Austin Blacks Look To Fill Coaching Vacancies

Austin Rugby Club Coaching Vacancies

The Austin Rugby Club, based in Austin Texas, is currently seeking to fill important coaching vacancies for their upcoming 2011-2012 season.  Austin fields very competitive teams in USA Rugby’s Mens Club Division 1 and Division 3 Championships along with a U-19 team.

Affectionatitely known as the Austin Blacks, the two Senior Men’s teams are coming off a record breaking year. The Division 1 Team winning the Texas Rugby Union Championship going Undefeated. Austin is only the second club in USA Rugby history to have two teams compete at the National Championship Play-Offs in the same season with our Division 3 team also winning the Texas Championships.

Austin has a longstanding track record of success and are looking for coaching canidates that share the same commitment to excellence and energy to develop Texas rugby.

The postions below are all unpaid coaching positions and will report to the Director of Coaching and the club’s Board of Directors. If interested please send your Resume/CV to info@austinrugby.com

Available Positions for 2011-2012 Season:

Division I Backs Coach

Division III Head Coach

Division III Assistant Coach

AustinAreaHigh SchoolHead Coach

Austin Blacks Send Both D1 and D3 Teams To USA Rugby Club Playoffs.

The Austin Rugby Club made history recently by becoming only the second club in the history of USA Rugby to put two teams in the national playoffs in the same year. This impressive feat is just one of the goals 2nd year coach Lachlan Ferguson presented the team with at the beginning of the season. The Ultimate goal of  2 National Championship titles is well within reach if the Blacks perform well against some tough competition at the USA Rugby Club Playoffs May 21st and 22nd at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA.

The Division 1 Austin Blacks, finished the regular season undefeated while scoring 499 points and allowing only 136 in 10 league matches. The Blacks are 16-0 this year  including impressive wins over two touring teams from England – 64-21 over British Airways and 79-15 over London Law Society.

The Blacks Division 1 team takes on the Sacramento Lions in the 1st Round of the Club Playoffs Saturday May 21st.

Austin Rugby Club’s Division 3 team won the Texas-South Div.3 league with an 8-2 record. In the Texas Div.3 playoffs the “Blacks-2” defeated Ft. Worth and Oklahoma City Crusaders before upsetting undefeated Dallas Athletic 22-21 in the final. Blacks-2 went on to take 3rd place in the Western Territory Championships last weekend at Burr Field with a 34-20 win over Kansas City Blues.

The Blacks Division 3 team takes on the South Bay Rhinos in the 1st Round of the Club Playoffs Saturday May 21st.

Austin RC will travel to Chula Vista with a tour party of 80 including 52 players plus coaching staff and supporters. Follow the Blacks on Twitter and Facebook for live updates from the Club Playoffs in Southern California!

Austin Blacks Head To USA Rugby Division 1 Playoffs Via Forfeit Win

The Austin Blacks Division 1 team was training hard this week when they heard a bit of surprising news. Their opponent for the USA Rugby “Round of 32”, The Denver Barbarians, will not travel to Austin for the match and have forfeited. The news brought mixed emotions from Coach Lachlan Ferguson. “On one hand its great because obviously we are one step closer to our ultimate goal, plus we get to rest some guys that have a few nagging  injuries. On the other hand we’re a little bummed because we were excited to see where we stack up against a top team like Denver.”

The Blacks will now play a few warm up matches against touring sides from London and Vancouver in preparation for their first round match in the Division 1 Club playoffs on May 21st against likely opponent Old Mission Beach Athletic Club (OMBAC) from San Diego. That matchup will take place basically in OMBAC’s backyard in nearby Chula Vista California.

With a superb record of success in years past, and “home field” advantage, the Blacks will have a tough opponent ahead of them in OMBAC. This Blacks team however seems destined for a great run at the Division 1 National Championship after going an undefeated 10-0 in the TRU season with an amazing 499  points scored while holding their opponents to a meager 136 points. Will this year finally be the year where the Austin Blacks hoist the Championship trophy after being runner up on 3 separate occasions (2002, 2004, 2007)?  Only time will tell.

