NorCal Player Gets Aussie Prize
Danville loose forward Nate Becker is off to Australia soon as part of a program initiated by NorCal Youth Rugby.
Rugby NorCal partnered with Estilo Travel out of Australia to offer a graduating high school senior boy to spend two months weeks in Sydney. After a long application and screening process, Becker, who captained the Northern California select side in a win over the English Lambs this spring, was chosen.
Close Games Lead to Minnesota Final
It’s Duluth against Edina this Saturday for the Minnesota Boys DI championship after both escaped very difficult semifinals last weekend.
Duluth (aka North Shore) held off Hopkins 21-12.
“It was not an easy match,” said Duluth Coach Andy Imig. “They were two well-matched teams. We basically retained the ball a little longer.”
Imig said his team has played well throughout the spring, but it wasn’t until the quarterfinal against Plymouth that he really started to think he had something special.
“We had a man in the sin bin and they were right on out line,” said Imig. “We defended and defended and than got the ball back, brought it back upfield, and scored. The whole team was in on it, and that showed me something.”
On Clubs, School Teams, and All-Stars
This is an opinion column by Goff Rugby Report Editor Alex Goff. As HS season wrap up, it’s time for the all-star events, as the newly-named Regional Cup Tournaments are fast approaching.
This year, there are seven RCP (formerly RAST) tournaments. Most of these will occur on June 20-21, but two are slated for a week later. They will, for the most part, be made up of state select-sides, but some of the teams are more regional in nature.
The split of state select teams is part of a vision held by USA Rugby Director of Youth & High School, Kurt Weaver, who believes strongly that as high school rugby becomes more single-school, so clubs will remove themselves from league play and participate more in regional tournaments.
Rugby NY Playoffs This Weekend
Four teams remain in the hunt for a New York state Boys DI championship, as the semifinals will be held this weekend.
The DI championship is named the Mike Tolkin Cup, after the current USA Men’s 15s Coach, who coached Xavier HS for many years, and also helped Xavier to a national championship as a player several million years ago.
Last-Second Try Wins Virginia for West End
West End completed an undefeated season Saturday with a last-minute 22-20 victory over local rivals Fort Hunt to win the Rugby Virginia state championship.
2015 Boys HS Club Rankings Week 18
So we're not sure how many of you have been waiting on tenterhooks for this ranking, but we can bet that one team is.
As we said two weeks ago, when we put Royal Irish and Danville in a te for #1, Royal Irish could conceivably drop down if they lost a game. They did, losing to Penn HS in the Indiana state final. We acknowledge, first of all, that the Royal Irish is a great team, and when 100% healthy, could well be the best in the nation. But ... the team wasn't 100%, and lost the Indiana final. There's nothing much we can do about that. We don't rank on potential (except maybe at the very beginning). We rank on results. Sometimes we have to make a judgment over which result is more meaningful. And we factor in our own observations, and those of others, to help on the tough calls.
There are a lot of tough calls.
St. Ignatius Edges St. Edward in Ohio Final
St. Ignatius have won Rugby Ohio's Boys DI HS championship, defeating St. Edward 12-5 in the final.
The game was played Tuesday, June 2 after the originally-scheduled final was postponed due to weather. The teams played Tuesday evening. The key to the victory for St. Ignatius was probably the Wild Cats' defense. The defense even produced the key offensive plays. Kevin Stefancin burst through to block a kick and that led to Geoff DiMassa scoring the winning try, turning a 5-5 deadlock into a 12-5 lead.
With Stefancin, Patrick Berry, DMassa, and Andrew Baldado making punishing runs, Ignatius controlled a lot of possession.
Near the end of the game, St. Edward broke through and made it to the Ignatius line. They in fact made it over the line, but were held up, and the Wild Cats hung on to win the championship trophy.
Aircraft Charter Solutions PoW - Terry Cullen
When Boston College High School won the Massachusetts state championship, Terry Cullen had a lot to do with it.
The imposing No. 8 scored three of his team’s four tries in the state final, and that was pretty much a normal game for him.
“Terry has been a critical part of our run this year, not only by scoring, but his offloading and passing in space has probably created an additional eight to ten tries,” said BC High Coach Paul Carty.
“I know when I want the ball in my hands and our scrumhalf Billy Connors and I have a good relationships and he knows when I call for it I see something,” added Cullen.
