Tropical 7s Ready To Shine This Weekend
The Tropical 7s is set for this coming weekend and the response among touring and select teams has been impressive.
The tournament has 16 Boys U18 teams, with the Panther Rugby Academy heavily represented with four teams. Panther 7s, also part of the USA Rugby/Panther program, also has four teams. The bracket also includes the Celtic Barbarians, two teams from Hawaii (Maui and Kahuku), three teams from Texas (Gorilla Academy has two and Allen has one), one from the Mountain states (Rebel Rugby Academy), and an Alaska Youth Rugby team.
The Girls U18 bracket has 13 teams with Alaska, Maui, Rebel, Panther, and Celtic all fielding squads. ARPTC is there, as is Fallbrook out of Southern California, the Charlotte Tigress, Rogue Ridge (Michigan), Badger Selects out of Wisconsin, the Utah Cannibals, and Riverdale Rugby out of Tennessee.
Boys 2021 School HS Rankings Week 5
Got to admint that we weren't all that surprised that our #1 fell last week.
It was a very tenuous #1, and it remains so, but for slightly different reasons.
Strake Jesuit unseated Brother Martin on the field over the weekend and also in the rankings. We could have put St. Thomas Aquinas or Herriman in at #1. And while we're pretty sure their coaches are quietly saying "please don't tank us #1" we're also just a little wary because of the number of games. Neither has played a ton, yet, and Strake has probably played more. In addition, Herriman had an iffy outing the week before and we're waiting on their consistency.
And then there's the issue that some other teams are going to enter the fray soon, and so any team that is #1 will have a lot of history to battle against when Xavier, Jesuit Sacramento, Greenwich, and, eventually, Gonzaga take the field.
Aspetuck Flexes Muscles In Four-Team Meeting
Aspetuck emerged victorious from a small four-team tournament held in Pennsylvania Sunday, defeating West Shore United and Berks to continues the team's fine run of form.
Aspetuck won their shortened games in convincing fashion 19-5 over West Shore, and then took on Berks, which was a bit injury-hit after a tight 13-12 win over Fairfield, and took care of Berks 45-0. Fairfield, the only non-ranked team in the event, showed very well, losing to Berks by only a point and then beating West Shore 12-7.
Kingfishers, Aquinas Strong In Kansas
Upstart school team the Kingfishers of St. Martin's Academy is back making noise once more after beating the Kansas City Junior Blues 42-7 on Saturday.
The Jr Blues started strong, testing the Kingfishers backline defense. But the defense held and once the Kingfishers got the ball back they started to work the phases with the forwards busting up ahead and the backs getting their chances to go wide.
The breakthrough came at about five minutes in when flyhalf Ian Taylor faked sending the ball wide and instead took it up himself. He was gone for 60 meters and a try.
That opened the door for Kingfishers to press the attack. Scrumhalf Nate Jones ran a snappy attack and Taylor continued to work his backline nicely. With a hard working forward pack recycling ball (especially as the Jo Blues were contesting every ruck), it was 20-0 by halftime.
EIRA To Hold Regional Summer All-Star Events For Boys and Girls
This year it seems unlikely that there will be the sort of high school all-star tournament we've been used to seeing every summer, but there will be one event.
Eagle Impact Rugby Academy won't be able to tour Canada the way the program normally does. Last year's tour was, of course, called off due to the COVID pandemic. This year, rugby is possible but travel across borders probably isn't. So instead EIRA will run regional tournaments of EIRA teams.
EIRA will make four super-regional groups: EIRA East, EIRA Midwest, EIRA West, and EIRA Pacific. Those super-regions will field five separate teams: Girls Older (born no earlier than 2002) and Girls Younger (born no later than 2008), Boys U14-15, Boys U16-17, and Boys U18-19.
Gregory the Great Rides Team Effort to Preseason Win
Gregory the Great opened their season with an impressive 35-10 defeat of #16 St. Joseph's.
For GGA, a small boarding school just east of Scranton, Pa., rugby is THE sport of the spring, and they play a smart, very team-oriented game that gets around their usual lack of size with fitness and tenacity. This is exactly how they defeated St. Joe's.
"They are very sound," said St. Joe's Head Coach Brian McCloskey. "We made too many mistakes and while we matched up pretty well they scored a few late to put it away. Really it was three mistakes and three tries for them; they are good at making you pay."
On a beautiful day for rugby GGA certainly did that. Head Coach Garret van Beek said taking time and space away from St. Joseph's was the plan.
Gibbons Win Harbingers Wild Florida Playoffs
Florida's HS championship playoffs could be completely different from how the regular season has progressed.
Since nine of the ten teams make the playoffs, it's not really about who started well, but who will finish it. Look at Jacksonville vs Cardinal Gibbons. Gibbons started late and went into this weekend winless. Jacksonville started by winning against an Okapi team that hasn't lost since,
But Gibbons beat Jacksonville 54-0 this weekend. And while Jacksonville was going to be top four win or lose, and the Wolverines were hit with some injuries to some important players, and while Gibbons was going to be in the lower in the standings, this was still a big deal. Jacksonville was not expected to be shut out or to give up 50. Gibbons turned the tables on them.
