Wins for Saint Mary's in Oxford; Trinity Next
Saint Mary's won the second game of their tour, defeating Oxford University 16-12.
The tour covers a week and includes Cambridge University, Oxford, and Trinity College of Dublin. Cambridge edged Saint Mary's 24-17 on Sunday. The Gaels, whose 2nds won comfortably 47-0, play Trinity on Saturday in Ireland.
The tour itself is run by Irish Rugby Tours, which organizes tours to Ireland and many other countries—England, Spain, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa, and more.
Joe Yacoubian kicked thee penalties in the 1sts game, while freshman Dominic Besag's hard running produced his side's only try. Oxford scored a try late in the first half but had trouble breaking the Gaels' defense. A late try from the Blues put them within a point at 13-12 before Yacoubian's third penalty finished them off.
Top DIAA Players of the Fall: Loose Forward
Loose forwards are next in our list for the top DIAA players of the fall.
Whether they are openside flankers, blindside flankers, or No. 8s, we lump them all together, often because many of these players suit up in all of those positions.
We have 43 players in this list.
The GRR Top Players are brought to you by Next Phase Rugby, a USA-made and maintained app that connects college rugby programs and HS rugby players. It's a great way for college programs to find players they wouldn't know otherwise, and a great way for high schoolers to create and finalize their best college prospects. Go to nextphaserugby.com to download the app.
The Ripple Effect of Life Joining Rugby East
Life University's joining of the Rugby East this coming fall is the latest move in an interlocking sequence of gears within the college game.
Why the Move?
The Rugby East is a very god conference with plenty of high-level competition. The teams therein are pretty committed to playing competitive 15s rugby and understand sometimes that means you have a not-very-nice won-loss record.
With a conference season concentrating in the fall, Life can get that done, add in some non-conference games, and then work on a buildup to the DIA playoffs in the spring. Rugby East gets a powerful, high-profile program. And sure, Life didn't win the Mid-South for the first time last season but of course they are still formidable.
Top DIAA Players of the Fall: Flyhalf and Scrumhalf
Now we're at halfback with scrumhalf and flyhalf.
This is an important category—OK all of them are important—in that in the USA we're still working on getting US-raised flyhalves and scrumhalves. Maybe three or four of these will be in that pathway.
We have 14 #9s and 18 #10s in this list.
The GRR Top Players are brought to you by Next Phase Rugby, a USA-made and maintained app that connects college rugby programs and HS rugby players. It's a great way for college programs to find players they wouldn't know otherwise, and a great way for high schoolers to create and finalize their best college prospects. Go to nextphaserugby.com to download the app.
Life University to Join Rugby East For Fall 2023
Rugby East Conference Press Release—The Rugby East Conference is proud to announce the addition of the Life University Running Eagles to our competition, effective August 1, 2023.
“We are thrilled to welcome the Life University Running Eagles to the Rugby East Conference”, said Scott Zavrel, Rugby East Conference Commissioner. “This move enhances the prestige and the competitiveness of the league on a national scale as well as bringing another passionate fanbase into the Rugby East."
Saint Mary's Tour Already Providing Benefits
Saint Mary's looks ahead to Oxford University in a midweek clash with the Dark Blues.
This coming off two close losses for their 1sts and 2nds against Cambridge University of Sunday.
Freshman Iosefa Taiaivao scored two tries for the Gaels in the 1sts game, capping off a move to the edge on one and chasing down a wiper kick for another. Cambridge would answer each time and it was 12-10 at halftime for in favor of the tourists.
Cambridge scored twice in the early going of the second half to take a 24-12 lead. The Gaels battles back and finally got Jake Negrete over to be within a score at 24-17.
But that's as close as they would come.
Erich Storti had a big game in the backs for Saint Mary's setting up tries and generally playing well.
Top DIAA Players of the Fall: Center
Today we end January with our top DIAA Centers of the fall of 2022.
This is part of our list of the best 200 players from this division who played their 15s in the fall.
We try to have a fairly consistent spread of positions in our list. With our list that actually numbers 191, you'd expect about 25 or 26 centers. We have 30, with is pretty close. Overall with our outside backs (center, wing, and fullback) we have 63 listed, and if you distributed picks exactly equally you'd expect to see 64, so we're fairly content with that.
Top DIAA Players of the Fall: Wing and Fullback
After a few little delays we have our Top 200 DIAA players of the fall of 2022.
We have scoured through conferences and regions and teams and various reports and opinions, including our own, to give you our list of the best players by position.