Austin Rugby Set to Host Western Rugby Championships This Weekend

Austin Rugby Club will be hosting the Western Rugby Football Union Territorial Championships the weekend of April 30 & May 1 with the first match kicking off at 9:30am Saturday. 20 teams in 4 different divisions battle it out this weekend with a chance to move on to the USA Rugby National Championship playoffs May 21-22. Winners from Men’s Club Division 2 and 3, along with winners from the High School and U-19 divisions will also be crowned Western champs.

The official schedule is posted on the WRFU.ORG website. For directions and contact info for the tournament please visit austinrugby.com.

The Austin Blacks kick off the tournament Saturday  playing Sioux Falls Crow in the Men’s Division 3 bracket at 9:30am on Field 1. Austin Westlake’s rugby team is competing in the High School Division, with their match against St. Thomas Aquinas  kicking off at 12:30pm Saturday on Field 3.

Tournament finals begin at 10:45am Sunday with the U-19 final followed by the Men’s Division 3 and High School finals at 12:30pm, and the Men’s Division 2 final at 2:15pm.

Admission for the event is free and parking is $3 per car. Food and drinks will be available for purchase from the concession stand, so please no outside food or drink (other than bottled water). Dogs on leashes are permitted.

Come out to Burr Field, home of the Austin Blacks, this weekend for all the hard hitting action!

Austin Blacks are Texas D1 and D3 Champions!

The Blacks defeated HARC yesterday to finish undefeated (10-0)  and win the TRU Div.1 Championship. Meanwhile the Blacks-2 were playing in the TRU Div.3 championship tournament where they dismantled Crusaders of Oklahoma in yesterday’s semi-final 59-30 before upsetting DARC 22-21 in today’s Div.3 final.

DARC (Dallas Athletic) came in to today’s final on an undefeated run in Div.3, beating the 10 North sub-division teams by an average of 55 points per game. Blacks-2 were 8-2 in the regular season before beating Ft. Worth 34-17 last weekend. Austin, ignoring this past weeks’ drama with alleged but unfounded charges of ineligible players, were on the back foot for most of the first half, while playing into a strong wind at Burr Field. DARC scored two penalty-kicks and a last minute try in the first half to lead 11-7 against Austin’s lone try. Austin looked “done-for” with the clock ticking down and DARC leading 21-17 but the Blacks-2 showed their class when fullback Aaron Seaney took a DARC clearance kick at mid-field and took it up strong, offloading to wing Rickey Johnson who barreled over for the game winning try. Austin emerged with the 22-21 victory and the #2 seed in the West Div.3 Championship to be held at Burr Field on the weekend of April 30-June 1.

Congratulations to both our sides for winning an unprecedented double TRU Championships for 2011.

Blacks Cruise Past Quins and Corpus

It was just another day at the office for the two Austin Blacks squads as the D1 Blacks pummeled the Dallas Quins 88-5, while the D3 squad was able to rest and still pick up a bonus point victory winning by forfeit 28-0. I’ll let Austin club President Alan Sharpley sum it up in his own words below:

Saturday, March 19

There were only two Texas Rugby Union Div.1 matches yesterday with Austin travelling to Dallas to face the Harlequins. Harlequins Super League side was away against Utah Warriors and their home Div.1 side was a shadow of the team Blacks beat 20-6 in Austin on Feb.27. Austin put on a convincing display of running rugby dominating every phase of the game. Blacks winger, Aaron Seaney, opened the scoring in the 2^nd minute with a length-of the field strike on his first touch of the game. Seaney never broke stride as he sailed around the Harlequin defense to touch down between the posts. Fullback, Mike Taylor, converted and the score was 7-0, Blacks. Unfortunately, a few minutes later Seaney would take a knock on the thigh which slowed him down or he would have surely added further to his Div.1 league leading 11 trys. Nevertheless, Austin kept the scoreboard ticking over with five more trys in the half, three converted, to take a 38-0 half-time lead. Head coach, Lach Ferguson, emptied the bench trying some new combinations in the front row in preparation for the upcoming playoffs. Aaron “Bubba” Callaghan came in for Luis Navarro at tight-head prop, John Murrell moved from 2^nd row to replace Andrew Smith at loose-head prop, and Beau Tresidder made his debut at hooker replacing Alex Lamont and Nick Lane replaced Murrell in the second row. In addition, Ryan Little replaced Aaron Seaney on the wing as a precautionary move. The second half was much like the first with Austin scoring early and often. The Blacks scored eight tries in the second spell with Taylor converting five. On the day, Mike was a respectable 9 for 14 on conversion attempts in very windy conditions. Of special note was the play of two former Harlequins, Dave Goss at center and Andrew Smith at prop. Goss had two trys and Smith finished off a length of the field try from a Quins’ kickoff. The ball was kicked deep with hooker Alex Lamont receiving. Lamont took it up hard and off-loaded to hard-charging 2^nd row Will Martin who crashed through the defense for an additional 30 meters and fed Smith in support who outran the cover defense for 30 meters and the try. You couldn’t wipe the smile off Lachie’s face – Kickoff – #2 – #4 – #1 – try.