Dwenger Win Sends Tremor Through Indiana
Bishop Dwenger turned heads this weekend with their 19-12 defeat of Penn.
While it's true Penn is a little less experienced than in other years and is behind where they normally are, but Dwenger's victory is still noteworthy.
Joe Fabini had a big day with two tries while senior and first-year player Louis Knipscheer also added a try, breaking tackles and showing why he's a good addition to the team. Senior Daniel Cava converted two of those tries and it was 19-0 Dwenger. Penn, of course, came back.
Defense Drives Harpeth's Opening Wins
Defense has been the order of the day for the Harpeth Harlequins as they logged two wins in the past week.
H2 defeated an up-and-coming Spring Hill team five days ago, holding their opponents to just to one try while scoring four. And then Saturday they followed that up with a 19-0 shutout of the Tennessee Rugby Academy.
Against Spring Hill the Harlequins came into the game with only four practices under their belt, but they had experience with each other and were a little more polished because of that. Center Hank White scored two tries, while No. 8 Daniel Helton was a force in the forwards and flyhalf Sacha Martini directed the attack well.
They handled a physical Spring Hill team that looks to be poised to surprise some people.
HS Rugby: What Happened Saturday?
An upset or two and the end of one regular season (no, seriously) highlighted Saturday in boys HS rugby.
History in Indiana
Bishop Dwenger had never beaten Penn HS; never, that is, until Saturday. Dwenger played a very strong defensive game and ran out to a 19-0 lead paced by Joe Fabini's two tries. Penn rebounded to score twice in the final 20 minutes, but it wasn't enough and Dwenger won 19-12.
Penn is younger than they usually are and had some things to learn against a very capable Dwenger side, but this was still a first for Bishop Dwenger (at least since 2004), and a well-taken first.
Rugby Returns To DC Area as Georgetown Prep Faces Salesianum
Rugby is returning to the DC area as the nation's schools slowly accept the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic, while serious, is not serious for minors.
This weekend, Georgetown Prep took on Salesianum in a preseason meet that was, of course, full of the rustiness, but it was a good game nonetheless.
Salesianum, hosting at their new stadium, came out fired up and scored early on—a long period where they maintained possession and worked the phases nicely ended with prop Joey Olive going over. Zach Ottinger slotted the conversion.
But Georgetown Prep rebounded after that and started to create chances as the first half wore on. Their backs began to find space and Prep ran in five tries—Patrick McHale, Tim Hathaway, Myles Kelly, Patrick Hefright, and Sam Trybus all touching down.
HS Games This Weekend: March Out Like a Lion
Spring Break occurs at different times for different schools, so every now and then you'll see an entire league got radio silent.
But ... we will also see leagues get back into action—witness Rugby Oklahoma's first weekend of league play starting right now.
Texas is back and going strong, and Missouri is also heating up, and we've got a game in the DC area, believe it or not. with a preseason warmup between Georgetown Prep and Salesianum.
Check back for scores; several teams could break into the rankings as the schedule expands. Victories or close losses for the likes of Walnut Hills, Spring Hill, Fairfield, SLV Rhinos, Katy, San Clemente, and a few teams in Oklahoma could all see them move into the rankings.
Gamebreakers The Week of March 20
In some close, dramatic, and intense games throughout the country, we look at some standout performances in Boys HS Rugby.
John Rink, Brother Martin
The wing and goalkicker for Brother Martin, Rink scored three tries and converted two to account for 19 points in a tight 29-24 win over the Bayou Hurricanes.
Sammy McMillan, SOC Raptors
The Raptors edged the San Diego Mustangs 19-16 and hooker McMillan was immense, getting go-forward with the ball in hand and playing excellent defense as well. Forced to move to prop because of injuries on the team, McMillan continued to excel.
Aki Pulu, Alani Maafu, Tempe
These two worked very nicely together as they sparked Tempe to a massive win over #2 Red Mountain.
Boys 2021 School HS Rankings Week 4
We waited for the Herriman vs East game to be completed to see if Herriman would do enough to get to #1.
It was worth it, but Herriman, while victorious, wasn't impressive in doing so. They needed a late penalty goal to eke out a 25-22 win over East, and while you do need a win to get to #1, it can't just be any win.
Brother Martin, which has hardly put a foot wrong so far, moves up to that #1 spot, but this ranking at present is very tentative. Anyone could fall hard, and once some other teams get in on the action, they could rise quickly.
Capital HS and Mountain View from Idaho join the rankings after good starts in their league.
Boys 2021 HS Club Rankings Week 4
The Charlotte Tigers won in convincing fashion over Phoenix Alpharetta and with that happening you certainly can't unseat a #1 team.
This, despite Genesis looking very good in beating United 29-7, the Tigers remain on top. Genesis, however, moves up to #2.
United was just one of three top-10 teams that lost this week, with Red Mountain and the San Diego Mustangs also falling. Those two move down, and the teams that beat them, Tempe and the SOC Raptors, move up.
We have two new clubs coming in, with West Shore United out of Pennsylvania and Withrow out of Ohio coming in. West Shore could well be the top club in the Keystone State ... we'll see.
