Woy Woy coach sees US final

Woy Woy rugby coach Mr Ross Hopkins has taken his Wisconsin University side to the United States national rugby union championship game held at Stanford University in California recently.

Mr Hopkins and his side travelled from Madison, Wisconsin, to Palo Alto, California, in early May to compete in the national championships.

A week earlier he and his team went down to the final 16 team's playoff in Orlando, Florida. At the playoff, they were the Cinderella team of the event.

They were seeded 16th and were thought to not have a chance of being in contention for the championship

The team firstly played Salisbury University from Maryland to advance to the final eight, which they did, with a final score 19 to 17.

In their next game against Arizona State University, the Arizona team were regarded as favourites to advance to the national championship but yet again the Wisconsin team pulled off an unexpected victory, winning by 12 points.

A week later, Mr Hopkins returned to America for the national championship.

In their first game, they defeated Miami University 14 to 12.

This was quite a feat because it was only last year that Miami University knocked them out of contention to go to the Midwest playoff.

This victory advanced them to the national championship game.

"Being the 16th seed, all teams at the playoffs were ranked above us because of their results and their ability," Mr Hopkins said.

"We just went out there to prove everyone wrong and to that we were better than just the 16th seed."

In the National Championship game they played Middlebury University from Vermont.

The Middlebury team had been regarded as the team to beat and justified the reputation by defeating Wisconsin University, 27 to 11.

"Going up against Middlebury, a team who were national champions only two years previous, and have been in the final four, four years in a row, was a challenge," Mr Hopkins said.

"We knew they had more experience because of that and, at Middlebury, rugby union is a major sport whereas at Wisconsin it is deemed a recreational sport and doesn't receive much funding.

"Saying that, a disallowed try in the second half which would have given us the lead may have changed the outcome but anything could have happened and in the end experience overruled."

Although Mr Hopkins and his team did not win the championship, they regarded this result as an outstanding achievement.

Matthew Hopkins, 27 May 2009 Interviewee: Ross Hopkins, Woy Woy