HS Boys

Playoff Time in Massachusetts

It's championship tournament time in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, with this the first year of an officially-sanctioned varsity rugby league in the Bay Stat.

In a repeat of last year’s semi-finals, BC High (5-0) takes on Xaverian (3-3). These two haven't met since Week 2. St. John’s Prep (5-1) hosts Belmont HS (4-2), who met in Week 4.

Semi-finals are played at the higher seed, with all three divisions playing the Championship Final at Endicott College on Saturday, 6/10.  

Division 1

(1) BC High vs (4) Xaverian, at BCH.  Friday 6/2, 5pm.

(2) St. John’s Prep vs (3) Belmont HS, a SJP.  Friday 6/2, 5pm.

Division 2

(1) Marshfield vs (4) Hanover. Sunday 6/4, 5pm.

(2) Milton v (3) Algonquin.  Friday 6/2, 5pm.  

Girls

Kahuku Goes 4-0 in NZ

Kahuku HS finished off a tour of New Zealand to cap off what has been a superbly successful season, going 4-0 to follow up on a Pacific Cup victory in April.

"W had a lot of pride in our senior class - they carried the team this season," said Head Coach Seamus Fitzgerald.

Kahuku opened up the trip with a 32-14 defeat of Kamo HS in Whangarei. The players had not been in-country for long and the jet lag perhaps contributed to a slow start - Kamo led 14-13 at halftime. However, three second-half tries saw the Hawaii team home.

Rugby NY Enters Playoffs - Preview

The New York State HS finals are set for this coming weekend with three different boys divisions in action. 

This has been an all-downstate affair for the past three years, with each division final has featured two METRO NY team facing off. Two years ago it was Harvey School losing to Xavier in D1 Tier 1 final, and Pelham over New Rochelle in D1 Tier 2 final. Last year it was Xavier over Pelham in D1 Tier 1 final, and Fordham over Play Rugby in D1 Tier 2 final. Rye won the D2 final.

Rugby Illinois Crowns Boys Champions

This past Memorial Day Weekend the best young men and women in the state of Illinois gathered to battle for the title of State Champion. Morton West High School in Berwyn, Illinois, hosted this year’s games. Matches throughout the day were fierce in competition and showed tremendous athleticism.  Some games were close until the final minutes, others were major upsets.

The Frosh-Soph match was the first championship of the morning in Berwyn. Brother Rice faced the Chiefs in the grass fields. The Chiefs came into the season with a bit more experience behind their belt with a middle school feeder program,but the newest players for Brother Rice were not only able to keep up with the Chiefs,  they were able to win with a final score of 37-22.

Tacoma Wins Washington - Plus JV Thriller

The Tacoma Tsunamis opened up their Rugby Washington season with a somewhat humbling loss to Chuckanut, but finished it this past weekend with a convincing 41-18 defeat of Liberty to win the 2017 Rugby Washington Boys DI HS championship.

This was the fourth straight different Rugby Washington champion, as the league continues to be one of the most competitive in the nation. Moving up from DII, where they won the 2016 state title, Tacoma was humbled early on by Chuckanut.

"It taught us a lesson," said Head Coach Dakota Quill. "It taught us a lesson about what it takes to compete in DI."

Quill brought in some additional coaches to share their experience, and that staff began to instill a more structured approach within the Tsunamis team. 

Royal Irish Wins Indiana

Royal Irish capped off a torrid few weeks with a 19-15 defeat of Penn to win the Indiana state championship.

Since May 6 Royal Irish has played ten games, winning them all as the Indianapolis team won the Midwest championship (beating West Ottawa, Grandville, and Carroll), finished off league play, won the National HS Club Championships (beating West End, Doylestown, and Fishers), and beating Fishers and Penn to win Indiana.

Penn, for their part, were hardly idle as they won the Midwest single-school title, beating Pulaski, St. Edward, and St. Ignatius in the process. They finished 3rd at nationals, and, like Royal Irish, Monday's game was their 10th in 24 days.

Wando Wins MSIRL Playoffs

South Carolina state champs Wando won the Mid-South Independent Rugby League playoffs this weekend, defeating the Charlotte Tigers and Union County Lions on two shortened games.

The MSIRL was created to provide tougher competition for teams in the North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia area, and did just that, putting pressure on several state champions and contenders to raise their game.

During the regular season, Charlotte Catholic finished with the best record, with Union County, Wando, and Charlotte Tigers following. However, Charlotte Catholic having just completed a tough three-day National Championships tournament, where they finished 2nd in Tier II, opted out of this weekend's playoffs. That left Wando and the Tigers to play off to see who would face the Lions.

Boys HS Games May 24-29

It's playoff time around the Midwest and in the Northeast. Check back for more scores.

We also have details on some of the playoffs here with our partners FloRugby.

NorCal Premier Selects All-League Players

The Rugby NorCal Boys HS Premier League has named its all-league team.

Fifteen players were selected for the 1st team, with 15 more in a 2nd team and 36 players listed as honorable mentions.

NOR CAL ALL PREMIER 1ST XV 2017

1 – Alex Lopeti (Pen Green)

2 – Diego Hernandez (McClatchy)

3 – Joe Merchant (Jesuit)

4 – Tyler Nunnery (Danville)

5 – Connor Bellinger (Jesuit)

6 – Jake Erickson (Mother Lode)

7 – Garrett Kay (Jesuit)

8 – Elijah Tafao (Danville)

9 – Carlos Ramirez (Jesuit)

10 – Inoke Waqavesi (McClatchy)   

Boys HS Club Rankings Analysis

The choices we had to make at the top of the GRR-FloRugby Boys HS Club Rankings were fairly easy; it was further down that was hard.

Royal Irish was always knocking on the door of #1. We just didn't put them there because they needed to knock off someone with emphasis during the season. That didn't really happen. Royal Irish won games, but they all seemed to be a bit too close for comfort, or were against teams they were expected to beat.

Boys Nationals - Meaning and Opportunity

The Boys HS Rugby National Championships is over and done and continues to show us why playing outside of your region is a good thing.

High school teams that routinely challenge themselves and are used to that challenge succeed at nationals, and the cycle continues. And here at Goff Rugby Report (now in partnership with FloRugby.com) we see teams tha think they've got it all figured out struggle when playing out-of-league.

Ah, you say, well what about Fort Hunt? They were new to nationals this year and made the final. True, but Fort Hunt was playing out-of-region even before they applied to nationals. The Warriors started on a path of testing themselves before they applied to nationals. And that's as it should be.

Portland Pumas Win Oregon Single-School

After years of Union dominating the Oregon single-school picture, there's a new champion in town, as the Portland Pumas defeated Newberg 34-10 in this past weekend's final to take the state championship.

Newberg defeated Union 24-14 May 13 to make the final, while Portland defeated Battle Ground 31-10. 

The championship was especially gratifying for Pumas Head Coach Gerard Schneider. 

Thoughts and Notes from HS Nationals

Some things I learned and saw at th Boys HS Rugby Nationals.

Jesuit was really as good as everyone said

Everyone who talked to me through the season said Jesuit was the real deal. The Marauders beat a long list of really strong teams, and beat most of them by large margins. Sometimes big wins are because the opposition is tired, or hurt, or holding something back, or something. But in this case, we got the feeling that everyone was throwing their best at Jesuit ... and Jesuit was winning.

Monarch Wins Colorado Title

Monarch HS defeated East HS in a thrilling game Saturday to win the Colorado DI state championship.