Iowa Central Has Fun in the Sun at Sunshine Sevens
This past Saturday, Sunshine 7s took place at the University of Florida, officially kicking off the first of ten automatic qualifier 7s tournaments for the 2025 Collegiate Rugby Championship premier bracket.
Iowa Central Community College entered the tournament as the defending champions of this tournament and the clear favorites after finishing fourth at last year’s CRC tournament.
Due to unseasonable weather in Florida, the day started chilly, with frost covering the playing field. The Iowa Central coaches immediately saw this as an advantage for their Midwest-based team. It eventually warmed up and became a beautiful day for rugby.
Men D1A Rankings Week 18
This is a quick one because we don't have a ton of changes.
However we do have a couple that require explanations.
First off, We probably should have had GCU below Colorado because the Buffs beat the 'Lopes in the fall.
Secondly, we were probably going to move UC Santa Cruz into the rankings at some point because we'd overlooked a UCSC win over Santa Clara that should have put them into the rankings. Instead, we did something different. UCSC lost by a big margin to Cal—that's not disqualifying, as there's pretty big gap between the top teams and the next level. But it's weird to move a team up when they lose by a large margin. As it was, Sacramento State beat Santa Clara anyway, so Sac State moves into #23.
How Kentucky Pulled Off the Repeat
It is enormously difficult to repeat in a major championship.
You have to deal with players thinking it's going to be easier this time around. You have to deal with the opposition putting a huge target on you. You have to deal with player turnover that could expose deficiencies you didn't know you had.
So how did Kentucky do it and, given that eventually key personnel will graduate, can they stay at that level?
Bobcats Testing Themselves as Florida D1AA Kicks Off
St. Thomas was a little close in their victory over Florida State in the opening week of the Florida D1AA league, but the result still has the Bobcats the favorites in the conference.
Florida State got one early try from wing Evan Hallerman and a penalty try at the end of the game. But St. Thomas got a penalty try of their own and three tries—Matthew Arteta and Taonaishe Mapani touching down along with one other—and won 31-12.
Head Coach Gavin McLeavy tested out a few players in different positions, and they found out some stuff.
Men D1AA Spring 2025 Rankings Week 1
With 2025 now upon us we have our first D1AA ranking of the Winter/Spring season.
This means we leave out the teams that play their 15s exclusively in the fall. It will be a bit of a question whether the Heart of America teams stay on to play 15s, but Lonestar, Florida, California North, NCRC, and California South are all set to play for a championship in May.
There will be a big battle for #1 in the playoffs and also in our rankings. Right now we think any of the top eight could end up on top, although we feel we've started fairly well.
With USD playing some crossover games with the California North teams, they have a better chance of holding onto #1 than if they had remained isolated in California South only.
D1AA Hot 100 for Fall 2024: The Front Row
Back we come with our Hot 100 top players of the fall in D1AA rugby.
We cross boundaries and borders, recognizing the best players in conferences that play a significant amount of time in the fall. So you won't see some of the conferences that play mostly in the winter/spring listed here. At the same time, there are some players who might be eligible to be listed twice.
We want to thank James Stelluti, who is interning with Goff Rugby Report during this time and did a ton of research and work on this list.
Today we look at the front row, with the props and hookers. You'll note we have about 20 props and 10 hookers, which means we're already 30% of the way to 100. Yes, well, it's going to be more than 100. But saying "Hot 143" or whatever isn't at catchy.
SJSU, ARC, and Fresno State Open with Wins in California Conference
The California D1AA Conference kicked off with three games and three of the teams thought to be conference title challengers all winning.
San Jose State opened their account with a 75-7 win over Nevada Reno.
“It was a solid first match out of the gates,” said Head Coach Nick Schlobohm, whose team allowed just a penalty try on the day.
Obed Neemia and Hendrik van Niekerk led a strong effort in set piece, while CJ Latimer was very difficult to contain out wide.
“They were able to help us attack everywhere on the field,” said Schlobohm.
American River beat Stanford 79-14 with scrumhalf Dylan Alexander scoring three tries. Flyhalf Tevita Vaea added two, as did finisher Jayston Koi. Vaea ended up with 18 points.
CWU Wins Comeback Thriller Over UVic
Central Washington capped off an impressive comeback to defeat a very good University of Victoria side Saturday in Ellensburg, Wash.
The Wildcats were behind three times but managed to respond each time.
UVic scored the two first tries, both a little against the run of play and bth exploiting CWU errors. A missed defensive assignment opened the door for a long run and good support put them over. Following that, CWU was working the phases when a mistake— a pass going behind an onrushing pod—was kicked ahead and chased down to make it 12-0.
