EIRA Player Spotlight - Kieran Farmer
As the Rugby Texas league starts to get to the business end, several teams have shown themselves to be major contenders, and one of those is the 4-0 Woodlands team.
And while a number of players have stepped up for the Houston-area team, none more so than Kieran Farmer. Farmer has been a three-time team MVP and the senior flyhalf has a good chance at being the same this year. Named the best back in Texas last year, and this coming summer he will attend the Hawke’s Bay Rugby Academy in New Zealand. But as good as he is, he's missed a look at national honors because of an ACL injury last summer during the state semis. As a result, he missed playing for the Texas select side at the Rocky Mountain Challenge.
St. Bonaventure Hosts HS Tournament
St. Bonaventure University is hosting a high school rugby tournament this coming weekend, the Bonnies HS Boys Challenge.
Participating this weekend are four teams from Western New York: Kenmore, Orchard Park, Canisius, and Fairport.
The teams will play shortened games of 20-minute halves, with rolling subs allowed.
Palmer, East, Regis Make Moves in Colorado
Regis Jesuit squeaked out a close one 17-14 over the Colorado Springs Grizzlies.
For Colorado Springs, it was a tough loss to take. Shifts in the lineup from last season have led to a lack of consistency, said Head Coach Otis McGregor. "We've march down the field in good phase play and then knock on at the five-meter line. That happen four times."
For Regis Jesuit, new Head Coach Anthony Mattachione, who moved to Regis from Jesuit-Dallas, this was a key result.
"We only have three seniors this year so with so many juniors and sophomores playing for us it's nice," said Mattachione.
Greenwich Thinking Big for 2017
The rugby coaches at Greenwich HS, Joe Kelly, Glenn Fox, Mike Schacter and Mike Fina, are very optimistic about the upcoming season as the Cardinals look to push for a high finish at the Boys HS Rugby National Championships.
Many of last year’s starters and a solid group of maturing players make up what appears to be an extremely powerful team led by their five captains Ian Pearson, Patrick McTiernan, Alex Nanai, Kevin Iobbi, and Connor Weigold. Greenwich recently secured an invitation to the Boys HSRNC in Kansas City, Mo. This will be the 5th-straight national tournament for Greenwich. (Last year, Greenwich finished 6th at nationals, losing 24-12 to Penn, beating Notre Dame de la Salette 38-7, and losing 17-15 to St. Edward.)
North Carolina Latest - Teams Make a Move
The Union County Lions defeated the Chapel Hill Highlanders 36-24 this past weekend to move to 5-0 and settle into a tie with Charlotte Catholic at the top of North Carolina’s HS Club standings.
Catholic, which is a single-school team that plays in the club competition because they believe it’s tougher, beat the North Raleigh Redhawks 50-22 to move to 5-0 as well.
Highland Gets By Herriman
Herriman and Highland kicked off their in-state seasons with a friendly on Friday evening, and gave spectators an exciting game that went down to the wire and saw Highland emerge victorious 29-27.
Highland has a veteran team, many of whom have been playing together since 7th grade, and coach Dan Berg (a Highland alum) returns the majority of his starters from a season ago. They are big and physical, and would not look out of place on the field against most colleges. Herriman ran out a smaller, quicker side, with the forward pack hit particularly hard by suspension. The game, therefore, would be a contrast of styles due to the distinct personnel difference on each side.
Aquinas Faces Another Top Irish Team
St. Thomas Aquinas met up with Boyne RFC U18s in the final match of their Ireland tour.
Boyne is the finalists for the Leinster Cup, and will take on Carlow, the team Aquinas lost to 35-19 earlier on the tour.
In this very physical game, St. Thomas Aquinas battled hard and was in it to the end, but lost 12-5.
Frustrated by the Boyne defense, Aquinas nevertheless came away with two very competitive scores against two of the best age-grade clubs in Ireland.
Wando Finishes Regular League Season Unbeaten
Wando HS is now 5-0 and has clinched the #1 spot in the Rugby South Carolina boys DI league with a 29-0 defeat of Greenville.
“It was a complete performance,” enthused Head Coach Tod Shepherd, whose B team also beat Charleston in DII action. “Greenville has a good defensive team and pressured our backs and gave us a good test.”
