It was back in April of 2020, in the early pre-dawn of the COVID times, that the unusual news came through – diabolical, heartless villains had made off with the Rock Rugby trailer, containing all our gear.

Yes, the JV, Varsity and that super cool Rock Academy kit we had swaggered around the LA 7s in. All gone.

We held out hope that they just wanted the trailer and would dump the gear somewhere it could be recovered, but sadly that turned out not to be the case. Some blamed the Government, some blamed Bigfoot. Conspiracy theorists claimed the kit had been abducted by aliens and crop circles had been discovered outside Rock Chiropractic where it once stood.

To date, no evidence has been unearthed to support any of these claims.

But still, ballads were written, Country singers lamented into their guitars, prayers were offered up and preachers called down the wrath of Old Testament prophets upon the scallywags responsible, but all to no avail.

When the trailer was eventually found, the kit had gone.

Not surprising, since all the cool cats want to be seen in the latest Rock Rugby merch.

Fundraising efforts helped to offset some of the cost of jerseys for the 2021 season, but earlier this week we got an unexpected gift out of the blue when the Todd Clever Foundation became one of our sponsors with the donation of an entire team’s worth of kit.

How cool is that?

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So Just Who is Todd Clever?

In a word, Royalty. US Rugby Royalty. Capped 100 times by the USA (over 50 of them as captain), Clever had a distinguished playing career. He represented the Eagles in three world cups and played professionally all over the world, including New Zealand, South Africa, Japan and England, gaining something of a cult following, both for his wholehearted style of play and his distinctive mane of hair.

Amongst his many accolades was being voted American Player of the Decade for 2000-2009 (he also made Team of the Decade for 2010-2019).

When his playing days finished, he set up the Todd Clever Foundation with the goal of giving back to the sport and spreading rugby values through the grassroots community of the game.

We caught up with a very happy Coach Rock earlier this week to find out how this all came about, and this is what he had to say.

I met Todd Clever while he was ending his playing career as an Austin Elite player.  I made sure to give him a Rock Rugby Academy tank top, so he wouldn’t forget who we were!  He was very appreciative of the gift and has been extremely supportive of our program since.  He has created a foundation to promote youth rugby and his group decided to gift Rock Rugby a uniform set as acknowledgement for all we have been doing for youth rugby.  He called me on the phone to discuss the program and was really excited to have the opportunity to get us the new set.  He is a strong advocate for the sport and just a super person.

Coach Rock

Needless to say, we are very grateful for this kind gesture from one of the true legends and true gentlemen of the game. From everyone at Rock Rugby, a huge thank you to both Todd Clever and the Todd Clever Foundation.

PS. if someone ever tries to sell you “discount Rock Rugby gear” out of a suitcase, on a street corner or (especially cheeky) out of a trailer, please let us know 🙂