Lach singled out the work-rate of Will Martin throughout the match and the aggressiveness of Brian Petty (3 trys, one bowling over two tacklers). But he awarded “Man of the Match” to scrumhalf, Rick Medina, who schooled his opposite number who was also half his age.

1                     Andrew Smith (1 try)          replaced by John Murrell

2                     Alex Lamont                       replaced by Beau Tresidder

3                     Luis Navarro                      replaced by Aaron Callaghan

4                     John Murrell (1 try)             replaced by Nick Lane

5                     Will Martin (1 try)

6                     Robert “Meat” McKay

7                     Alex “Doc” Saroff (1 try)

8                     Harry Higgins (1 try)

9                     Rick Medina

10                 Zak Triplett (2 trys)

11                 Aaron Seaney (1 try)          replaced by Ryan Little (1 try)

12                 David Goss (2 trys)

13                 David Comerford

14                 Brian Petty (3 trys)

15                 Mike Taylor (9 conversions)

Austin Blacks – 88 (14 trys, 9 con)      Dallas Harlequins – 5 (1 try)

In the other Div.1 match on Saturday, Dallas Reds travelled to Shreveport and tied the score at 31 all with two minutes remaining. However, Shreveport kicked a penalty on the final whistle to win 34-31.

Austin Blacks-2 were set to host Corpus Christi at Burr Field yesterday but Corpus cancelled at the last minute to give Blacks-2 the forfeit win. Blacks-2 have won the Div.3 South and will host a Quarter-final against North#4 at Burr Field on April 9. More details will follow.

Next weekend Blacks travel back to Dallas to play the Reds at Lake Highlands Park, 2:00pm kickoff. Blacks-2 are off.

Alan Sharpley

Key matches this weekend for the Blacks

While most of the ATX is enjoying all the SXSW festivities (as well as St. Paddy’s day) this week, the Blacks are gearing up for two tough battles. Both Blacks squads sit atop of their respective tables in the the Texas League and Coach Lach Ferguson has them focused on keeping it that way.

The 1st Division Blacks travel to Dallas to take on their biggest rival the Dallas Quins. While the Quins seem to be having an off year, they are never to be taken lightly any day. The Blacks look to continue their free flowing offensive game play while staying extremely stingy on defense. A talented back line led by flyhalf Gonzalo Sanchez and former Quin David Goss, will most certainly look to expose soft areas of the Quins defense.

The Blacks 3rd Division squad holds on to a thin lead in the points table and need just 1 more win from their last 2 matches to lock up the coveted #1 seed for Texas. Corpus Christi comes to Austin this weekend looking to spoil that plan. The Blacks are coming off a very impressive win over the crosstown rivals Austin Huns handing them a 71-0 whopping. Coach Todd Oosterhouse was very pleased with the defensive effort and hopes to see it continue this weekend.

 

Blacks D1 v Dallas Harlequins

1. Andrew Smith
2. Alex Lamont
3. Luis Navarro
4. John Murrell
5. Will Martin
6. Luke Osberg
7. Alex Sarroff
8. Harry Higgins
9. Rick Medina
10. Zak Triplett
11. Aaron Seany
12. Dave Goss
13. Dave Comerford
14. Brain Petty
15. Michael Taylor
16. Aaron Callaghan
17. Beau Tresidder
18. Connally McKay
19. Ryan Little

Blacks D2 v Corpus Christie

1. John Brezina
2. Jaime Piedra
3. Michael Norton
4. Jon Wilson
5. James Spindler
6. Gordon Parker
7. Chris Cronn
8. Andy Williams
9. Mike Gifford
10. Chris McCarthy
11. Ricky Johnson
12. Mitch Landis
13. Nick Whitelonis
14. Anthony Torres
15. Sean Reid
16. Mike Dennis
17. Vien Nguyen
18. Keith Braithwaite
19. Eamonn Murphy
20. Grant Campbell
21. John Morgan
22. Monbienaime Ifenayo Adjimon

Austin Blacks Continue to Roll

The “W’s” keep piling up for the Austin Blacks as the two teams combined for a perfect 3-0 record last weekend achieving the lofty “undefeated weekend” goal set by head coach Lach Ferguson.

