It’s the opening of the small but intense DIA Mid-South Conference, and a clash between Goff Rugby Report’s #1 team, Life University, and the #7 squad, Davenport.

So, basically, it has everything.

Davenport is coming off a somewhat surprising 16-7 defeat of Arkansas State on the road. Having already beaten Lindenwood on the road, and now with JP Eloff healthy and playing regularly, the Panthers suddenly are a very scary prospect indeed.

Davenport has succeeded when they hog possession, and they certainly did that against ASU. Up front, Davenport may boast a national team squadmember in Angus MacLellan, but they’re not a one-prop show. Gabe Sochanek is a spark plug at hooker and Carl Smith is not the taller No. 8 but he gets the job done. Conor Schilling has impressed all year at the flank. 

Davenport upset Arkansas State in the cold last week. Steve Zomberg photo.

Life Head Coach Tui Osborne has seen his squad put up impressive wins over Navy - who tested them physically - and Clemson. Against the Tigers, Life started Duncan Van Schalkwyk at flyhalf and won 51-0. Van Schalkwyk will be back at wing with the return of Blane McIlroy, and they were happy to have big Jake Anderson back from injury.

Injuries still plague the Running Eagles, who will be without Zach Warren, Seb Banos, and Chayce Pannell. But they have Harley Davidson causing problems out wide and the redoubtable Glen Maricelli at either hooker or in the back row.

“We know they will give us a good game,” said Osborne of Davenport. “I think with Eloff in there they will have a good kicking game. Defensively they look pretty good, they’ve got a good backline and a very good scrum. The scrum is something we worked on this week.”

Osborne said the opening games of this 2015 half of the season offered the coaching staff the chance to identify aspects of play to work on. Against Navy they made some mistakes in the set piece and in the breakdowns. But all of this is small stuff - as they have shown against Navy and Army and South Carolina and Clemson (all ranked teams; average score 61-9), they are worthy of a #1 ranking.

Notes: In all the talk about getting players from overseas, both of these teams are very heavily American. While all colleges are well within their rights to get their players from wherever they want, it’s interesting to note that of the 101 players on the two rosters, only five come from outside the USA - two from Northern Ireland, one from South Africa, one from Canada, and one from Thailand.

This game wil be streamed LIVE starting 1pm Eastern Saturday, Feb 28

To see the game click here: