Rugby Indiana Kicks Off Championships
Rugby Indiana has been running a relatively low-key High School season this spring, but it ramps up this coming weekend.
With the State Governing Body not recording scores or keeping standings, the games have basically been a series of friendly matches that lead, possibly, to some seedings. But this weekend the Rugby Indiana Spring Tournament kicks off with eight Boys HS teams involved.
Pendleton (ranked #26 among HS Clubs by GRR), takes on Leo/Angola, Marian plays Chargers, Avon (#35) plays Westfield, and Louisville plays Carmel.
The winners will then come together the following weekend at the Moose Rugby Grounds in Elkhart, Ind. to play Saturday and Monday (Memorial Day) to decide a D1 champion.
Boys 2021 School HS Rankings Week 12
We're a little late in updating these rankings because we had some complex groupings of results that made us take a little bit longer to balance them all.
So ... here's what we can say. St. Ignatius won by only one point against St. Xavier. If Aquinas had played a higher-ranked opponent (and won) or even if De La Salle beat Danville by a larger margin, we might have been motivated to move Ignatius out of #2. It is true that it was Senior Night for Ignatius and their lineup wasn't their usual lineup, but you play the cards you're dealt and Ignatius could have performed better. (If their kicks had gone over and St. Xavier's had not it would have been 21-10 ... which is really stretching the justification). Basically we needed something else to drop Ignatius down.
Major Midweek Clash in Minnesota
Undefeated Minnetonka faces undefeated Albert Lea in a key Minnesota Youth Rugby game Wednesday night, a game that could go a long way to deciding who is tops in the state, and who might finally get a look at the rankings.
Albert Lea’s defense has been extraordinary, as they have held all comers to just five points so far. Paced by a group of seniors who have been with the program since they were freshmen or sophomores, the Eagles beat Becker 40-5 on Friday, while Minnetonka beat South River 45-10.
Openside flanker Griffin Studier is excellent defensively and a good ball runner as well, while No. 8 Griffin Thompson is another excellent tackler and quick.
Tempe U16s Win State Title in Thriller
May 8 saw the Rugby Arizona Boys U16 final between longtime rivals Red Mountain and Tempe, and the game did not disappoint.
In a thriller, Tempe won 38-36.
“The U16 final was a great spectacle,” said Red Mountain Head Coach OJ Hawea. “ When we look at our team having lost to them 55-17, 47-29, and a complete pasting just three weeks ago losing 66-5, we obviously had some work to do.”
Hawea got his team working on competing in the contact area, and also holding onto the ball better “to build some pressure and force them to play a little more defense. We were able to accomplish that for good periods which made it a competitive game, but they just took their opportunities a little better and came away with the championship.”
This was, however, what Tempe Head Coach Charlie McGarvie called a nailbiter.
Boys 2021 HS Club Rankings Week 12
Every now and then we take a closer look at a team's record.
We ask the question, why do we have this team ranked here? What was the initial premise that put this team at, say, #15, or #32? We had a look at Germantown this way and see that the main reason we had Germantown at #22 was because of a close loss to Bixby, a highly-ranked school team. That's a reasonable reason, but in the end it's not enough given the other results. As more and more teams play and win, it becomes harder for a team to hold onto a ranking based on a loss.
This is the same reason we drop Allen down despite the fact that Allen had no result. Allen's rankings are based on competitive losses to good teams in the Dallas area. It's not enough as we see Granite Bay, SFGG, Pendleton, KC, Fairfield, Liberty, and Eagan all play and win, and, for the most part, beat ranked teams.
New Recruiting App Connects HS Players with Colleges
Next Phase Rugby has launched a new online recruiting platform that transforms the rugby recruiting landscape and offers unprecedented opportunities for high school rugby players to connect with college coaches.
The Project is launched in partnership with Goff Rugby Report.
With the app, high school athletes can build online profiles with highlight videos, follow their target schools, and search for schools by location, academic requirements, type of rugby program and more. College teams build school profiles, search for athletes that meet their academic standards and recruiting goals, promote upcoming events and roster openings, and follow and request contact details from prospective recruits.
SoCal: Raptors, Mustangs
In a result that could well shake up the HS club rankings, or at least give rankings and Nationals seeders some pause, the South OC Raptors defeated previously unbeaten Thunder Rugby 24-21 in Southern California league play.
Thunder, which had been pushed by the Raptors earlier in the season, led 21-17 only to see SOC score late to win it.
A Little Bit of Everything
The game had a little bit of everything. It was physical, hard-nosed, but also played in a good spirit as many of the players are friend, having toured together with the SoCal Crusaders.
SFGG's Summer Skill Session Paying Off
SFGG’s 50-5 defeat of Lamorinda is another example of how strong the HS club might well be this year.
While several clubs, for High School and for men’s club have struggled to bounce back during the COVID shutdowns, SFGG turned lemons into lemonade by refocusing the energies of their men’s Head Coach, Neil Foote.
