• Pricing is based on 30 reservations currently
  
• Rate per person is $2,998 which includes airfare, hotels, ground transportation, daily full breakfast, bad jokes, marital advice and a good buzz
  
• $250 REFUNDABLE deposit per traveler required by March 1, 2012. Did I mention that this deposit is REFUNDABLE? If not, allow me to emphasize that this deposit is REFUNDABLE. In order to book plane tickets and hotel rooms for the group, we need to know we have the pro- forma commitments.

• We will establish a payment schedule once REFUNDABLE commitments are received and you’ll have the option to spread these payments over time.
  
• The itinerary calls for 2 nights in Dublin upon arrival, 3 nights in Derry and 2 nights again in Dublin on the return. That’s 7 nights of Irish bliss!
  
• Last go around we played the Dublin Wanderers and then entered Derry’s Old Boys Tournament where we played against teams like Limerick, Derry, Coventry, England, and St. Pauli, Germany. It is our intention to once again schedule good fixtures throughout Ireland.

The Foundation continues to accept donations that will go directly to the support of the field.  Please consider joining the "100 Strong" members in their commitment in supporting the Richmond Rugby Foundation and its charter of promoting Rugby in Richmond area.  Click on the following site to get more information on how you can become a 100 Strong Member.  https://sites.google.com/site/richmondrugbyfoundation/fundraising/100strong

A strong contingent of players, both past and present, will be traveling down to Savannah this year to compete in the annual St Paddy's Day Tournament.  This year, the tournament is being held on Saturday, March 12th and Sunday March 13th.

Network TV breakthrough for USA 7s
Posted: 01 Dec 2010 01:09 PM PST
NBC will broadcast the USA 7s live next Feburary, while another pair of crossover athletes make ready to help the 7s Eagles squad in Dubai build on last year's 10th-place world circuit finish.

'NBC had the privilege of broadcasting the inaugural 2010 Rugby Sevens Collegiate Championship, and is excited to expand its coverage of rugby by bringing the HSBC Sevens World Series to live network television for the first time,' NBC Sports executive vice president Jon Miller said in a prepared statement.

Live rugby on one of America's four TV networks is all but unprecedented. (If memory serves, ESPN broadcast the 1987 World Cup in real time -- in the small hours of the morning, at a stage when cable was far from ubiquitous and the sports channel was more startup than corporate juggernaut.) Many more commercial opportunities become possible by result of electronic media's validating the sport with weekend programming.

The Peacock channel, longtime holder of US broadcast rights to the Olympic Games, is evidently looking to bolster rugby in advance of Rio de Janeiro 2016. Last month NBC announced it would broadcast another year of the collegiate 7s championship, and more international 7s tournaments could eventually make their way to American airwaves, according to people familiar with the matter.

The announcement also underlines that a 'top down' strategy for commercializing rugby requires a broadcast partner. While American International Media, which operates the USA 7s and the Rugby Sevens Collegiate Championship, is placing its events on TV and selling into a burgeoning market for rugby's abbreviated game, USARFU's 15s events lack the same electronic exposure and so are growing tepidly, if at all.

In the Sevens World Series opener this weekend on the Arabian peninsula, Miles Craigwell and Nu'ese Punimata, each with notable football backgrounds, hope their make their debut appearances.
Meanwhile Colin Hawley has replaced Nese Malifa, injured on the 15s tour. The Suniula brothers are expected to take up most of the playing time at flyhalf.
Kyle Marshall, also a gridiron player, is a third newcomer, while Jason Pye is recalled after a year-plus absence.
Last season, Leonard Peters and Tommy Saunders, among others, made rapid strides as the 7s Eagles replaced the Todd Clever-Chris Wyles generation which lifted the US to new heights during the first half of the 2008-09 series. Although it is not the defining factor in commercial success, a competitive squad capable of reaching any given tournament's quarterfinals is no small selling point.

After Dubai, where the US has drawn New Zealand, Argentina, and Zimbabwe, the Matt Hawkins-led squad moves to George, South Africa, to face another difficult pool, with defending series champion Samoa, Fiji, and Namibia.
United States to Dubai and South Africa 7s
Marco Barnard (undeclared), Mark Bokhoven (Denver Barbarians), Miles Craigwell (New York AC), Matt Hawkins (captain, Belmont Shore), Colin Hawley (undeclared), Kyle Marshall (Boston), Mile Pulu (East Palo Alto), Nu'ese Punimata (Old Puget Sound Beach), Jason Pye (Provo), Roland Suniula (undeclared), Shalom Suniula (Brisbane), Zach Test (Loughborough Univ.)

The Richmond Lions are running a NCAA tournament fundraiser this year.  The winner of the pool will receive 50% of the money raised.
 
We are using Track-a-bracket to keep track of our pool.  The join link is here: http://track-a-bracket.com/join/pool/LionsRugby
If you have someone who wants to do a paper bracket, have them fill it out and hand it to me with the money and we will get it into the pool.
 
Brackets can be entered at any time, but they will not be validated until I have confirmed payment.  Payments should be handed to me OR online via paypal, if done via paypal the cost is $6 as we have to pay a service fee to paypal.  People can pay via paypal, $6, to get to the payment page, just send them to www.richmondlions.com and tell them to use the 'Make Payments Via PayPal' link at the bottom left of the page, please make sure they put a note in at the payment screen about who they are and why they are paying.
 
Brackets are due by Thursday morning at 11AM.  I'm pretty sure as long as they are entered I can approve them later if someone doesn't get me money until later Thursday.  We would obviously prefer to have all money in by Thursday morning.
 
This is an easy way to raise money for the club, everyone wants to be in a pool.  Please submit your own brackets and pass the word along, if we get enough people, the pay off will be significant and the club will raise some easy money.