This time we're going in reverse order of the way we did it for the D2 players.
So we're starting with wing and fullback.
The GRR Top Players are brought to you by Next Phase Rugby, a USA-made and maintained app that connects college rugby programs and HS rugby players. It's a great way for college programs to find players they wouldn't know otherwise, and a great way for high schoolers to create and finalize their best college prospects. Go to nextphaserugby.com to download the app.
West Coast Teams Test Themselves, Florida Tightens in College Action
A really competitive conference, a team on tour, and some pre-conference warmups characterize this weekend in Men's D1A and D1AA rugby.
Florida
Paced by the leadership of flanker and captain Bear Bollinger, and with lock Chris Canty having a big game and scoring three tries, Florida State beat Florida 41-26. Florida threatened early but a turnover gave FSU some go-forward and the Seminoles ultimately earned a penalty at midfield. They took a lineout and Canty eventually picked up and scored.
Florida State's backs showed their pace and Sam Williams raced into the corner. But Florida has some power and pace, too, and in fact when their larger backs got going, the Seminoles were in trouble.
A nice backline move wide and then a cutback run got Florida a try, and then a big break up the middle set them up for a 12-10 lead.
Longhorns, Aggies Win in Red River
The Red River D1A conference started up with a bit of a surprise.
Texas beat Baylor by the tune of 31-7 a week after a one-point win over UTSA.
It's good news for the Longhorns which have started to build with a revamped coaching staff that includes former HS All American Brian Hannon.
Captain and flyhalf Nicholas Navarro scored and ran an effective attack, and he was pleased with the showing.
"To me Baylor's one our most even rivals ... whenever we play them it's always close," he said. But ... "going into the season we were feeling very confident ... we've just got to be careful with our hands."
Freshman No. 8 Egya Reddy was a very effective runner and a nice addition to the Longhorns.
North Texas beat Texas Tech 25-12 in a game where TTU hung tough.
Tours, Tests in College Rugby This Week
More than 25 college rugby teams are in action this weekend, with a little bit of an international flair.
Saint Mary's is on a tour that sees them play Cambridge University on Sunday, Oxford University on Wednesday, and Dublin University (aka Trinity) on next Saturday. Cambridge has several teams they field and are listing this fixture as a game for their 1st team.
Central Washington, meanwhile, is traveling to scenic Bellingham, Wash. to play Western Washington and also Trinity Western out of British Columbia.
Surprises Mark Florida College Opening Weekend
Both 2022 finalists in the Florida Collegiate Conference were upset this past weekend, showing once again that the FCC is competitive, and full of surprises.
South Florida beat defending champs Florida State 25-19.
This is an indication of how hard South Florida has worked to get back to the level they wanted to reach, following on from them winning the conference 7s title in the fall. COVID was very hard on USF and they had to rebuild almost completely in 2022. They finished 2022 with a 2-4 conference record but they managed to score four tries in four of those games, with an average points deficit of only about a try.
Bears, Gaels, Lopes, Wildcats All Log College Wins
Cal, Grand Canyon, Saint Mary's, and Central Washington all logged impressive victories over the weekend.
Saint Mary's won their California Collegiate Conference clash with Cal Poly 85-7. Led by tighthead prop Joe Marchant (whose brother, Jack, was Cal Poly's flyhalf), the Gaels forward pack continues to put in plenty of work; King Matu is making inroads at No. 8 and he is joined by Ronnie McElligott and Kaipono Kayoshi in a really effective back row. Their young-old midfield of Dom Besag and Erich Storti is tough to contain.
In a bit of an upset Central Washington beat University of British Columbia 32-17 a week after UBC had beaten Saint Mary's.
Small But Intense College Weekend Ahead
We talk about the opening of the Florida Conference, and that's an almost non-stop run for that group.
Many other conference mix in some non-conference games, but we do have a California Conference game between Cal Poly and Saint Mary's. While the Gaels are favored, this is a continually improving Cal Poly side so let's see how much of an improvement.
Cal looked almost untouchable in the Storer Classic, but it's early days. Santa Clara has a history of putting themselves into the deep end early in the season and of course they do it this week against the Golden Bears.
Mid American Conference Names All-Conference Selections
The Mid American Conference has named its all-conference selections.
Conference champions Louisville has four players in the 1st team all-conference and conference runner's up have six. The 1st team all-conference selection includes a 16th, utility player. The list is led by Western Michigan prop Ivan Delgado, Louisville lock Chris Jensvold, and Pitt fullback Chris Hanak.
