the Canadian National 7s team and the National teams of several Caribbean nations will square off with the men and women’s’ winners advancing to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. 

USA just won the London’s 7s tournament sevens in a thrilling match against Australia. The full game highlights are below. These same players will be in Cary on June 13-14th

http://www.thisisamericanrugby.com/2015/05/video-london-7s-final-full-match-replay.html?m=1

The kids have the opportunity to not only witness International 7s—some of the best athletes in the World—but to also act as ball boys/girls on the side lines while cheering on the United States and likely getting their pretty faces on
television.  I can’t believe that every single kid hasn’t yet signed up to do that.  Participants for ball boy must be 10 or
older!

Tickets for the event may be purchased at:

 http://www.redhawksrugby.com/store.html

Please call me at 919-696-6776 if you are interested.

Is rugby a safe for American Youth?
      
by Lyle J. Micheli, MD
Commentary by a past president of the American College of Sports
Medicine I support efforts to establish rugby teams in American high
schools and colleges, and wish to alleviate any possible concerns about the  sport’s relative safety. I think I offer a unique perspective on the subject  given that: 

 
• I have been closely involved in rugby as a player and supporter since the
  early 1960s when I began playing the sport as a Harvard undergraduate, and
• I am a physician who is a past president of the American College of Sports Medicine; I am the author of over 200 scholarly journal articles on sports medicine (including the first-ever published study of rugby injuries in the
  United States); in my practice I have treated athletes of all ages from sports as varied as figure skating and football; and I am the chairman of the Massachusetts Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

A popular sport worldwide Rugby is a dynamic contact sport that is played all over the world by men and
women of all different classes,creeds, and races. It fosters friendship and camaraderie between players. To celebrate one recent Christmas, men from the American and New Zealand research stations in Antarctica played a game of rugby against each other on those southernmost frozen wastelands. Most rugby players  have played with and against people from other nations.

Rugby is played in over 100 countries and is the most popular team sport in nations such as Japan, Fiji, and Wales. This sport could not be as popular as it is among the peoples of so many different cultures if it were dangerous! In
fact, the risk of injury in rugby is relatively low compared to sports Americans embrace – such as football, ice hockey, and lacrosse – a fact borne-out by numerous studies to ascertain the risk of sports injury in different activities.
The reasons for this are quite straightforward to those of us who study sports medicine. 
 
IRB Player Numbers_infographic

Why rugby is a safe sport – paradoxically The main reason rugby players have a relatively low risk of injury compared
to football players is paradoxical –rugby players don’t wear protective equipment. Thus the rugby player doesn’t have the same disregard for the safety of his or her head, neck, and shoulders when tackling or trying to break through
a tackle.

The other reason is that unlike football, rugby is a game of possession, not yardage. Consequently rugby players don’t tackle by “driving through the  numbers,” as football players are taught to do with their heads when tackling a
player. In rugby, players are taught to use their arms to wrap a player’s legs and let the momentum of that player cause him to go to ground.


Furthermore, in rugby there is no blocking, and so players who don’t have the ball don’t get hit when they’re not expecting it. One of the reasons rugby has a reputation for being “dangerous” in the United States is because when the average American sees rugby being played, he or she sees a free-flowing contact sport. Because it doesn’t have the familiar stop-and-start character of football and other TV-shaped sports, to the uninitiated rugby can appear confusing and “scary.” Furthermore, while the bumps, bruises, and scrapes you see on the elbows, knees, and faces of many rugby players can appear alarming, they are of considerably less concern than the anterior cruciate ligament ruptures, finger fractures and dislocations, and chest contusions characteristic of a sport such as football in which heavy protective equipment is worn.


Injury rates I performed one of the first studies of rugby injuries in the United States, which showed that compared to football, the incidence of injury in rugby is quite low (10 percent in American club rugby compared to 52 percent in NCAA college football). My study was published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Sports Medicine. Subsequent studies have supported my results. It would be disingenuous to suggest that rugby players never get injured.


However, based on the numerous studies that have been done, the scientific conclusion we must reach is that rugby is not as injurious as certain other contact and collision sports that most of us believe deserve NCAA status, and is
a relatively safe sport in the panoply of athletic endeavors available to our  young men and women. Since the early study I did, sports medicine has grown as a specialty and there has emerged a considerable body of literature on the safety of all sports, including rugby. If you review the literature you will find no evidence to suggest that rugby should be denied a legitimate place in high schools and colleges around the world.


For all the reasons outlined  above, I have no hesitation based on my personal and professional experience to
declare that rugby is worthy of a place in American colleges and high schools.


Dr. Lyle Micheli is director of the Division of Sports Medicine at Boston
Children’s Hospital and an Associate Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
at Harvard Medical School. He is a past president of the American College of
Sports Medicine and currently serves as chairman of the Massachusetts Governor’s
Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Dr. Micheli is chairman of USA Rugby’s
Medical & Risk Management Committee.