USA Rugby Announces Women's Competition Structure Changes

Changes to the Women's DII Playoff Structure Coming Soon!

From the USA Rugby website:

"USA Rugby will officially endorse the 2009 Women’s Club Division 2 Invitational Championship and confirm that the event is on a defined path toward becoming an official USA Rugby Championship. USA Rugby’s Competition Committee will take over responsibility for seeding the bracket starting in 2009. The initial seeding of the eight teams will be based on the order of finish from the 2008 Women’s Club Division 2 Invitational Championship. Four TU’s participated in the 2008 Invitational event: South, Midwest, Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic. The remaining TU’s, West, Pacific Coast, and Southern California, will be granted a seed in the 2009 Championship bracket if the TU can show they have an organized Women’s Club Division 2 competition...The 2009 Women’s Club Division 2 Invitational Championship will continue to be run by the Women’s D2 Committee (www.wdiirugby.org), with the exception of the seeding process, until all seven TUs have an organized D2 competition."

Other USA Rugby Women's Club News...

USA Rugby has announced the creation of a Women's Premier League (WPL) to be comprised of the top eight senior women's clubs in the country.

"The League Season will occur concurrently with the regular Women’s Club season, in the fall of each year. Pre-season will begin in mid- to late August and the National Championship will be held in early to mid-November of each year.

The Women’s Club Division 1 competition will be organized into three Competitive Regions (CR) based on USA Rugby Territorial Unions (TU).
· CR1 – WEST REGION - teams from two TUs - Pacific Coast and Southern California
· CR2 – CENTRAL REGION - teams from two TUs - West and Midwest
· CR3 – EAST REGION - teams from three TU’s - USA Rugby South, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast

TUs within the CR are responsible for organizing any CR league play and the structure of CR playoffs. USA Rugby is responsible for organizing the structure of the National Championships. The initial structure will allow for the participation of twelve teams playing four rounds to determine a Div.1 Champion. Twelve seeds will be allocated by the USA Rugby Competitions Committee based on performance in the previous year’s LAU, TU, and USA Rugby competitions as well as historical performance. Each CR will receive a minimum of two of the twelve seeds; the Competitions Committee will allocate the remaining six seeds. The championship bracket will use a standard 16 team structure, with the top four seeded teams receiving a bye in the first round. The Playoff weekend will include two rounds. The first round replaces the former Challenge Match series. The winners of Round 1 will play in the Quarter-finals with those winners advancing to the National Championship Semi-finals. The Semi-finals and Finals weekend will be scheduled at least two weeks after the Playoffs weekend."