The Aspen Ruggerfest Committee has decided to not offer prize money this year, after doing so for the last two years. The idea to offer prize money was to see if it would effect interest in the tournament in the atmospher of burgeoning professionalism  in the USA. After observing the competition and talking to various attendees, the committee decided that offering prize money was not in the best interests of the tournament, that Ruggerfest is not about the professional model. The committee wishes  to maintain the original intentions of the founders of Ruggerfest 50 years ago. Then Eastern Rockies Rugby Football Union President Terry Fleener wrote a letter to  Steve Sherlock, the founder of the Gentleman of Aspen RFC, stating  that  Aspen would be a great place to have a ‘festival of rugby’ where teams could assemble to celebrate their sport over the weekend with play and revelry. Professionalism runs on money, amateur play runs on passion.

The Goslings Dark and Stormy Misfits are returning to Aspen Ruggerfest with five sides: Open, Masters. Over 45s, over 50s and for the first time ever a Women’s side.

Last year the Misfits played in the Open and Masters Men’s finals, winning the Masters and losing in the Open. This year Dark and Stormy Misfit organizer Mike Nelson, aka Whitey, is shoring up his Open side, while further strengthening his Masters team with international reinforcements. Ex-USA Eagle captain and former All-World #8 Dan Lyle will anchor the 45s and over side.

Though Whitey had so far kept a secret what players he has recruited for the Open side, he has announced his additions to the Masters side with a trumpet! He is stacking his Masters team with three internationals- Christian Cullen, Trevor Leota and Winston Su’a.

Cullen a former All Black fullback with 64 caps will be accompanied by another former All Black center, Winston Su’a. Hooker Trevor Leota aka the ‘Samoan Bulldozer’ captained Samoa and the London Wasps and played for the World Barbarians. Along with these internationals will be 14 ex USA Eagles.

The over 45 side is being lead by former USA Eagle captain and World #8 Dan Lyle and looks to be much improved from last year.

The Women’s side is a selection of former and current women players from all over the US.

The new Eagle coach John Mitchell wrote an article for ESPN UK about his first impressions of his United States rugby experience midway in the inaugural year of the American Rugby Championship (ARC) . In the article he point writes:

“What I’ve discovered is that there is great diversity between east to west and north to south. There are contrasting styles between the coasts stateside, and it’s a long way to the middle of the country. On the east coast, a northern hemisphere kind of player exists as it tends to be a colder clime, whereas on the west coast there’s a huge Polynesian player base and a southern hemisphere-type player is abundant within the warmer weather conditions.”

Aspen Ruggerfest as host to teams from east, west , north an south give players and their teams the opportunity to get exposure to the different these styles of rugby and to open their eyes to the strengths and weaknesses of their approach to the game.

To read the full article go to  http://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/story/_/id/15040042/john-mitchell-column-learned-coach-usa-eagles

Invitations to the 49^th annual Aspen Ruggerfest are to go out during the second week of March. If your club did not received one and it is interested in coming to the tournament please fill out the contact form on www.aspen-ruggerfest.com or send an email to info@aspen-ruggerfest.com to request one. The initial invites will be sent to some 150 clubs in the United States and another 100 invites have been sent to clubs overseas in the countries of Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, England, Japan, Argentina and South Africa.

In most years teams from abroad do come to Aspen to play. Last year was the first in many that a foreign team did not participate. Last year the Rugby World cup was held in England and Wales and many teams opted to go on tours to follow their national sides’ campaigns.

Registration for Ruggerfest opens on March 8 and will close on July 1. All teams must be paid up in full by July 1. Teams should fill out the registration form on the website and pay via credit card or send a check by US mail to the address posted on the website registration page http://aspen-ruggerfest.com/registration/.

Aspen Ruggerfest is on every ref’s bucket list according to Marc Nelson vice- chairman of the Rocky Mountain Rugby Referee Society (RMRRS).

The tournament falls under its jurisdiction, but he says that every year other referees societies send requests to send referees to participate in the event. Referees come over from as far as the UK to participate and to experience the tournament- often paying their way to show up. These UK referees scallywag their way into the tournament, meaning they pay their way.

This year ten referees, twelve assistant referees, five referees coaches and one USA referee performance reviewer will be coming to Aspen. Of this horde two referees will be from the USA National Panel Referees, two will be traveling from Southwest England and one referee will be coming down from British Columbia, Canada (Eh!)

Always on the sidelines will be the referee coaches and USA performance reviewer. When referees are not calling games they will be running touch and helping the referee on the field.

Marc, a Western Zone Referee manager, along with Mike Cobb, the Eastern Zone Referee manager represent the USA Rugby High Performance Referee Development Team. Their task throughout the weekend will be to evaluate referee talent to determine who they can fast-track into becoming high performance refs.

During the competition on Thursday and Friday most of the referees will be from the local RMRRS, which itself has two national level referees. On Saturday for the Open Division and on Sunday for the finals mostly the national caliber and international referees will call the games.