MLR Camp Diary: Calm After the Storm

07.11.2024

Wednesday night's evening session was, unfortunately, canceled due to lightning.

The players have been walking from their dorms at the University of Mary Washington to UMW's beautiful rugby field—it's not a super-long walk but it isn't short, either. So when the thunderclouds rolled in and the players had to repair to a utility building, the MLR coaches, scouts, and, yes, journalists in attendance rolled up in their vehicles in a sort of rugby-themed recreation of the evacuation of Dunkirk, ferrying players back to the dorms.

It was all quickly accomplished, but the players felt keenly the missed opportunity for a training session before Friday's game.

Meanwhile, there have been setbacks. Le'Donn Mathis had a scary moment late on Tuesday when his whole body cramped up after a hot day of training. He was quickly taken to the hospital and was treated there—he later sent a goofy photo to everyone to let them know he is coming back and in fact he was back in time for the team photo.

Louisville flanker Parker Anderson sustained a knee injury that has put him out of action. Anderson was understandably gutted at the setback, looking at this writer and just shaking his head, saying, "this is not the week for this to happen."

He attends training and said he could potentially numb the knee and play, but, he added, it wouldn't be fair to his teammates and would likely mess up his knee even more. Anderson's roomate, Matthew Conroy of St. Bonaventure, is also injured, having tweaked his hamstring. Once again, the smart move if to not play, but Conroy acknowledged the pain of being on the sidelines is worse than any physical pain he feels.

The Coach Comes By

One highlight of Wednesday was a visit by USA Head Coach Scott Lawrence, who spoke for several minutes with the players and then spent about 20 minutes answering questions. Lawrence was very direct, even blunt, with the players, but that has been the theme of the week in some sense. And the players appreciate it, saying they want to hear how it really is.

Lawrence inspired the American players, but the Canadians, also, drew inspiration from his words and spoke at length with GRR about their desire to bring Canada's men's national teams back to prominence.

Thursday

Thursday broke sunny and clear with the Red team under Josh Macy and Ben Cima, and the Black team under Tui Osborne and Andrew Cook, ran through team-specific paces. Coaches from all over the MLR were there to watch and take notes. Several players showed something that piqued some interest.

The game plans are not flashy, but some of the players are learning more about how kicking becomes a much more important skill for multiple positions—scrumhalves don't box kick much in the college game but they do in the pro game. Clearly the #9s in MLR Rising had been working on their box kicks. The adjustment to not being the best player on their team has taken longer for some, but by the end of these sessions those players looked more comfortable.

After those trainings the players received a presentation on the Atlantic Rugby Premiership. This dovetails with Coach Lawrence's advice to players that they play rugby this coming fall. The ARP, and also the Midwest Premiership, offer chances for players to get crucial minutes in good club competitions. The ARP—Mystic River, White Plains, NYAC, Old Blue, Charlotte, Life University, NOLA Academy, and Miami Tridents—is in a special situation in that the teams have been designated as part of USA Rugby's pathway. What that means is you can play for those teams and still remain eligible to play for your regular club team, because the ARP is not actually part of USA Rugby's championships.

The reaction from the players was positive: they felt this was good advice and helpful in getting them into a position to be MLR-ready, even as they also bristled at the idea that they might fall short of that MLR dream and need a Plan B.

The players also got to have some one-on-one time with MLR General Managers. This is all above board as no contract negotiations are taking place. This is more about players and teams getting a feel for if they are a fit (Chicago won't be drafting a player who doesn't want to move to Chicago, for example).

Finally it was time to name the lineups. Note: Shane Rikley-Kindle injured his ankle and his absence prompted some changed

S for Team Red.

	Red			Black
1	Jesse Emerson	Grand Canyon University	1	Hunter Chulhansteff	St Mary's College of California
2	Jordan Auger	University of Victoria	2	Neil Trainor	Queen's University (CAN)
3	Connor Williams	Universite de Ottawa	3	Damon James	Mount St. Mary's
4	Jack Brown	University of Arizona	4	Joey O'Brien	St John's University
5	Chrisopher Jensvold	University of Louisville	5	Matthew Reed	Life University
6	Raymond Santiago	Renssalear Polytechnic Institute	6	Aaron Juma	Wheeling University
7	James Reed	Life University	7	Calvin Ihrig CAPT	Lindenwood University
8	Matt Carrion. CAPT	Life University	8	Pono Kayoshi	St Mary's College of California
9	George O'Brien	Arizona	9	Emanuel Lai	Santa Clara University
10	Aidan Ridgway (VC)	Arkansas State	10	Alex Park	Texas A&M
11	Brendan Bennett	University of Texas - San Antonio	11	Isaia Saldana	Central Washington University
12	Kyle Jaxon Stokely	Sam Houston State	12	Stuart Duncan	University of Mary Washington
13	Ashawnty Staples	NDC	13	Stephin Alberts	Lindenwood University
14	Hunter Simons	Ohio State University	14	Peyton Wall	Indiana University
15	Cale White	Mary Washington	15	Sebastian Schefermann VICE CAPT	University of Mary Washington
16	Maximus Clark	Ohio State University	16	Nicholas Sydorowitz	University of Mary Washington
17	Miles Bell	Michigan State University	17	Daniel Bray	University of California - Santa Barbara
18	James Aitken	St Bonaventure University	18	Patrick Beattie	CSU Long Beach
19	Jake Kinneeveauk	University of Utah	19	Daniel Blanc	University of Mary Washington
20	Lleyton Delzell	St Mary's College of California	28	Nick Andiarena	Adrian College
21	Sam Tsoi	Trinity Western University	21	Jack Morris	University of Guelph
22	George O'Brien	University of Arizona	22	Christopher Gamage	University of Victoria
23	Michael Sanderson	Elon University	23	Jamie Armstrong	Universite de Ottawa
24	Elijah Thomas	St Thomas University	24

All of the players will see time, but as you can see, Anderson, Mathis, and Conroy are all out of the picture.

The captains and vice captains participated in a contest to see how many Oreo (TM) cookies they could eat (without using their hands) with the Oreos balanced on their foreheads. It is actually sillier than it sounds. We all found out that Matt Carrion is NOT an Oreo-cookie-eating savant. Ihrig led his team to victory in a cookieslide.

On a more serious note, thunderstorms are forecast for Friday. This could shake up the schedule, but for now the game will kick off at 11AM ET and will be on The Rugby Network.

MLR Camp Diary: Calm After the Storm

The Coach Comes By

Thursday

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