Blacks 2 (formerly know as the Golds) were up first dismantling the traveling McAllen squad 57-26. The time then came for the 1st Division Blacks squad to put their stamp on the weekend by defeating not 1 but 2 teams from big D. On Saturday it was the Dallas Reds who fell to the mighty Blacks 43-18 followed by a tough win on Sunday over the always hardened Dallas Quins with the final score reading 20-6 in favor of the boys from Austin.

Overall it was a great weekend for rugby action out at Burr Field as close to 10 matches were played over the weekend.

Here are the match reports from the Austin Blacks weekend action:

Saturday, Feb.26 – Bur Field

1:30 Div.3 League match

Blacks-2 got off to a fast start against the visiting McAllen Knights to lead at the half 38-0. At 48 min it was 43-0 before McAllen  answered with three trys in quick succession to narrow the lead to 43-19. But Austin shut down their comeback bid with two more trys before a McAllen consolation try closed out the match 57-26 to Austin. Newly arrived flyhalf, Chris McCarthy was awarded “Man of the Match.” Blacks-2 lead the Div.3-South standings with a 6-1 record and 32 Points, trailed narrowly by Huns-2 with 32 points and an identical 6-1 record.

Scoring for Blacks-2

Trys: Mike Taylor(2), Rickey Johnson(2), Nick Whitelonis(2), John Wilson, Chris McCarthy, John Brezina

Conversions: Mike Taylor (6 from 9)

3:00 Div.1 League match

Blacks opened the scoring in the 8^th minute when winger Aaron Seaney touched down in the left corner and Flyhalf Gonzalo “Gonzo” Sanchez made the difficult conversion (7-0) but, on the ensuing kickoff, Dallas answered with an unconverted try, 7-5. Dallas then took their only lead of the day with a penalty at 24 min (7-8). Four min later 2^nd row Ty Terrazone crashed over finishing a sustained period of pressure from the Austin forwards. Gonzo again converted (14-8). Dallas closed the half with a penalty to narrow the lead to 14-11.

In the 2^nd half the Austin forwards took control and kept the Reds scoreless until the last play of the match. The Blacks scored five trys with Seaney adding another, captain and #8 Troy Mussey adding two, flanker Luke Osberg-Bauer notching one, and new fullback Sailesa Vadrawle touching down his first for Austin. The final score was Blacks-43, Dallas-18. Captain Troy was named “Man of the Match”

Scoring summary for Blacks

Trys: Aaron Seaney(2), Troy Mussey(2), Ty Terrazone, Luke Osberg-Bauer, Sai Vadrawle

Conversions: Gonzalo Sanches (4 from 7)

Sunday, Feb.27 – Burr Field

Dallas Harlequins opened the scoring in the 4^th min with a penalty to lead the Blacks 0-3. That score would hold up for the next 20 minutes before wing David Comerford would dive over for a try converted by Gonzo (7-3). Then just 4 min later, that man “Gonzo the Magician” would add a try and the conversion to take a double-digit lead (14-3). Harlequins added a penalty just before halftime but it would be their last score of the day (14-6). The second half was back and forth with neither team able to maintain a sustained attack. Gonzo added tow more penalties to close out the scoring for a final score of 20-6. Gonzo scored 15 of the 20 Blacks points through a try, 2 conversions, and 2 penalty kicks. Dave Comerford had the other try.

At the half-way point the Blacks lead the Div.1 standings with a 5-0 record and 24 league points. Dallas Reds are in 2^nd place with a 3-2 record and 15 points, and Huns, Shreveport and Harlequins are tied for 3^rd at 3-2 records and 10 points. HARC brings up the rear at 1-4 and 6 points.