No. 8 and captain Joe Schmidt scored two tries, while lock Joe Griffin and hooker Jake Morris scored another. Scrumhalf Charlie van Vliet kicked nine points.
Tough Opener for Aquinas in Ireland
Saint Thomas Aquinas out of Kansas lost to Carlow RFC, Ireland, 35-19 on the first game day of STA's tour of Ireland.
The STA U16s lost 22-16 to Carlow.
Both games were back-and-forth affairs and very competitive.
In the Varsity game, Carlow, a Leinster Cup semifinalist, led 14-12. Right after the break Carlow ran in two converted tries to take a 28-12 lead. Quinas broke through for a try to close the gap, but gave up one more try.
Royal Irish Edges St. Edward
Royal Irish defeated St. Edward 17-9 over the weekend in a game that said different things to the different coaches.
For St. Edward Coach Tom Cleary, the performance was a step forward after a 15-0 loss to the same Royal Irish team a week ago in the Lindenwood Tournament. St. Edward lost a couple of players to injury in that tournament but rebounded.
Jack Bradfield, as usual, played a strong game, and added a penalty goal for St. Edward. Conor Forestal added two penalty goals and also played a good game, while newcomer and former football player Pat Bebie was a force on attack. Loosehead prop Joelle Keeley also looked good.
San Diego Mustangs Over San Clemente
San Clemente, Calif. – Fresh off a successful two match barnstorming tour of Arizona, the San Diego Mustangs Rugby Club traveled to San Clemente Saturday and won 49-7.
The game was played at Vista Hermosa Sports Park, a beautiful sports setting that, astoundingly, had concrete bordering the field. So despite the line surface being wide enough for a good rugby field, referee Michael Lewis was forced to have the playing area reduced for safety reasons.
The field the teams played on was only 51 yards wide. After San Clemente kicked off it became obvious that neither backline was going to have any space to work with. But, San Diego scrumhalf Beau Morgans managed to put one over under the posts, followed a few minutes later by wing Carson Ward. No. 8 Jackson Baere nailed the easy conversions.
Genesis Hammers Kau Toa in Utah
Last week Genesis (ranked #47 among HS clubs by Goff Rugby Report) was able to get a win in the Utah Youth Rugby Multi-School season opener despite an abundance of sloppy play and mistakes.
And while there were still too many mistakes in Week 2 for Coach Tuli Vaitohi's tastes, it was clear that Genesis had made some great strides in their form from the previous week by beating a game Kau Toa squad (ranked #48) 70-0.
St Ignatius Over Penn HS
St. Ignatius out of Ohio defeated Penn HS 30-12 Saturday in a clash of the #7 single-school team against the #5.
Penn was hit with the flu and was undermanned as a result, and played a man down for much of the gam due to a couple of cards, including a red. And while they hung tough at halftime, down only 13-12, the loss of their gameday captain around that time hurt. Meanwhile, it was a cold and snowy day, and with a strong wind the game was played in very wintry conditions.
NorCal Latest - Danville, Jesuit Win, CK and SFGG Tussle
It was a tight, contentious, and ultimately intriguing day in Northern California HS rugby Saturday.
Granite Bay suffered the team's first loss in league play as the Grizzlies were beaten by the Danville Oaks 31-25. The game saw six lead changes; Granite Bay got some big performances from wing Jon Rogers, whose goalkicking was solid as usual, and who tested Danville's defense repeatedly, and flyhalf Desi Streater, who continually pushed the Oaks back with his kicking game.
Granite Bay led 3-0, but Danville scored a try to lead 7-3. Granite Bay replied with a try (8-7), and then Danville replied (14-8 at halftime). The Grizzlies took the lead with a penalty kick and a converted try to lead 18-14. But then Danville took in two tries and kicked a penalty to lead 31-18. Granite Bay scored one more, but could not fully close the gap.
Boys HS Games Mar 15-19
It's an exciting and full weekend in Boys HS rugby. We get top-of-the-rankings matchups, and several games where teams ranked very close to each other play.
So for every Penn v. St. Ignatius, or Royal Irish v St. Edward, or Danville v Granite Bay, we also get Eastside v Liberty in Washington, or East v Monarch and Colorado Springs v Regis Jesuit in Colorado.
As always, check for scores.
