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Palo Alto Daily News - Thursday, March 29 - Posted by Keith on Growls
Stanford rugby forfeit to Cal sounds fishy.
By John Abbott

Not everybody is convinced that Stanford's rugby team actually forfeited its April 7 rugby match against Cal.
In two stories last week, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Stanford head coach Frank Boivert sent an e-mail to Cal head coach Jack Clark stating that the Cardinal was going to forfeit for fear of getting injured.

But the Stanford rugby team can't confirm or deny it because it is playing in Fiji.

"It looks like a setup, " said John Donegan, a member of the PAXO Olde Blacks Rugby Football Club, based in Palo Alto. "I've never heard anybody call a rugby game on the basis of getting hurt."

Rugby, of course, is a sport in which getting hurt is not exactly the most surprising event to occur.
Richard Stenquist, a Kensington resident and Cal alumnus who expressed his doubt in a letter in yesterday's Chronicle, initially thought it was pretty cool that Stanford would express such fear.

"We always get beat by Stanford in basketball and football," he said. But then he started to wonder if something was up. "I suspected it was a ruse concocted by the two schools to generate interest," he said.
Stenquist was particularly doubtful of the part of the story where it was reported that Clark e-mailed Boivert and said, "How dare you not compete."

"No coach in the history of the world has put those words together in that order," Stenquist said. Chronicle sports editor Glenn Schwarz stood by last week's stories.

"It's a weird story, but it's true," said Schwarz, who noted that Stanford's team did have several players who were already injured. Clark did not return a phone call seeking comment.

A spokesman for the Cal media relations department said that Stanford's forfeiture of the match via e-mail was legitimate.

The Stanford media relations department was unable to help because it does not oversee club sports. Rugby is a club sport at Stanford, although it is an NCAA sport at Cal.

Comment Posted by calpbk91
stanford team in Fiji for 2 weeks and, therefore, incommunicado....(long and stupid) 

You people really shouldn't be so hard on Mr. Abbott. He has established that the most reliable source of information on this matter, the stanford rugby team itself, is in Fiji and, therefore, cannot be contacted for verification of the forfeiture.

As we all know, Fiji is among the most remote of the world's five-star resort destinations. The thousands of travellers that visit each year must first venture to New Zealand's northern shores where they pile into outrigger canoes and paddle furiously approximately 1000 miles in a northeasterly direction. They disembark parched and exhausted but must immediately fend off maniacal assaults from natives armed with machetes and blowguns. Granted, once they vanquish the local crazies, they're left to enjoy the areas many luxury hotels and fine dining establishments but, sadly, must save their harrowing tales for their return home as, you see, Fiji has no telephone service. The only way to get a message out is to hire out the fat Tongan guy that sends smoke signals which, by relay, eventually reach a relative with a ham radio in Tuvalo and are transmitted to the mainland within 4to 5 weeks (or whenever he sobers from his Papaya wine bender).

So, you see, we rugby neophytes should actually salute the stanford team for taking a pass on a comparatively tame venture (playing Cal) and, instead submitting to a true test of nerves (running the gauntlet to Fiji). When you think about it, they got the best of us on this one, too........And when Cardinal scrummers put down their mango daqueries and finally send that smoke signal, you'll see it's just like I've told you, and our boys are just a bunch of coulotte-wearing pussies for suggesting otherwise.

This morning on KSFO radio Lee Rodgers of the morning show said " we all know that rugby is a rough game, so rough that a group of cowards down at Stanford have forfeited to the team at Cal because they were afraid of getting hurt".

Poor furds, what a public relations fiasco
Go Ruggers, intimidate the Stanfraids!

Stanford Daily
Stanford rugby controversially forfeits to Golden Bears
http://daily.stanford.edu/daily/servlet/Story?id=615&section=Sports&date=04-05-2001

Yesterday, NPR ran a news story on the Junior Farm rugby forfeit of the game with Cal. NPR of all places, critical of the Junior Farm, about rugby of all sports (ruffians play that game)!

At any rate, they read the entire letter from the Junior Farm coach over the air and concluded that the Junior Farm is "terrified of playing Cal."

Who says this story doesn't have legs. It's all too delicious.

As to those apologists who compare this with our reluctance to schedule Mich., if we had promised to play Mich., we would have kept our promise. The Junior Farm should not schedule us if they intend to be so uncompetitive. In the meantime, they made a promise, now let's see them keep it.

You field a team, you line up and play, and you take your lumps like an adult. When it's over, you congratulate the winner and keep your mouth shut, except to compliment them. Every school and team has had to face up to situations like this. It's part of sport and sportsmanship.

GO BEARS!

Oakland Tribune 
Stanford's rugby forfeit is downright cowardly
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/S-ASP-BIN/REF/Index.ASP?PUID=503&Indx=782540

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