Utah Lions Roar at Rocky Mountain Challenge
Utah is known throughout the USA as a breeding ground for talented young rugby players, so it’s no surprise that their high school all-star team won the Rocky Mountain Challenge, but maybe it is a surprise, given the strong programs in Aurora, Colo., that they swept both the Varsity and JV divisions.
NC and SC Warm Up at ClemsonBoys All-Star teams from North Carolina and South Carolina squared off in a tuneup in advance of the Life RAST tournament next weekend. Both the Varsity and JV teams from each state clashed, with North Carolina winning both, as coaches evaluated their players. Both teams traveled to Clemson University and ran three 20-minute periods. North Carolina triumphed 36 to 3 in the varsity match and 17 to 10 in the JV match. Both teams have plenty to think about this week and look forward to when the matches count. North Carolina started the varsity match in commanding fashion with a long run by Michael Maughan, converted by Duncan Van Schalkwyk. Van Schalkwyk added a penalty kick a few minutes later to increase the lead to 10-0.
Indiana North Wins Boys MW All-Stars
Indiana North defeated Indiana South to win the Midwest Rugby Challenge Boys Varsity All-Star bracket Sunday at the Moose Rugby Grounds in Elkhart, Ind.
The 24-17 victory capped off a very successful weekend for all of the Indiana boys teams, as Indiana South B finished 4th (losing to the Cleveland Celts), and the state also fielded two JV and teams in the 7th/8th-grade and 5th/6th-grade brackets.
All-Indiana at Midwest Challenge
It’s an all-Indiana party at the Midwest Rugby Challenge boys bracket, as Indiana North will take on Indiana South in the final Sunday.
Indiana actually put three teams in the Boys Varsity bracket, with Indiana South B going 1-1, losing to Indiana North.
Indiana North also beat Illinois handily, scoring 96 points in their two pool games and giving up none. Indiana South had a bit of a fight with a tough Cleveland Celts team, which shut out Michigan 32-0 before falling to Indiana South 17-7.
So the pool standings look like this:
Pool A
Team W-L Pf-Pa
Ind. No. 2-0 96-0
Ind So. B 1-1 17-41
Illinois 0-2 14-86
Pool B
Team W-L Pf-Pa
Ind. So. 2-0 67-17
Celts 1-1 39-17
Michigan 0-2 10-82
In JV and 7th/8th-grade action, Indiana dominated, also.
Latest from Rocky Mountain Challenge
Lightning suspended player midway through Saturday/s Rocky Mountain Challenge all-star tournament in Colorado.
Two rounds of boys Varsity games were played, with four of the six games being very close.
No team ends the day 2-0, but a couple are 1-0. Utah defeated Colorado sound, 38-7, to win their first game. Heart of America won 29-15 over Wisconsin. Also 1-0 is Minnesota, which beat Texas 26-19.
Colorado opened their account early in the day with a 31-24 defeat of Nebraska before falling to Utah. Wisconsin also won their opener, 22-0 over New Mexico before dropping to 1-1 with the loss to HOA.
Texas rebounded from their opening loss to Minnesota to beat Oklahoma 34-12.
The third round of games, however, were not played due to the dangerous weather.
Greenwich Boys Win Ct.
Greenwich High School won the Connecticut state championship Wednesday, beating Fairfield 34-5 to win their seventh-straight state title.
Highlighting the Greenwich victory was the fact that tri-captains Mateo Gowland, Yoh Nakayama and Gardy Lebon each scored in their final match. Flanker Lebon, who is headed to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., next year, scored the team's first and final tries, while four-year A-side flyhalf Nakayama touched down with a characteristically twisting, darting run, to give his side a 19-0 lead in the first half.
Scrumhalf Gowland, another four-year starter, scored from fullback in the second half on a beautiful, slicing weak-side fill, in which Soh Nakayama (Yoh's sophomore brother), first faked strong, then delivered weak to begin the movement.
Tough Road for RMC Home Team Colorado
Colorado hosts the Rocky Mountain Challenge but the home team often finds itself just a little short.
For Head Coach Allan Wilson, who was coaching the JVs but now handles both the JVs and Varsity, winning the HS all-star tournament is important.
He has had the players in a four-week camp, logging about 25 hours of work as a unit. It's a lot for select side, especially one in the West, but it's needed.
"After that kind of time you've got a good feel for who you've got," said Wilson. "We feel strong and I think the key thing is how we play as a team. We have a lot of players from the stronger teams, but we do have players from teams that haven't won much. The issue is, sometimes those players are used to doing everything, and they have to re-learn to trust their teammates.
