CRC Men's Finals: Wheeling Dominates, and More Wheeling University sped their way to the CRC Men's Premier title Saturday night, racing past Kutztown, 29-10. Kutztown had made the final with a snappy combination of ball movement, physical defense, and power running. They beat Southern Nazarene 30-7, Dartmouth 28-12, and Michigan to make the semis. They had a bit more trouble with Iowa Central CC but overcame an early Triton score to win 24-14. Leading the way was scrumhalf Chris Cleland, who was crucial as a playmaker, and the Georgian pair of Giorgi Kuparadze and Mate Kvirikashvili. Wheeling, for their part, unleashed overall team speed. They had skill, and they hit hard, but it was mostly the fact that any turnovers were punished with interest thanks to the power running of Aaron Juma, and speed of Shadrek Mandaza.
Favorites Win and a Few Don't in Intriguing CRC Well the big surprise in the CRC 7s is Maryland, which was not expected by ... really anyone ... to do much and the Terps won close games over Brown and Southern Virginia to make the Men's Premier quarterfinals. Iowa Central torched Iona and edged Belmont Abbey to join them. That was certainly less of a surprise, and they ended Maryland's storybook run 30-8. As expected, Wheeling unleashed their pace and power to win comfortably over Fordham and defending champs Mount St. Mary's. In the quarters, led by Aaron Juma once more, the Cardinals beat Indiana to make the final four. Babson, a small college team, looked as good as expected in running through Harvard, Siena, and, in the quarters, beat Mary Washington to make the semifinal. Led by the elusiveness of Jack Byszio and big guys who can run, the Beavers are not to be taken lightly. Kutztown joins them.
MLR Announced Shift in Focus for MLR Draft Showcase Matches DALLAS – Major League Rugby (MLR) has announced an evolution of the Collegiate Rugby Shield, renaming it MLR Rising. This is designed to be a showcase for top college rugby talent in North America. The previous Collegiate Rugby Shield was really only an NCR event, but it appears to be changing. The new program puts the spotlight on the college game and outlines a clear pathway for players to be evaluated and selected in this summer’s MLR College Draft. Historically, participants in the Collegiate Rugby Shield found greater opportunities at the professional level with 27 total participants being selected in the MLR Draft in the past two seasons. Rick Rose, of St. Bonaventure University attended the Shield in 2023, propelling him to being the first player selected in the 2023 MLR Draft.
A Look at the Men's CRC Brackets and the Contenders We've got this little matter of the CRC 7s tournament this weekend. After a long (some would say too long? We won't say who says that but their initials are GRR) spring 7s season we've come to the culmination for a large portion of the collegiate landscape. And let's hope for nice weather this time! Well OK, the forecast is for cloudy weather with a bit of wind and some rain on Saturday. Not a lot of rain, but some rain. It won't be warm, but it won't be really cold, either. Early-morning games might be in the 40s with a bit of wind and rain so ball handling might suffer. Still, no monsoons so we've got that going for us. Now here's a look at the men's brackets. Men's Premier Cup This is a cross-divisional bracket and the top bracket for the men's competitions. We are seeing a bit more of a split in the college world in 7s like we have in 15s.
US Rugby Foundation Announces Scholarship Recipients The US Rugby Foundation has announced its list of 23 student-athletes who have received scholarships through their various scholarship programs. These deserving individuals were selected based on their exceptional academic records and their demonstrated commitment to the sport of rugby. Each recipient will receive a minimum of $1,000 to help cover the costs of tuition, fees, books, and other school-related expenses. This scholarship program reflects the US Rugby Foundation's steadfast support for rugby players at all levels of their academic and athletic development. Please join us in congratulating these 23 outstanding students on their achievements.
Dramatic End Puts USD in D1AA CRAA Final University of San Diego will be facing Iowa State in the CRAA D1AA final during the CRAA Finals Weekend. The game itself will be held at about 1:30PM May 4. Western Washington took on American River College in the Western semifinal on Saturday, beating ARC 35-3. This was still an excellent season for ARC, which is a new program. USD hammered a very good San Jose State team 53-7. So that set up a final between the Toreros and the Vikings.
Gaels Race Past BYU in Wild D1A Semi Saint Mary's pulled away from the hard-charging BYU Cougars to win their D1A semifinal and book a place in the championship game May 4 in Houston. Both teams looked to play fast and attack and the result was a 48-31 scoreline, almost double the total points scored in the other semifinal. The Gaels ran out to a 17-0 lead only to see Cole Semu get seven back with an interception and a Taysan Hammer conversion. The first half for Saint Mary's was one where they had chances to build on their lead but little errors—dropped balls, passes off-target—kind of hurt them. The Gaels knew they would make mistakes, but making mistakes against BYU is not like making mistakes against other teams. "BYU is one of the best in the country in forcing you to make errors but also in making you pay for them," said Saint Mary's Assistant Coach Andrew Cook. "Every mistake you make they punish.
