Cal Poly Eyes Bigger Things
Is Cal Poly poised for a great finish this year?
Certainly the Mustangs are enjoying one of their better season in recent times, sitting 4-1 in the California Conference and potentially looking at a DIA playoff spot.
With that in mind, the Mustangs will be taking a Spring Break trip to UCLA, Texas A&M, and then Baylor. That is a clear plan to test themselves and also show they deserve to be considered among the better sides in the division.
Co-captain and flyhalf Jack Marchant likes what he is seeing.
"A ton of it is down to Chris O'Brien," Marchant said of the teams coach, now in his second year. "He is figuring out what helps us click and the buy-in has been really good. We have a lot of guys who care and are showing up and training hard—we have two teams at practice and we're able to go 15 on 15."
College 7s Update
College 7s is slowly working its way through the end of the cold weather.
Conferences sometimes have a series of tournaments, but sometimes also just have a championship. So it's up to teams to formulate a schedule that makes sense for them.
Meanwhile teams are looking to qualify for NCR's CRC championship at the end of April.
College 7s Tournaments For Winter/Spring 2023
Christendom have already booked a place back at the CRC, where they were runners-up in 2022. The Crusaders went 5-0 in their qualifier and beat VMI 22-10 in the final. It wasn't a steamrolling, however. They needed a last-minute try from Joseph Kokes to beat Richmond 15-14, and squeaked by Susquehanna 17-14.
Central Washington Defeats West Point
Central Washington defeated West Point 36-14 to cap off Army's two-game West Coast tour.
The Black Knights were coming off a competitive loss to to Cal and played tough throughout. But Central Washington's team approach and consistent adherence to their pattern saw them through.
Army were on the attack around midfield in the first couple of minutes of the game when Mitchell Hirose intercepted a pass and took off for the corner. That was a big blow but West Point came right back to equalize at 7-7, bashing it over with the forwards with flanker Connor Fay finishing it off. The Wildcats looked good through the rest of the half and tries from Isaiah Simera-Saldana and Calvin Liulamaga made it 17-7.
GRR 2023 D1A Rankings Week 5
We've been a bit quiet about ranking D1A teams this winter/spring but here's an update.
Right now Navy remains atop the rankings but there are teams circling. Key among them may well be Cal, but we could also point to Central Washington. We wanted to get these rankings out before CWU hosts Army on Wednesday just so we'd potentially have a reason to change them again.
Cal, meanwhile, plays at Navy next week, and a win there would certainly bump the Bears to #1.
Since we put out our last rankings (Week 2 was embedded in an article, while Week 1 was a stand-alone), Life is now #3 after beating Lindenwood.
Cal Holds Off Army in First Game of West Point Coastal Tour
California defeated reigning national D1A champions Army West Point 31-14 on Saturday in Berkeley, behind two tries from wing Oliver Newall.
Now 10-0 Cal will next be playing Navy in Annapolis.in a game that has the potential to be a national final preview.
“Army was very good. They are hard young men,” said Cal Head Coach Jack Clark. “Overall, I think we did pretty well. Plenty to work on, but that’s to be expected.”
The Black Knights crossed the line first through fullback Jonny Haley, who had a very strong game in the #15 jersey, and he converted the score to take a 7-0 lead after four minutes. The Bears answered with a try of their own at the 18th minute by Max Threlkeld, and captain Max Schumacher converted to level the score at 7-7.
Navy Shuts Out Ontario's Western University
Navy men’s rugby kicked off their winter/spring surge with an impressive shutout of Western University of out Ontario, Canada.
“We’re happy to win our first game of the spring," said USNA Director of Rugby Gavin Hickie of the 39-0 result. "The wind once again had an impact on the match but we did a good job controlling things throughout the first half going into the wind. I’m happy where we are right now but there’s plenty of work to do before the playoffs later in the season.”
Saint Mary's Looks to BYU to Show What They've Learned
Saint Mary's is still looking to shake off their loss to Central Washington, and hope this weekend to do that against BYU.
Guilty perhaps of too many mistakes and missing a chance to finish off that game, the Gaels now look to address those issues against the Cougars.
Club president Joshua Allan says the team is taking lessons from both that loss and the earlier loss to University of British Columbia.
"I think especially in both losses they were massive learning opportunities for us," said Allen. "UBC and Central took advantage of our mistakes. You can't give good opponents opportunities like that."
There were moments to that the Gaels would like to have back, for sure.
"It was good for us to have those losses-better to learn those lessons now then when we can't come back from them," added Allan.
Big Challenges to Prepare for Bigger Challenges in College Game
Army kicks off a west coast tour, facing Cal and Central Washington in the space of a few days.