Cullen said winning the state championship with his team was more important than who scored the tries. And especially how they did it, falling behind early and putting the game away in the second half.
Moving Ahead, Iscaro Looks Back
Now two-time national single-school champions, Gonzaga can perhaps lay claim certainly lay definitive claim on being the best high school rugby team in the country.
Leading the charge for the squad has been HS All American prop/hooker Jack Iscaro, who moved to the #2 jersey thanks to the emergence of two massive props to hold him steady in the scrum. Iscaro, who qualifies for both the USA and Italy (his father played prop for Italy), will be attending Cal next year, and is a major prospect in rugby in this country, but as Gonzaga has wrapped up their season, he can afford a little time looking back.
Grandville Takes Michigan
Earlier in the season Grandville faced Rockford in the Michigan Boys HS league, and won 15-12, but it wasn’t the same close outcome this time around, as Grandville used the wide field to open up the game and spread Rockford defense, winning 25-7.
Pulaski Over Middleton for Wisconsin State Title
The Pulaski Roos came back from a 13-5 first-half deficit to defeat Middleton and win the Wisconsin Boys HS championship Saturday at Schneider Stadium in De Pere, Wisc.
Middleton, which moved up from DII after last season, were in it until the end, but too many penalties hurt them.
Pulaski took an early lead with a try from Levi Van Lanen, but soon thereafter Middleton replied to tie it up. A penalty and then a Shay Haase try put Middleton up 13-5. But they found the rest of the game tough going.
“Our aggressive style of play can draw penalties,” said Middleton Coach Paul Stroede. “And we started to get penalties. They played really good defense, too.”
Jake Jagielski’s try put Pulaski within three after Tyler Martens hit the conversion and it reined 13-10 at halftime.
Charlotte Catholic Wins North Carolina
Charlotte Catholic won the North Carolina single-school boys HS rugby championship this weekend with an emphatic 55-17 defeat of rivals North Meck.
Led by the play of wing Jonah Lamothe, who scored two tries and played solid defense, and with hooker Matthew Notorangelo having a big day running with the ball and on defense, Charlotte Catholic ran away with the championship.
“North Meck has some great players,” said Charlotte Catholic Coach Ian Mueller. “We wanted to guard against their overloads and make sure they didn’t hurt us out wide, and we did a good job there. We used our fitness and out pack really did a good job moving around the field.”
Archmere Wins HSRC Single-School
On the day one of its more famous alumni passed away, Archmere Academy won the HSRC Boys Single-School 7s at PPL Park in Chester, Pa., defeating Rock Rugby out of Texas 17-5 in the final.
The Auks executed their game plan almost to perfection, deciding to stay out of contact against the much bigger Rock team, and with smart passing, agile footwork, and plenty of support, they danced away from tackles and controlled possession for most of the game.
Key to this approach was co-captain Noah Niumataiwalu, who consistently probed the Rock defenses, and when the gap wasn’t there, just pulled out and sent the ball spinning to a teammate.
Exiles Win HSRC Club Bracket
The Exiles defeated West Shore United 24-5 in the final of the Boys HS Club bracket of the HSRC in Chester, Pa. Sunday, controlling possession and putting in a fairly clinical display of 7s rugby.
The Exiles, many of whom have played together under the Atlantis banner, played scrappy defense and varied their attack to keep West Shore on their heels. They took the lead in the opening minutes when center James Lyons made a long break from a midfield scum. The Exiles recycled five meters out and went over the tryline, but were held up. However, from the ensuing scrum, Lyons finished what he started and dotted down for the opening try. Jacob Estes slotted the conversion for the 7-0 lead.
Union Romps to Oregon Win
The Union Titans are the Rugby Oregon single-school champions after beating Newberg in convincing fashion 46-20 Saturday in the state final.
The victory capped a 12-0 season for Union in which they beat their opponents by more than 35 ten times - the only games where they failed to do so were in shortened games.
Union scored a try in the first three minutes and opened up their attack throughout the first half, leading 29-5 at the break.
Inside center Tyler Dionne was excellent in the final, scoring two tries and challenging tacklers. Set to join the Central Washington football team as a tight end in the fall, Dionne was running a bit sideways early in the season, but once he straightened his line of attack, he was a handful.