Navy Through to D1A Final After Win Over Life Navy advances to the D1A final for the second year in a row after the Midshipmen defeated Life University 27-17. On a day of perfect weather and only a light breeze, the day centered around kicking, goalline defenses, and some key big players. The kicking started early and both sets of kickers were heavily involved—Bradley Crane and Jerron Pantor for Life; Landon Opp and Roanin Krieger for Navy. Both teams were desperately trying to force a mistake in the opposing zone. Pantor was able to execute a nicely-weighted 50-22, but they misfired on their timing and Navy stole that lineout—more on that later. Navy responded with a 50-22 of their own. Their maul was held up and Navy went wide. They were stopped, but illegally, and took another lineout. This time, a rather fractured maul went over in the corner.
Final Exam or Soup Recipe? BYU at Saint Mary's It’s Finals Week at BYU and while the Cougars have been preparing for a D1A semifinal, they are also deep into preparing for important exams and term papers. “There are enormous demands on the players’ time,” said Head Coach Steve St. Pierre. “It’s a really important week.” The rugby players have to make sure they stay or get healthy; make sure they study game film; meet to get the game plan down; and get some training in. Oh, and yes, study. Earlier in the week St. Pierre said the onus was on the coaching staff to make sure that there was no wasted time in preparation. “We will do our best to manage it all and support the players,” said St. Pierre, rightfully recognizing that this is one of the highest-pressure weeks for the BYU coaching staff. But learning and managing time is not new to the Cougars. They have been learning and growing throughout the season. St.
How Being a True Team Helps Life and Navy Life is at Navy for the D1A Eastern semifinal and these two teams have already met; in fact, that original meeting was a big deal. Navy won that game, and the scoreline, 20-14, was one of their closest games of the season. For Life, it was a turning point. The Running Eagles started their season somewhat later than most teams in the Rugby East, and in fact their October 7 meeting with the Midshipmen was only their fourth gameday—including a scrummage against the Life men’s club and an intrasquad scrumming. The only collegiate game they played before Navy was a 42-21 defeat of Mary Washington. They were still, then, finding their way, and in fact, the loss to Navy was a milepost along the way. “That loss actually was the catalyst for some change in our team as a whole,” said Life DOR Blake Bradford.
Florida D1AA Final Pits Old vs New Florida’s D1AA league comes down to this Saturday as St. Thomas takes on Florida. This is definitely an old-vs-new matchup with Florida being a club program that has been in action, and successful for a very long time. St. Thomas, on the other hand, is a quite new school-supported program with a paid coach and athletic-department status. For St. Thomas, the story has been similar to that of other fledgling varsity programs; working their way through the divisions as the program builds numbers and experience. But it doesn’t take long for the results of training every day to show. Witness the St.
College Sevens Roundup: Latest Stuff Several teams are starting to put their hands up in collegiate 7s this spring. 2024 Winter-Spring College 7s Tournament List While there are a LOT of tournaments and a LOT of places for qualification for CRC and also places for the CRAA tournaments in May and June, we're going to look at just a few major developments. CRAA's women's tournament is May 3-4-5 in Houston during the organization's finals weekend. The lineup of teams is pretty much set but we'll address that later. May 18-19 in Bellingham, Wash., is the CRAA D1AA tournament. That lineup of teams isn't confirmed. CRAA's D1A men's tournament is June 1-2 in Spatanburg, SC.
Men D1AA College Rankings Week 24 We took a couple of weeks off from the D1AA rankings because there were so few 15s games going on. Of course, there were some games going on in Florida, and as a result we had significant changes. Florida State ran into trouble late in the season and drop significantly. It's a shame in that FSU started well and unfortunately budget and scheduling issues too detailed to go into right now caused their forfeit one can really only conclude that injuries crept into the roster. But that brings us also to the issue of forfeits. We're not fans of forfeits, but there are different types of forfeits. Do you forfeit a game because you've basically run out of players? Yes, that's not good but it does happen. That is what we think happened with FSU in their playoff game with St. Thomas.
GRR D1A Rankings 2023-24 Week 25 With two weeks of playoff games to energize the latest D1A rankings we were excited to see what changes those results would bring. Ultimately, despite a new #1, we don't have much. Saint Mary's, Life, and Navy all could be #1. There are compelling reasons for any of them. Ultimately we picked the one two that had the most impressive victories, understanding that the other two played slightly higher-ranked teams overall. We also figured, hey, Navy and Life had their time at #1, maybe Saint Mary's deserves a moment there. Who knows? Maybe BYU will come in blow the rankings to pieces. Army's performance against Life, coupled with their earlier defeat of Cal, moves them up.
Iowa State Holds Off Sam Houston State to Make CRAA D1AA Final Iowa State is in to the CRAA D1AA final after beating Sam Houston State on a beautiful day in Des Moines, Iowa. Much like last season's meeting between the two teams the Cyclones started fast, using flyhalf Justin Johnson’s boot to play in Sam Houston’s 22. ISU kept up the offensive pressure and eventually prop Ryan Snider picked up from the base of the ruck and was over. Johnson added the extras to give the Cyclones a 7-0 lead in the 6th minute. The Cyclones received the restart kick and again immediately put Sam Houston deep in their end. This time it was No. 8 Liam Cleary who broke the gainline and then the tryline. Johnson was accurate on the kick once more and it was 14-0 after 10 minutes. Playing in front of a raucous pro-ISU crowd (Des Moines is only 45 minutes from Ames), Sam Houston State went to work.
