Teams Stay Consistent in Week Four of Women’s Premier League

BOULDER, Colo. –
The Women’s Premiere League started the month of October with four big rematches of the opening week.

In the Blue Conference, Keystone beat the Washington Furies  for the second time this season, 24-19,while Beantown edged out New York 19-17. Both teams improved their records to 3-1 at the top of the Blue Conference.

In the Red Conference, the Berkeley All-Blues continued their dominance on the rugby pitch by beating the Valkyries, yet this time the All-Blues gave up 17 points to the Minnesota team. Meanwhile, the Twin Cities Amazons’ defense improved from their first showing against ORSU by only giving up five points this time around against the Oregon team.

Photo courtesy James Allgood.  Click on photo for link to more pictures

January 12, 2009 – A women’s national premiership league remains on the table for the 2009 season, and reports are that eight teams have been contacted to see if they are interested in participating.

The eight teams were determined based on a points system tracking national playoff results from the last three years. One of those teams demurred, and the 9th-ranked team was brought in. The 9th and 10th ranked teams were extremely close, leaving, perhaps, #10 feeling a little hard-done by.

(Editor’s note: This list of teams has not been released, but a cursory look shows the top 10 teams to be: Berkeley, New York, Beantown, Twin Cities, Minnesota, Keystone, Atlanta, DC, NOVA and ORSU, in that order; any points system would likely get the same group.)

The development of the Premiership would only work if a separate but equally important plan for DI and DII play is adopted as well. The DI plan would have to map out competition for the remaining 22-26 DI clubs (depending on the arrival of new and former DII clubs). Most recognize that working along current territorial lines will not work, as that would likely leave two teams in the Midwest, for example.

Instead the plan is expected to create three Competitive Regions, similar to the men’s club Competitive Regions. These regions would provide a better regular season for DI clubs. Currently the DI season sends more than half the DI clubs to the national playoffs.

Obstacles remain. Clubs in a Premiership would have to plan a travel schedule of, most likely, four away weekends. Many top women’s clubs travel that much anyway, but usually that travel is player-funded and done so as the expense arrives, rather than gathering the money up front. This makes cost-sharing tough, because the clubs don’t have the cash up front to share.

In addition, this is all contingent on the acceptance among all clubs of a new DI structure. Observers, including those in these pages, hope that the current playoff system is reduced so make advancement to the playoffs actually difficult – 24 DI clubs playing for a four- or eight-team playoff would make sense, while a 16-team playoff would be laughable.

Still others don’t like the plan at all, saying the existence of a premiership will further hurt non-premier clubs who are trying to grow. Elite players will certainly get the message that they have to move to the premiership in order to get a serious national team look. New clubs will have a huge problem in keeping their better players.

Some point to what the men’s Super League has done to club rugby in the Bay Area. A region full of clubs able to field three sides on any given weekend, the San Francisco region has seen clubs fold, merge with other clubs, and lose numbers. Many blame the existence of the Super League, although traffic and a changing work environment are also factors.

The work put into this premiership also signals the death knell, at least for now, of a national all-star season. Part of the idea behind moving the women’s regular season to the fall was to allow for a full all-star season in the spring.

This hasn’t materialized, and with USA Rugby Women’s High Performance Manager Alex Williams working on the premiership, the idea of an all-star season lies fallow.

Williams said she is working on getting feedback from DI and DII clubs on the plans, and said the whole process is designed to make clubs stronger overall. She stressed that as time goes on, the goal is to expand the premiership to more clubs.