The Club Sevens was once again a huge success and Nigel Melville looks back at event giving thanks to the host Golden Gate Rugby Club and all those who took part.

by Nigel Melville
Nigel Melville Direct

Thank you to Golden Gate Rugby Club who once again put on a great celebration of Club Sevens hosting the USA Emirates Club Sevens Final Day, I have written many times about the San Francisco Golden Gate Rugby Club and the massive team effort that continues to build a very solid foundation for the Club. The quality of the facility was matched by some excellent Rugby, Al Caravelli and myself were pretty excited about a couple of young players who we will be seeing more of in the next few weeks. Alex Williams cast her eye over the women’s teams on Saturday, and it was also good to see Serevi helping the teams out, and seeing how proud he was to watch his daughter play in her first USA Rugby National event. He told me that he wants her to play for the USA Eagles one day!

Congratulations to the Champions, Belmont Shore (Men) and All Blue (Women).

Off the field I hosted a fundraiser for the Eagles on Friday night, met up with former Eagles from as far back as 1975 and current Eagles parents, the Tests and Clever’s. Thank to all who supported the event, particularly Planet Bordeaux who provided the wine tasting….

On Friday night the Women’s National team were in action again, after a narrow defeat to England on Tuesday, it was obvious that a two day turn around with a tough game against Canada was too much for a largely inexperienced team. I spoke to the Eagles new Head Coach following the game, the team struggled in the last quarter, but on the whole the week had been positive and the team spirit was very strong. Next up South Africa, time to prepare and we should be able to see the progress being made.

On Saturday, Eddie O’Sullivan and the Eagles kicked off their World Cup warm up series with what has to be seen as a game they should have one, losing to Canada 22-28. I watched the game in the Golden Gate Club House with many of the fans and players from the sevens event. It was an exciting game, a game where the Eagles dominated most areas but a couple of missed kicks kept Canada in touch, and a couple of soft tries gifted to Canada gave them their win. On the whole, I would think Eddie and his coaches would have been pleased with much of the game, but frustrated about the points they gave away.

Next Saturday is a chance to event the series in Denver, the team have been camped there for the last 2 weeks and are looking forward to playing in front of a home crowd.

This week will be a lot of fun, on Wednesday 160 coaches will be joining me in Denver for a three day Coaching course. The course is something I have wanted to do for some time, an opportunity to share the experiences I had as a Director of Rugby developing programs and coaching professional teams. It’s a bit of a ‘brain dump’ sharing a wide range of presentations and education I undertook as a developing coach – what helped and what didn’t!

The course will include formal presentations from Eagles specialist coaches, Eddie O’Sullivan is leading a Q&A session on the Rugby World Cup, Al Caravelli on Sevens and I have a special guest, Strength and Conditioning coach, Craig White presenting on the latest High Performance coaching initiatives.

On top of this we have the business of rugby, how to develop your own program and much, much more as they say!

On Friday the Classic Eagles role into to town to play their very own Eagles v Canada game on Saturday, the Classic Eagles will also be taking their Rookie Rugby Coaching Awards and working with the local ‘Girl Scouts’ in a coaching initiative. Having former Eagles going back into their rugby communities as qualified Rookie Rugby coaches can only be a good thing for the game.

USA Rugby's State Based Rugby Organizations will be with us for their annual conference sharing best practice for the development of Youth and High School Rugby programs where we are making excellent progress.

On Friday the USA Rugby Board meet, Saturday Congress and then of course Saturday night, the main event, Eagles v Canada at Infinity Park – buy your tickets now, it should be a great game once again.

This week, look out for the NBC/Universal announcement of their broadcast schedule for the Rugby World Cup, I know there have been plenty of requests for more information, I am delighted that this will be available this week.

For those that can’t make it to Denver this week, I am going to keep you all informed of each days activities on the blog and on Twitter…..
 

With an impressive resume as player, coach and administrator, Nigel David Melville took over as CEO and President of Rugby Operations of USA Rugby, the National Governing Body of the sport in America, in 2006.  In addition to his full time job promoting the sport in the U.S., Melville has launched his own blog, Nigel Melville Direct, to further the discussion and his passion for what it will take to make the U.S. a great rugby playing nation.

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