East Meets West Revisited

About a year ago, we looked at the results of the various U.S. rugby union championship competitions and declared a slight edge for the Western United States over the Eastern United States. If this weekend's Men's Club Championships are any indicator, that Western dominance continues.

This year, the Division I, II, and III playoff formats were all arranged such that in each division, 16 clubs played in Eastern and Western regional brackets with two teams from each region advancing to the semifinals. This meant that each semifinal match at level of play featured an Eastern Side versus a Western side. In those semifinal matches, played today, not a single side from the East survived. Six semifinal matches, all won by the Western representatives.

That mean that not only will all of these competitions be won by a Western side, but an Eastern side won't even appear in the final at any of these levels.

Although other American competitions used different playoff formats, they also point toward Western dominance. The Collegiate Men's Division I championship match last month featured a pair of Western sides, as did the Boy's High School and Under-19 age-grade competitions from two weeks ago.

Tonight's Rugby Super League final and last month's Girl's Under-19 final were also won by Western sides, though the runners-up were from the Eastern side of the country in both cases. The 2009 Women's Club final has yet to be played, but a Western side bested an Eastern side in the 2008 tournament. The only exceptions to this pattern of Western dominance are the Women's Collegiate Division I and II tournaments and the Men's Collegiate Division II tournament, which were all won by Eastern sides in May.

Of twelve national champs, then, that means nine are from the West. Again, perhaps just as telling is that more than half of those championships didn't even feature an Eastern side in the final. More Western dominance next year? We'll see ...

Two Codes is Not Enough?

Crossover star Sonny Bill Williams courted plenty of controversy last year when he ditched rugby league for rugby union in France. A professional career in two highly physical sports would be enough for many, both in terms of accomplishment and in terms of punishment. For Sonny Bill, though, a little more challenge seems to have been called for as he began his boxing career to much fanfare this week. After some pre-match friction, Williams took down Gary "The Baboon" Gurr in the second round of a shortened-rounds bout.

Although Williams will be busy with rugby union thoughts for a little while as he plays for the Barbarians against Australia next weekend, he has mentioned that he'd like to fight again. Although there have been some complaints that the fight was a farce, the video clips below suggest that Williams has promise if he wants to return to the squared circle.

The leadup:


Pre-fight antics:


Bout highlights:


The entire first round:


What's next for Sonny Bill? You tell us.

They Have to End Some Time: Tiebreakers

Last weekend's dramatic Heineken Cup semifinal between Leicester and Cardiff will be long remembered for its penalty shout-out finish after all other attempts to separate the sides were exhausted. Here's how the grueling process went down:

• The sides were locked at twenty-six points apiece after regulation, so two ten-minute extra periods were played.
• With the draw unbroken after extra time, the number of tries scored in the match was the next tiebreaker. This was moot, however, as each side had scored two tries during the match.
• each side nominated five kickers to attempt one placekick at goal each from the 22-meter line in front of the posts.
• After each side made four goals, the kicking competition went into "sudden-death" mode (wherein the first side to miss a goal loses, so long as the other side made a goal in the same round) with a new set of kickers. In the third round of this segment, Cardiff flanker Martyn Williams pushed an attempt wide to end the marathon and send Leicester into the final to be played in a couple of weeks.

The format was unpopular with many given that it forced players specializing in things other than goalkicking to do as much with the match at stake, but it was still exciting. Aside from the tense finish, the match also served to answer a few fans' curiosity regarding how a tie is resolved in a knockout match after extra time.

Or did it? Actually, even though the format seen last weekend is used in the Heineken Cup, the format will be reconsidered next year. Further, other competitions don't do it the same way, so seeing the shoot-out last weekend actually tells very little about how the matter is settled throughout the sport.

If you've read this far, we assume you're interested in hearing how all of the competitions settle a draw in playoff situations where a winner must be determined, so here's a partial list of competitions and their tiebreaking methods:

• The Guinness Premiership (England's top domestic competition) has a similar format as the Heineken Cup, but the kicks vary in placement by round with some in front of the posts, some 15 meters from the left and right touch lines, and some 5 meters from each touch line.
• In the Super 14 (featuring top sides from New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa), two formats are used, on for the semifinals and one for the finals. In the semis, the sides play two ten-minute extra time periods, after which the deadlock is broken by number of tries scored in the semifinal. After that, though, the similarities with the Heineken Cup and Guiness Premiership end, as the winner is decided by who finished higher during the regular season. The final works the same for the most part, except that the championship is shared as a draw after two periods of extra time if the scored are still level.
• The Magners League (featuring top sides from Ireland, Wales, and Scotland) doesn't have to deal with the issue, as they don't have knockout matches and determine their winner after the regular schedule. This year, in fact, Munster clinched the title two matches left to play
• We couldn't find a clear statement of the American Super League's format, but we know from the 2008 final that "sudden-death" extra time is played after two extra time periods until one side scores to win.
• The tiebreaker methods used in the Top 14 (France's top domestic competion) and Super 10 (Italy's top domestic competition) elude Armchair Playmaker's limited translation resources. Readers who are more adept at French and Italian are encouraged to chime in!

How do they handle it in rugby league? We'll spare you the details, but note that for most competitions a "golden point" sudden-death period is either played after 80 minutes (as is done in the National Rugby League in every match) or after two short two extra time periods. The golden point seems to work pretty well--in fact, Leicester seems to support the idea after suffering through the alternative.

Hopefully, that satisfies your curiosity about how a draw is avoided when a draw will not do. Meanwhile, here are a few views of last weekend's historic moment:

Here's how the cameras caught it:


And here's how it looked from at least one spot in the crowd:



We're not sure it's fair to focus on a missed goal from a player of Martyn Williams' stature, especially considering that he probably never expected to be kicking at goal that day, so we'll end here with a cheerier moment from early in Williams' standout career (this one from more than a decade ago, before he ever donned a Cardiff shirt):

BYU seeing Yellow, Gold

BYU snatched a U.S. Collegiate Division I Championship from usual champs California by a 25-22 margin in a thriller a few hours ago, and they did so despite often playing shorthanded with four players receiving yellow cards in the match. Considering that a yellow card puts a player on an unreplaced rest for ten minutes, that's roughly akin to leaving a player out for half the match (though not quite so in this case given that BYU sometimes had 13 players in action due to overlapping offenses).

Typically, a yellow card--or in this case, enough of them for a good start to a poker hand--hurts the offending side's chance to win, so it amy be a surprise that BYU got by despite the number of players temporarily sent off. On the other hand, a look at the nature of the offenses tells a bit about what BYU had to show Cal on the night. The cards were given out for a tackle in the air, a high shot, a hit with no arms, and repeated offenses. Ten minutes an offense is a tough fine to pay, but might be worth the price for the intimation that can come from hitting hard and pushing the limits of the law.

Given the outcome of the match, one wonders if BYU's championship offers a hint at the future of the American game. American football allows, even encourages, most of the offenses that got BYU players sent off, so there is a nation full of potential players out there who are suited to test the physical limits of their opposition. No one should encourage cheating and dirty play, and no one has claimed that's what BYU was up to. They just offered hard hits, even at the expense of strict penalties, and it paid off with a win despite the personnel disadvantage. If this is the way forward in American rugby, this year's college final might be recalled as a turning point in the U.S. game.