That's potentially the highlight of a busy D1A and D1AA weekend, but that shouldn't rub the luster off the other games.
D1A
West Point is looking to replicate the success of last winter/spring, when they worked a series of challenging games to prepare for the D1A playoffs, and used that preparation to win the national championship. Navy, which won the Rugby East in the fall, just ahead of West Point, is doing the same thing with University of Western Ontario this weekend, then Cal in Annapolis on a rare east coast trip for the Bears. Penn State, Army, and Mount St. Mary's rounds out that spring for the Midshipmen.
Having Fun out There: Bearkats Star Stokley on How SHSU Keeps Winning
It’s been a pretty good 10 months or so for Sam Houston State.
After the Bearkats went winless through the R7CC 7s tournament in Atlanta last May, Sam Houston turned it around and won the DIAA bracket at the CRC two weeks later.
They followed that up in the fall with a Lonestar 7s championship, took a Bowl win at the CRC fall championships, and then, this past weekend, won the Lonestar Conference 15s championship.
That last one is a bit of a meat grinder, as the quarterfinals and semifinals are played on the same day Yes they are 50-minute games not 80-minute games, but it’s still pretty intense. Sunday sees the winners play in the final.
Florida Conference Still on a Knife Edge
The usually tight Florida DIAA conference has become even tighter.
Part of that is because league-leaders South Florida had a win over Florida State reversed because of a disciplinary issue. So a 25-19 USF victory is now a 20-0 win for Florida State. USF was also docked two competition points. But that's not all. A week after two games recorded the identical score of 29-27, we had Florida Atlantic almost coming back to defeat Florida State, and 98 points scored in the USF-UCF game, won by South Florida by six.
Close One in Tallahassee
Florida State ran out to an early lead thanks to tries from Yousef Abu and Ethan Frisch off a nicely-executed lineout play. Cole Ryan converted and added a penalty for a 15-0 lead.
But a long breakaway from Pedro Velez put FAU on the scoreboard and kept them close at 15-7.
Virginia Tech, Penn to Join MARC
The Mid-Atlantic Rugby Conference has announced that it is bringing two new members into the conference at the D1AA competition level.
The University of Pennsylvania will be joining effective for spring 2023 7s competition; Virginia Tech Rugby Football Club will be joining effective for fall 2023 15s competition.
The University of Pennsylvania was previously a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1889, the Penn Men's Rugby & Football Club has over 40 undergraduate players, including top talent from prestigious high school rugby programs across the world, as well as players who are handling a rugby ball for the first time.
Sam Houston State Wins Lonestar Championship
Sam Houston State held off Texas State in a very busy and challenging Lonestar Conference finals weekend to win the conference.
The tournament featured three games over two days, with shortened quarterfinals and semifinals on Saturday and the final on Sunday.
SHSU had little trouble with LeTourneau in the quarterfinals 43-10 while Texas State were challenged by a tough Dallas University side 22-11. UT San Antonio and Southern Methodist also moved on.
Tully Everill scored three tries for Sam Houston in that quarterfinals, while Lane O'Brien scored 11 points with a try and three conversions.
Cal Has to Work For It to Beat Arizona
Arizona pushed Cal 36-17 Saturday in PAC Rugby Conference action.
The result took Cal to 9-0 and to 3-0 in the conference, which the Bears have now clinched, but it was also notable for how close it was, as a Wildcat team that was beaten soundly by Cal a year ago were within a score with 20 minutes to go.
“We appreciate Arizona and wish them the best going forward,” Cal Head Coach Jack Clark said. “It was fantastic to see so many old faces this afternoon at the homecoming. Great day in Strawberry Canyon.”
Something for Everyone This Week in College Rugby Games
Led by a 6-0 Sam Houston State the Lonestar Conference holds its playoffs this weekend.
All eight teams will play three shortened games over the weekend to decide 1 through 8. SHSU is the #1 seed with 5-1 Texas State #2.
We covered some of the conferences this week.
Close Games All Through Florida College Conference
Column: The College Dues Double-Dip and What to Do About It
The split in college rugby is costing college rugby teams, sometimes several thousand dollars.
Many in the game are concerned about asking players to spend more money to play, but often there's a comeback to that—other sports and activities expect their participants to spend more; it's just the way things are.
Analysis by Alex Goff
That's true, to a certain extent. But price increases, whether it's luxury cars or your favorite discount hamburger, are annoying—that's just human nature. Today I am talking about a key expense players and teams have in college rugby, namely dues, namely national dues.
Dues Have Been Going Up
Let's have a look at the dues progression.