But CWU responded well. They somehow survived a bit of a miscommunication on a kick, countered well, and a smartly-weighted kick from flyhalf Jac Tregoning fell for captain Sam Dwyer, and the wing was over in the corner.
Florida, California Steps Up in D1AA Weekend
Florida opens up their league season with one team on a massive high.
We talked quite a bit about St. Thomas out of Miami and the expectation is that this will be STU's final season in D1AA. They won Florida's D1AA league in 2023-24 and capped off that spring with a Bowl Game win against Air Force.
Will St Thomas Upset the D1AA Apple Cart?
Time to Test Yourself in D1A
Sometimes a very strong college team, especially one with significant depth, will suit up for games in different locations, or first-side-level games against multiple opponents.
That's what will happen this weekend. UC Santa Cruz has started very well in the California Conference and is looking to make a move there, but this weekend they take on Cal, which, of course, is a strong team. (Fun fact, UCSC flyhalf Tobias Williams may well suit up opposite his brother, Cal scrumhalf Solomon Williams.) Cal will also face off with Utah Valley University in a doubleheader.
Men D1A Rankings Week 17
Here we are with the second week of D1A rankings and we have one game that has made the biggest change this time.
Obviously, it's Arizona's 12-10 loss to Saint Mary's. As a result of this very close result, Saint Mary's drifts down from #3 to #5, and Arizona moves up from #12 to #9.
Other results had a small influence on these moves. Cal won well over a good Cal Poly team and it seemed right to move them past the Gaels, too. So Saint Mary's moves down two spots, not just one.
Central Washington losing to an admittedly strong UBC team while Arizona got the result they got prompted us to move Arizona up perhaps one more spot than we would have if CWU had been idle.
Independents Red Takes NCR All-Star Title
Independents Red wrestled back the NCR All-Star title a year after losing it to the Midwest.
This is the third year out of four that the New England Independents have won this tournament.
The Midwest looked very strong after sweeping through Pool Play on Saturday and torching the Mid-Atlantic 52-0 in the quarterfinals.
But the Reds started to find their rhythm in the quarterfinals, beating Independents White.
After that, they edged the Great Lakes 18-14. The Thunderbirds won all of their games comfortably on Day One but all three of their matches on Sunday were extremely close.
Jamie Phillips scored five tries in those first two knockout games.
The Midwest, meanwhile, held off a tough Southeast team 15-7 in the semis.
Saint Mary's Edges Tenacious Arizona by Width of a Goalpost
Saint Mary's defeated Arizona Saturday in Tucson, but perhaps that's not the news.
The news is that Arizona almost won, and the Wildcats held the Gaels to just the two tries in a 12-10 decision. Both teams played very good defense and both teams made mistakes on attack—Arizona was perhaps a shade impatient with some prime scoring opportunities; Saint Mary's
The first half was played heavily in the Saint Mary's end. Led by the hard work of hooker and captain Cameron Blair and flanker Aston Gradwick-Light in the forwards, and with the midfield of Ted Champion and Mattox King laying in some effective tackles, the Gaels had trouble exiting.
Arizona kept up the defensive pressure and fullback Matteo Berenger was elusive with ball in hand. He could kick, too, and opened the scoring with a penalty goal.
Midwest, Great Lakes On Top at NCR All-Stars Day One
The Midwest-area teams are at the top of the heap after Day One of the NCR Men's All-Star tournament in Atlanta.
The defending champion Great Lakes Thunderbirds swept their three shortened games in Pool B, and really were under very little threat. Led by an outstanding defense and a nice mix of explosive runners out wide and hard-working forwards up front, they controlled the ball well and outscored their three opponents 36-5, 22-10, and 46-0.
Flanker Bautista Saint -Bonnet (Thomas More) had an excellent day and scored wo tries, while Kentucky flyhalf Jack Phillips added a good sense of control.
West Coast Starts Major College Action
Seven D1A or D1AA games are on the slate this weekend, with every game but one being on the West Coast, and that other one being just one state inland.
Saint Mary's is coming off a very convincing win over Grand Canyon and gets to play another team from the Grand Canyon State, with the Arizona Wildcats, who host in Tucson. Arizona played a bunch of warmup games in the fall but their main competition so far was a win over San Diego November 9 and then a loss in the CRAA Fall Classic in a bowl game against Mount St. Mary's December 8. That loss was hugely beneficial for some of the younger players and tested the Wildcats well. Now, into a schedule that sees them play the Gaels, Cal, Trinity Western, UCLA, BYU, Army, and Central Washington, the Arizona team has little wiggle room to look for lessons now.
