August 11-12, 2018, NORFC & National Club Side 7s

National Club Side 7s & NORFC

Below are clips from several emails from members of NORFC about NORFC trip to the National Club 7s Championship

NOLA Rugby Nation,

Our NOLA 7’s Team has been training very hard all summer and are making their way towards the ultimate goal of a 7’s National Championship. Below is an update of the 7’s program from our player/coach Taylor Howden:

Dear NOLA Rugby Community,

I just wanted to take a minute to give you an update on your NOLA 7’s squad for 2018. There’s a lot to be excited about with this squad. The team’s core is built around players that have been playing with NOLA 7’s in the past, but there are some new faces as well. Several NOLA Gold players who are sticking around will join the squad and 2 rising seniors from Lindenwood are making a big impact.

NOLA 7’s was granted a waiver to compete in the Red River Conference for 7’s and we got off to a good start in Austin’s Bloodfest Tournament June 23rd taking 3rd place overall (but securing 2nd place qualifier points). That puts us in a great position heading into Tornado Alley 7’s in Norman Oklahoma this weekend (July 14th). The Dallas Reds got first in Austin, and then followed that up with a win in a new Eastern Championship Tournament which automatically qualifies them for the USA Rugby Nationals in August. That win for the Reds means the Red River Conference will get 2 seeds to Nationals. Our goal is to secure one of those seeds and to beat out the reds in the remaining qualifiers to secure the better of those 2 seeds.

The team practice twice a week in City Park Tuesdays and Thursdays and is really starting to come together. We’re looking to build on a solid first tournament and put it all together as we build towards our Nationals run.

The roster for Oklahoma 7’s this weekend is below:

1. Billy Stewart
2. Taylor Howden
3. Connor Bertrand
4. John Sullivan
5. Will Crawford
6. Cameron Troxler (c)
7. Ross Bellaci
8. Zach Young
9. Corey Lessasier
10. Aidan Elias
11. Nick Feakes
12. David Buckingham

Look to follow the action on New Orleans Rugby Football Club’s new Instagram account (@nolarugby).

Cheers,
Taylor Howden

Here’s where we ask you to help. These young guys struggle to pay rent let alone afford the cost of travel and dues to the club yet they remain committed and work their tails off in the NOLA summer heat just for a shot at a National Championship. They are ready and willing to work so we are asking if you have any odd jobs for a few hours or steady work for a few weeks for our boys, please e-mail me directly at jrehko1@gmail.com. If you don’t have work but still would like to help these hard working guys achieve their dream (and the club’s dream), we are asking for sponsors:

$150 for sponsoring a players dues
and/or
$100 for sponsoring a player’s travel to a tournament

Any amount is also appreciated.

Lastly,

Tonight we will be having our normal Thursday Touch session at Marconi 6:00pm but we will also be helping the 7’s team train for this weekend’s tournament. The 7’s team is going to show up at about 7:30 for a 30 or so exhibition touch match against our best and fastest touch players. Sammy is going to BBQ some sausage chicken thighs and of course beer will be served. Please bring $2 to play touch.

Thank you,

Jimmy Rehkopf
NORFC President

On Wed, Aug 8, 2018 at 5:16 PM, James Rehkopf wrote:
NOLA 7’s National Championship (August 11-12, New York City)

The New Orleans Rugby 7’s team is heading to New York City tomorrow (Thursday) for USA Rugby 7’s Nationals. They have been practicing all week and are ready for battle. The 7’s National Championship Tournament is 16 of the best 7’s Rugby teams in the country battling over two days for a National Championship title. Below are the pools for the competition. You can watch the event live on FloRugby.

This year the tournament is in New York, NY and that means we need to fly. We are looking for a little help from friends & family! We’d love to have 100 donors help fund this campaign. This is where the $5, $10, $25 donations really add up.

Donations were to be sent to David Buckingham.

Thank you to all of our sponsors so far listed below!

Leah Williams
David Hamilton
Dave Farrar
Anna Clancy
Abigail Johnson
Joseph Traylor
Michael Spencer
Lisa Stern Crawford
Edward Nagle
Daniel MacLeod
John Long
Tyler Evans
Tim Martin
Salvador Muñoz Martínez
Ryan Baham
Rashas Harbor
Jeff Reuther
Jack Mauer
Kittrick Du Bois
John Eddington
Jimmy Rehkopf
Ed Land
Bill Peterson
Mark Avery/Sweet Shack Snowballs
Joe Guinta
Geoff Ormsby
Cody Cadella
Tom Crosby

Reminder: Annual General Meeting/Elections
(Saturday, August 18th 2:00pm at The Rugby Pub)

The NORFC Annual General Meeting date has been moved to Saturday, August 18th 2:00pm at The Rugby Pub.

We will play touch at the Gretna Upper Pitch at 12:00 pm then move to the Pub for beers and the meeting. This meeting sets the tone for the entire season so it is VERY IMPORTANT everyone attend so we can get started off on the right foot. If you are interested in becoming and officer or helping out, please don’t hesitate to nominate yourself at the meeting.

Upcoming Events

Joey Traylor Memorial Fishing Rodeo (Sept. 1 2018 in Delacroix, LA)

Email from Rehkopf on morning of August 11th: Our boys are about to take the field this morning in New York City in the first match of the 7’s National Championship Tournament. Below is the roster for this weekend as well as the schedule of matches for the weekend. You can watch the event live on FloRugby by clicking here but you will need to purchase a subscription.

Saturday Schedule (All times CST)

10:30am NOLA vs. Metropolis
1:20pm NOLA vs Washington Athletic
4:40pm NOLA vs Santa Monica

Saturday August 11, 2018 New York City, Columbia University’s Baker Athletics Complex

The men fought hard today but did not get the result they had hoped for. It was a very humid and rainy day in the Big Apple where an early score from the first kickoff of the day against Metropolis put the Louisiana boys off on the wrong foot. Would the result have been different if the pill were to have bounced left rather than right? Was the yellow card on Connor Bertrand really justified or was it just the type of raw aggression that leaves whistle blowing zebras confused? Or was it the long mid day rainy delay after tiring travel that left us wanting more? No one knows for sure except for Coach Howden and the boys in green but one thing that’s for sure is that they never gave up and showed heart and courage until the end. Throughout the day they found their stride by turning adversity into triumph. The comeback story was a tale of two Back Row Will’s as rangy Will Crawford scooped up the first 5 point try of the day and just as rangy Will Stewart dotted the ball down twice in the win over Santa Monica. Even Bertrand’s punishing play style was well rewarded with the denial of a Santa Monica try by shear force on in the try line.

Great job NOLA! This is only the next step of a long tradition of winning under the mighty New Orleans RFC Banner and we should all be proud to wear the Purple Green and Gold!

Next Match: tomorrow at 8:40am EST / 7:40am CST versus Belmont Shore Gold in the Bowl Quarterfinal.

Saturday Results – August 11th

Metropolis 14 – 0 NOLA
Washington Athletic 24 – 7 NOLA (Try Scorer-Will Crawford)
Santa Monica 5 – 10 NOLA (Try Scorer-Will Stewart (2))

Sunday Results – August 12th
Atlanta Old White 17 – 19 NOLA
Kansas City Blues 26 – 7 NOLA
Santa Monica Dolphins 14 – 5 NOLA
The Championship match was won by Bulldog Rugby over Belmont Shore 19-7.