With Foote not having much coaching to do, the New Zealand-born Foote ran a special summer camp with a group of about ten SFGG high school players.
Working with Foote has been a boon to the team.
“We’ve got the most skillful team I’ve ever seen,” said SFGG Head Coach Tony Wells. “Their passing and really all the basic skills are so much improved. Footie’s done a great job with them.”
Staples Edges Fairfield in Intense Clash in CT
Staples and Fairfield Pegasi clashed in Connecticut over the weekend in a game that was as much about pecking order in the state as anything else.
With Staples coming off a close win over Greenwich, they were looking to consolidate that with a win over Fairfield. Meanwhile, Fairfield had started well and had Staples and Greenwich in their sights.
It was a physical battle between two well-matched teams.
Staples struck first with two quick first half tries, capitalizing on some Fairfield mistakes.
Fairfield rebounded, however and made a couple of adjustments for the second half. The changes worked immediately, with Fairfield scoring a try early in the half. Staples replied and led 19-7.
Fairfield continued to work the comeback and scored twice more, but weren’t able to convert, making the score 19-17.
Texas Wraps Up HS Boys Season
Capping off the Rugby Texas season was a multi-tiered affair, but in the end we have what we knew already—there are at least six very strong teams in the state, and most aren’t separated by much.
School Teams
Rugby Texas ran a season-capping tournament that was not attended by Dallas Jesuit, although Strake Jesuit did attend. Dallas and Strake instead met two weeks before in a de-facto single-school showdown, which Dallas won 38-26.
Dallas then went on to beat Brother Martin in a regional clash between the top school teams from Texas and Louisiana.
Cathedral Takes Holy Bowl Over St. Augustine
Since the late 1950s the Cathedral Catholic (then known as Uni) and the St. Augustine Saints having been battling it out across the athletic spectrum.
Monday night under the lights at Cathedral was no different as the Dons and Saints battled for 70 minutes in an intense and sometimes ferocious game as part of the 12th Annual Rugby Holy Bowl. The game was also for status and supremacy in the Southern California Interscholastic Rugby Federation. After 70 intense minutes of play the Dons prevailed, 22-11, winning the Holy Bowl for the first time in four years.
States Crowning HS Champs Around the Country
States are starting to crown their high school champions.
Kansas
St. Thomas Aquinas beat St. James 48-20 to become Kansas state champions. It was a tough game for Aquinas, with St. James leading 15-14 at halftime. Aquinas Head Coach Tim Kluempers said his team "was trying to do too much" in the first half, and he simply asked them to relax a little and play more simple rugby, but play it well. That worked.
Openside flanker Jonathan Quintana was a player of the game as a constant presence around the field especially poaching ball.
Pennsylvania
We've detailed this because GRR was on-site. Gregory the Great took the Boys D1 title, and Media took the D2 title.
Texas
Woodlands shut out West Houston 57-0 to win the Rugby Texas final tournament. Strake Jesuit edged Westlake 31-29 to take the Plate.
Rugby PA Crowns Five Champions
Rugby Pennsylvania's championship weekend wrapped up with five championships; and here's a look at then.
Boys U13
The Doylestown Rugby Club had four teams in state finals this weekend, with the only division not having a Doylestown competitor in there being the Boys D2 (since the Doylestown boys team is in D1). In U13s, Doylestown showcased some impressive skill and understanding of space. Despite playing a Montgomery County Bucks team that was a little bit bigger, the small Doylestown players were brave in contact and used good body position to handle the point of contact.
Add to that a group of kids who grew up watching older siblings play, and you've got a recipe for a skilled, cohesive team.
Gonzaga Shuts Out Xavier
In a clash between two school teams that have a long and stories rivalry, Gonzaga HS defeated Xavier 19-0.
Gonzaga's defensive effort was very strong, and it had to be as Xavier threatened to score several times and camped out on the Gonzaga tryline for about eight minutes.
"Xavier played us tough as they always do," said Gonzaga Head Coach Peter Baggetta. "I think if you look at their losses all very close in the first half, but I think in the second half they get worn down physically which opens up space around the field. We defended really well."
And after defending well, they also showcased some champagne rugby, not least of which was this try from deep in their own 22 which featured some very nice back-and-forth passing.
Tempe Pulls Away From Red Mountain to Win Arizona Final
Tempe secured the Arizona boys state championship Saturday with a convincing 45-15 win over rivals Red Mountain.
Despite the final score the game was actually very tight for most of the time. Red Mountain and Tempe are old rivals, and this game brought with it the physicality characteristic of such a rivalry game. Tempe worked their way close to the Red Mountain line, but penalties hurt them early and Red Mountain was able to get out of trouble.
With some good kicking from hand Red Mountain turned the field position around, took three points from a penalty goal, and then added a try to lead 10-0.
Tempe didn’t seem to fazed by that and started to claw its way back into the game. Luke Schaffer picked up a loose ball from a lineout and rumbled 20 meters for a try.
