A Different Team - Tour To Ireland Sparks Marin
The new Rugby NorCal Premier League for high school teams may not have found a champion in the Marin Highlanders, but Marin was able to compete thanks in large part to a commitment to being better.
Ruck in Rock Hill Massive Success
The concept behind the Ruck in Rock Hill was very simple - hold the inaugural Rugby NIT for middle school to meet the demands of the exponentially growing ranks of middle school rugby in the USA.
It was something that was long overdue, and this past weekend the fact that it happened made it a success, and how it expanded was a win, too.
Midwest RCT Boys Latest
Celtic Ohio won the Boys Varsity Bracket at the Midwest RCT.
Celtic had the best record in the Northeast RCT a week before, and impressed once more this time around, holding the Indiana Hawks to no tries in the semis, and then defeating EIRA Midwest 31-24 in the final.
Boys HS All-Star Rankings!
Boys Varsity MW Scores
Celtic Elite 26-3 Indiana Hawks
Minnesota 22-26 EIRA Midwest
Celtic Elite 31-24 EIRA Midwest (1st)
Indiana Hawks 21-19 Minnesota (3rd)
Rocky Mountain 40-19 Illinois (5th)
Junior Varsity Boys
The Indy Hawks won the JV Boys Bracket, defeating EIRA Midwest 53-5 and Illinois 43-5 on Saturday.
Great Northwest Challenge Day Two Scores
Scores from the Great Northwest Challenge Regional Cup all-star Tournament Day Two.
Boys HS All-Star Rankings!
GNC Latest - Sac Valley Edges Washington in Boys Varsity Final
NorCal Sacramento Valley and the Washington Loggers played to a 26-26 tie in the final of the Boys Varsity bracket at the Great Northwest Challenge, and maybe it should have ended there.
With no overtime as players had maxed out on game time, the tiebreaker was penalty kicks, about which no one was too pleased. After tying follwing the first three rounds, both teams missed twice before Jonah Wolfe put a kick over. Washington missed and Sac Valley won the GNC.
"It's a really lousy way to end it," said Sac Valley Head Coach Jason Divine. "But I was really pleased with how the guys fought back."
Good Day One For Celtic Elite Teams at MW RCT
Celtic Elite OH enjoyed a solid day of rugby at the Midwest RCT in Fishers, Ind. with four teams going 7-0.
The Boys Varsity defeated Michigan 37-14 and EIRA Midwest 49-10. Alex Chura of St Ignatius scored three tries against Michigan and added another against EIRA. Rory Koehl (St Edward) scored a try in each game and Brunswick's Colin Sustersic scored twice against EIRA. Joe Hawthorne (Hudson), Kyle Sikora (St Edward), Joelle Keeley (St. Edward), Eric Steinmetz (Avon), Joe O’Brien (St Ignatius), and Josh Leidich (St Edward) all recorded tries while, Conor Forrestal (St Edward) scored 16 points on eight conversions.
The Boys JV defeated Illinois 35-7 and EIRA Midwest 29-0.
On the girls side, the Varsity took care of Minnesota 70-0 and Indy Speed 26-15. The Girls JV defeated Indy Speed 47-5 in their game.
Great Northwest Challenge Day One
Day One in the Great Northwest Challenge is in the books and here's what has happened.
The Utah Cannibals went 2-0 over a tough Idaho Grey Wolves team and the well-regarded Rhinos Rugby Academy to lead Pool A. In Pool D, NorCal Sacramento Valley is 2-0. With Inoke Waqavesi leading the attack at flythalf and two forwards putting in special performances, Sac Valley defeated SoCal 29-17 and the Oregon Red Hawks Selects 32-5. No. 8 Kooper Mogan, out of Vacaville, has been a revelation at the back of the scrum, while lock Chase Jones (Solo Falcons) broke out Friday and was player of the game against SoCal.
Salty Thompson, Michael Engelbrecht Talk RCT Scouting
Goff Rugby Report caught up with USA High School All American Head Coach Salty Thompson and Assistant Michael Engelbrecht, who also works with the U20s, as they scouted at the Rocky Mountain Challenge.
See results from the Rocky Mountain Challenge
We asked them a series of questions (our questions in bold). Here’s what they said:
Are you looking at JVs more than Varsity, and do you scout the middle-schoolers?
Great Northwest Challenge Kicks Off Friday
The Great Northwest Challenge HS All-Star tournament kicks off in Corvallis, Ore. and will run Friday and Saturday.
The Boys Varsity includes Rugby NorCal teams from Sacramento Valley and the Bay Area - a split that has been very successful in exposing more high-quality players to select-side play. Rugby Colorado follows on from their performance at the Rocky Mountain Challenge, while Montana, TOA (Idaho), Idaho Grey Wolves, Utah Cannibals, Oregon, and Washington are also involved.
In 2016, Bay Area and Sac Valley finished 1st and 2nd in the Boys Varsity group. The Washington Loggers took the consolation bracket and finished 3-1, the same record as Sac Valley.
DC Elite, PA, CT Tops JV in Northeast RCT
Rugby Connecticut, DC Exiles, and Rugby PA all went 3-0 in the Northeast RCT Boys JV competition, capping off a successful weekend for those teams.
Connecticut, playing under coach Ed Mateo got some big performances from Jacob Robb, Cal Samuel, Joe Matteo, Reed Hammond, Bobby Huscher, and kicking points Francisco Liguori. All six featured heavily in the scoring.
"We had a tremendous blend of players from across the state and divisions for our JV team," said Matteo, whose team outscored opponents 110-12. "We talked as a team about having pride in the level of high school rugby in Connecticut and our players wanted to prove we are one of the top states in the country."
For Pennsylvania, the scoring dominance was almost identical - 119-10.
North Carolina Sweeps in South RCT
North Carolina swept the South RCTs, winning both the Boys Varsity and Boys JV titles.
The South RCT had only boys brackets, and North Carolina ran the table, beating Okapi 29-3 and Louisiana 50-7 in Varsity pool play, and Illinois (36-7) and ARE (27-5) in JV pool play.
South RCT Scores
That set up the semis, where NC shut out Illinois 31-0 for the Varsity team, and 7-0 over South Carolina for the JVs.
Celtic Elite, CT Lead NE RCT Varsity Boys
The Northeast RCT ended with no official champion, but certainly some winners.
RCT Update
Three HS All-Star tournaments are in full swing.
In the South, North Carolina and Tennessee were 2-0 in the Boys Varsity pool play. Tennessee needed a one-point win over Okapi to get there. NC beat Okapi and Louisiana. That set up the semis, and North Carolina defeated Illinois 31-0 to make the final, while Tennessee held off ARE 14-5.
So NC and Tennessee will play for the cup, and ARE and Illinois will play for third. In the consolation bracket, two winless teams, South Florida LIghtning and Okapi won their consolation semis to make the final.
Rocky Mountain Challenge Live Stream!
Rocky Mountain Challenge Live Stfreamed!
Go to FloRugby to see live feed from 3 fields!
See Scores Here