Minnesota Turns Around Fast for RMC
Entering the Rocky Mountain Challenge boys HS all-star tournament, the Minnesota team hasn’t had much time to get ready.
Their state championships were only last week. However, Head Coach Eric Salverda said the short turnaround, and the fact that he lost four players to injury, isn’t so bad considering he has a deep and fairly experienced team.
“We have a large returning group, with a solid backline and an experienced pack,” he told GoffRugbyReport.
The term “large returning group” can be taken two ways, as Minnesota expects to have some big forwards on the field this weekend in Colorado.
“Last year we went to the Potomac tournament and our pack was the largest there,” said Salverda. “And a lot of those players were young.”
GRR Boys HS Club Rankings
Goff Rugby Report unleashes its first Boys HS Club rankings of 2013-2014 season.
Unfortunately, because of the timing of the season and our launch, it's also the last rankings of the season. Ah well, we temper your disappointment by making th rankings big - 45 teams!
There are, we think, the best 45 multi-school boys teams in the country. For the most part we've gone with ranking the teams based on their performance in major national and regional playoffs - so if Team A beat Team B in March, but lost to Team B in the state semis, then Team B is ranked higher - but we have to extend our evaluations past that simply because many teams don't actually participate in regional or national championships.
Rugby Indiana All-Stars a Busy BunchThis weekend will be a busy one for the Rugby Indiana Boys Select Side Program, with the Boys Varsity being split into three teams - North A, South A, and South B - and two JV teams, plus a 7th/8th grade team and a 5th/6th grade team.
Coach Eddie Abel has a deep pool of players to draw from - thanks in part because the Midwest All-Star Challenge will be played in Elkhart, Ind.
Leading the way for the Varsity teams are, as expected, players from NIT champs Cathedral Royal Irish, such as scrumhalf Brian Hannon, who is one of the team leaders, and flanker Noah Schrader, who was the defensive rock for his team.
Coach Eddie Abel has a deep pool of players to draw from - thanks in part because the Midwest All-Star Challenge will be played in Elkhart, Ind.
Leading the way for the Varsity teams are, as expected, players from NIT champs Cathedral Royal Irish, such as scrumhalf Brian Hannon, who is one of the team leaders, and flanker Noah Schrader, who was the defensive rock for his team.
All-Star Season Starts in Colo, Indiana It’s Regional All-Star Tournament time, as age-grade select sides from around the country get on the field to represent their state, and get seen by national team coaches. First up this late spring will be the venerable Rocky Mountain Challenge, which is the oldest of these sorts of tournaments, and the Midwest Rugby Challenge. At GoffRugbyReport we will split up our previews and reviews of the tournaments by gender. Here’s a snapshot of the Boys brackets for the Midwest and Rocky Mountain: Rocky MountainThe Rocky Mountain Challenge is stacked with talented teams.
Program-Building Sees Edina ThroughThe joke going around Minnesota is that they are the Edina Yankees, and maybe there is a dynastic quality to the team, which won its third straight Minnesota Boys HS title Sunday with a convincing defeat of Minnetonka. Head Coach Chris Babiash said repeating isn’t easy, but it happens because he and the team are proactive. “We continue to build the program,” Babiash told the GoffRugbyReport. “We’ve always been proactive instead of reactive. All those hours in gym classes in middle schools produce players eventually. Having people put their Edina Rugby signs in their yards.
Edina Dominates Minn. Boys
The Edina boys HS team capped off an excellent Minnesota High School season with a 46-7 defeat of Minnetonka to win the state title Sunday at Irondale HS.
Edina pulled away from Hopkins 43-7 in the semis, while the big upset was Minnetonka, which beat #1 seed Duluth/North Shore 17-15 to make the championship game.
In the Plate Final, Burnsville shut out Southside 46-0.
North Shore went on to beat Hopkins 19-12 for 3rd in dramatic fashion, scoring a try with ten minutes to go to tie the game 12-12, and then touching moments later to take the lead.
Edina took control early in the final and never let up.
More on their run to the title tomorrow ...
ICEF Wins Summer Opener
The ICEF program out of Southern California won the inaugural South LA 7s this weekend.
Coached by David Hughes and ICEF summer intern Lauren Butler, the ICEF team was led by MVP Joshua Wells, who is off to Grand Canyon University.
Why Did Cathedral D-Peat?
In the last three years the Cathedral Royal Irish have made the NIT final three times, winning twice.
In 2012, Cathedral dominated with an offense that just didn’t debate from the plan. They out-rucked everyone and won by a wide margin. In 2013 the Royal Irish were undone by an excellent United team - the team they shut out the year before.
The 2014 team found success not in offense, but in defense. In their NIT final against Santa Monica, they pitched a shutout, winning 14-0.
