South Carolina HS League Heats Up
Rugby South Carolina goes into its second week with Greenville HS having already recorded a key win.
Greenville took on rivals South Greenville last week. These two teams used to be one, but split when Greenville HS went single-school, meaning South Greenville would remain a club. Several veteran Greenville HS players opted to stay with South Greenville, and South Greenville was, naturally, the stronger team. But both sets of coaches expected younger Greenville HS players to stick with their school team. This is what has happened, and they evened out this year.
Boys HS Games Feb 1-4
Lots of rugby to be played in Boys HS action this weekend.
In Southern California, Mira Costa and St. John Bosco have basically wrapped up playoff spots in the Varsity Red Los Angeles division. They play in a week to decide who is #1 and who is #2. It's not exactly the same situation in the San Diego division, as three teams - La Costa Canyon, Torrey Pines, and St. Augustine are in the hunt for the two playoff positions. LCC plays St. Augustine this weekend, and if St. Augustine wins, then it's a mad dash to figure it all out a week later. Torrey Pines, currently 3-0 (as is LCC) has a tough game against Cathedral this weekend, and then faces LCC. Any of the three teams could end up on top, or third.
EIRA Names Squads for Vegas
Eagle Impact Rugby Academy will bring 36 rugby players to Las Vegas to compete in two brackets in the Las Vegas Invitational.
Two EIRA teams will compete in the Boys Elite HS bracket, while a U16 development side will be in the Boys Open.
Boys HS Club Rankings Week #3
The latest Goff Rugby Report HS club rankings are here and we have to say, it's always tough to put stock in early-season games.
Those scrimmages and the like might mean something, or maybe they don't, and we've made the mistake in the past of giving so much weight to some early result that a team that's really not all that strong was float around in a decent ranking for weeks thanks to that one result ... or, worse yet, we give an early win credence, and then that early-winner loses to another, and that second team gets a boost and never loses it. And it turned out, none of those guys should have been ranked as high as they were.
Play Rugby Boys Take Elite-Level Step at LVI, NAHS 7s
Play Rugby USA's Community Development Program is set to put two teams - a boys team and a girls team - into the Las Vegas Invitational and the rest of the North American HS 7s elite series.
Play Rugby is based in the New York City area, and the Community Development team draws their players from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, using scouting at various HS games, and talent ID assemblies.
There is about a 50% player return rate from the 2016 NY 7s and the North American Invitational 7s in Salt Lake City. Some players are unable to make the Vegas commitment which allows others from the area a chance to impress and put their hand up for selection for future tournaments.
Gamebreakers HS Boys
Here's our list of players who made an impact for their boys HS teams last weekend.
Dylan Ramirez, Los Alamitos
Exciting attacking player
Sam Yeboa, St. Thomas
Yeboa was dominant in tight in a 17-10 win against Jesuit Dallas.
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St. Thomas Wins Bishops Cup Clash With Jesuit
St. Thomas of Houston edged rivals Jesuit of Dallas 17-10 this past weekend in the opening game for both Rugby Texas teams.
LCC Defeats Cathedral
La Costa Canyon Mavericks hosted the Cathedral Catholic Dons in a Southern California, single school Red division game this past Friday night.
This game promised to be an intriguing matchup, because Cathedral had lost the prior week in a nail biting finish to Saint Augustine, and needed a win or at a minimum, a loosing bonus point to keep their playoff hopes alive. BYU was in San Diego to play SDSU the following day, and head coach David Smyth was on the sideline together with numerous BYU players, to watch the action.
Three of the starters, Sean Lumkong and Justin Petersen for LCC, and Ryan James for Cathedral Catholic, are expected to be on the HS All American team on tour this spring, so this promised to be a quality game.
Ramblin' Jesters Young 7s Player of the Month - Ryan James
With the demands on a high school rugby player’s time, rugby 7s has to work hard to find a place, and certainly that hard work is worth it when you find a special talent.
Cathedral Catholic wing/center Ryan James is certainly one who was identified early as one who could make an impact in 7s as well as 15s, and he will help lead the Eagle Impact Rugby Academy team at the Las Vegas Invitational in March in the opening tournament of the new NAHS 7s Series.
The Ramblin’ Jesters is an elite invitational sevens team in the grand tradition of the Barbarians and other compilation teams, operating out of London in the UK. |
Deadline Approaches for Boys HS Nationals Applications
The Boys High School Rugby National Championships will be held on May 18-20, 2017 in Kansas City, Mo. and will attract the top high school teams and clubs in the nation to the premier high school-aged tournament in America.
The Boys High School Rugby National Championship tournament will include separate competitions for boys’ single high school teams and multiple high school club teams. The competition will consist of three 60-minute matches over the course of three days – beginning on Thursday afternoon, May 18th and concluding on Saturday, May 20th.
Tritons Beat San Juan, 1st in OC
The Tritons defeated San Juan 15-0 to move to 3-0 in the Southern California Varsity White Orange County division, and put them on the inside track to winning the league.
Both Tritons and San Juan were 2-0 in league play before the game, which turned out to be a very physical encounter.
Tritons seemed to be somewhat in control but San Juan held tough, preventing the game from getting out of hand.
With Tritons scrumhalf Bradley Foreman running the attack smartly, the Tritons finally got on the board at 20 minutes, forcing a turnover in the breakdown and working crashes up the middle before sending it wide.
“It was one of the best team efforts I’ve experienced,” said Tritons Coach Stuart Proctor.
The score remained 5-0 through to halftime, despite the fact that the Tritons had spent most of the time in the San Juan half.
Los Alamitos Making Some Moves in SoCal
League games have been hard to come by for Los Alamitos HS in Southern California, but once they get on the field, watch out.
Los Al is a small but very talented team in Orange County, California. And while the top two teams in that division were playing on Saturday, Los Al was getting their first league game wrapped up against Dana Hills. The official score of that game was 52-12, but Rugby SoCal doesn’t post scores with winning margins greater than 40, and in fact Los Alamitos won handily.
Katy Wins Two in Louisiana
Texas-based Katy Barbarians traveled to New Orleans, La. this weekend to take on defending Louisiana Rugby champs Bayou Hurricanes, and runners up New Orleans Jesuit.
Both games were very physical for both sides and were highly entertaining. In the first match, the Hurricanes used their heavyweight pack with force and ran hard crash lines with their large centers. But Katy held on, controlling possession nicely and keeping the ball away from the Bayou runners. Final score 26-7.
Josh Schnell scored a try and kicked two out of two conversions and was named Man of the Match. The best forward was HS All American prop Tom Waghorne, and best back was all-state flyhalf Max Palmer.
NorCal Opens - Danville Wins
The Danville Oaks took a while to get going, but once they got going, they went, as the defending NorCal Premier champs defeated Lamorinda 50-0 in the opening game of the lague season.
Lamorinda's defense held firm for much of the first half, but Danville was patient and after 20 minutes lock Tyler Nunnery went over for the opening try. Center Luke Freeman converted. Then the tries started to flow, as wing Carlos Gomez, scrumhalf Alex MacDonald, fullback Jack Slimm, and center Kevin Saunders all found the tryline. Freeman converted all but one for a 33-0 halftime lead.
Woodlands Beats Westlake
The Woodlands logged an impressive result this weekend in Rugby Texas, taking down defending state champs Westlake.
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The Woodlands won the game 37-29, but Coach Phil Beck said there is more to give.
"Woodlands are a little behind where we would like to be, however both teams played well," said Beck. The game was rather scrappy for both sides, added the coach, but that is "not unusual for the first game of the season."
