St. Ignatius Wins Ohio Boys 7s
St. Ignatius of the Cleveland area won the Ohio State HS 7s boys DI bracket Saturday, defeating Indian Springs 19-7 in the title game.
Led by MVP Aedan Mangan, St Ignatius claimed their second-straight 7s title, about a month after winning the Ohio state championship in 15s.
St Ignatius went 2-0 in Pool play beating the Toledo Jr Celtics 19-14 after being down 14-0 at halftime, and followed that up with another comeback - defeating Brunswick 19-7 after being down 7-0 at halftime.
Moving into the semifinals against Pickerington, the Wildcats started and finished strong, beating the Marauders 26-0 putting them in the Championship game against a red hot Indian Springs team.
Liberty Leads Wash 7s Series
The Liberty HS boys team won the U19 boys bracket of the first leg of the Rugby Washington Subway Summer Sevens Series.
Paced by a strong day from Michael Thomson, in his last game with the team, and with Austin Liddell also test defenses, Liberty defeated Seattle 31-19 in the final.
"They were fluid," said Liberty Head Coach Jeff Candler of this players. "I think Seattle were missing a couple of guys and we were too, but it was a good performance. The guys played well."
Liberty defeated Eastside Black, Kitsap, and Yakima in pool play, while Seattle were also undefeated in their pool, beating Tacoma, Eastside Gold, and Prairie.
Seattle then defeated Eastside Black 19-7 in the semis, while Liberty rolled 35-7 over Prairie.
Rainier Plateau won the U17 bracket, beating Seattle 24-22 in the final.
Loggers Split with Down HS
The Washington state Loggers Boys select side split their two games with visiting Down HS from Northern Ireland Saturday.
In a tense Varsity game, the Loggers aged Down 15-12, while in the JV game, Down’s ends emerged victorious 20-12.
Down moves on to the Canadian leg of their trip, as they travel to Victoria BC.
Boys Stars & Stripes Coaches Named
BOULDER, Colo. – The coaching staffs for the second annual USA Rugby Stars and Stripes Camp have been selected.
More than 100 coaches applied for the 12 available staff positions. The coaches were selected through an online application, identification by current national team coaches, and the USA Rugby Coach Development Program in order to build the pool of high performance coaches to ensure the future development of USA Rugby.
Brendan Keane, who coaches at Charlotte Catholic and directed the North Carolina Boys select-side through a successful June will head up the Boys Stars team.
Keane is also the lead coach at Eagle Impact Rugby Academy, Carolinas, and will team up with assistants Scott Bracken (Southern California Boys Select Side) and Wake Forest University Men’s Rugby Head Coach Justin Goonan.
Team Unity Wins in NE RAST
Paced by the play of Mateo Gowland, Yoh Nakayama, No. 8 Jack Weigold, and center Michael McTiernan, Greewnich/Fairfield County won the Boys Varsity bracket of the New England Regional All-Star Tournament (RAST) Sunday in Devens, Mass.
Greenwich was essentially the Greenwich High School team with a couple of extra players, and their superior athleticism and team unity won out, as they defeated the Massachusetts Youth Rugby Organization (MYRO) 47-0 to take the title, a day after hammering Northern New England in the semis.
Rugby Connecticut beat Northern New England 37-17 to win the Plate (3rd place).
In the Junior Varsity bracket, MYRO edged Greenwich 24-22 in an exciting match to win.
Berkshire Boys Win Tri City 7s
The Berkshire United HS Boys team out of Western Massachusetts won the Tri State 7s high school division this weekend in Danbury, Conn., surviving a tense semifinal to do so.
Berkshire swept their pool games, beating New Haven 54-0 and Play Rugby USA II 31-12. In that second game, Malik Wilbon raced in for five tries, and added two conversions to score 29 of his team's 31 points.
That set up Berkshire for a bye to the semifinals, where they met New York Rugby Club. In a tough encounter, the team ended the game tied 14-14. Tournament rules called for no overtime, so the winner was decided based on record in pool play, points different, and tries scored. Berkshire were better than New York in all three of those categories and moved on to the final.
In the final, Eric Reinhold paced Berkshire with two tries as they defeated the New Jersey Blaze 24-0.
Pro Scout at All-Star Tourneys
London Wasps Academy staff member was in attendance at the Great Northwest Challenge this past weekend scouting talent, and has been in consultation with High School All American Head Coach Salty Thompson about bringing young US-based to the UK.
Davies was part of the Saracens Academy setup and was instrumental in bringing Titi Lamositele over from Washington state to Saracens, where he is now contracted.
Davies said he was impressed with the level of athlete he saw at the GNC, with several young players catching his eye and being seen in conversation with him.
"We have a limited geographical area from which to recruit in the UK," Davies told Goff Rugby Report. "So we need to find talent from overseas. Titi was a great example of someone with a lot of potential, and obviously clubs have seen what Samu Manoa can do."
Northeast RAST Latest
The Greenwich/Fairfield County Boys select side defeated Northern New England 50-0 to gain the final of the Northeast Regional All-Star Tournament in Massachusetts, Saturday.
Greenwich, featuring mostly players from the Greenwich HS team, benefitted from strong continuity than most select sides enjoy. Head Coach Joe Kelly said the plan was to win quick ball and use the team’s backline talent, and that’s what they did, rolling to the final.
Leading the way were Yoh Nakayama and Mateo Gowland.
Meanwhile, MYRO (Massachusetts Youth Rugby Organization) were comfortable winners over Connecticut to make Sunday’s Boys Varsity final. Connecticut will play Northern New England for the Plate.
Northeast RAST in Massachusetts
The final Regional All-Star Tournament for high school players is set for Devens, Mass. this Saturday.
Four boys Varsity teams, four girls Varsity teams, and three JV boys teams will play over the weekend.
It’s been tough for the Northeast all-star teams to form the right tournament for them, as the East RAST in Pittsburgh that was held last weekend has often been tagged as the one for New England teams. However, Pittsburgh is not easy to get to from New England, and the teams from that region have set up their own opportunity to play some higher-level games.
This weekend, though, is a big testing weekend for sophomores and seniors from some of the states involved, meaning that many of the Varsity teams are junior-heavy, and many of the JV teams are freshman-heavy.
Washington All-Stars Host Tourists
Following up on their sweep of the Great Northwest Challenge, the Boys select sides from the state of Washington - Varsity and Junior Varsity - will host a touring Irish side this weekend.
Ryan Field in Seatac, Wash. will see the Down High School team from Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, face off against the Loggers.
This is the end-of-year tour for Down, which spent Thursday touring Seattle on amphibious buses, seeing the University of Washington football stadium (including a Huskies spring practice), and the Space Needle. Word is they got in a practice, too.
Washington are coming off a very tough Great Northwest Challenge, where they won close games over Northern California, Hawaii, and, in the final, Southern California (they also won comfortably over Oregon).
HS Summer 7s Heating Up
It’s 7s time for HS teams this summer.
For years, that wasn’t something you normally said in American rugby. Rugby 7s was mostly the domain of men’s and women’s senior clubs, and of course they still take the summer season very seriously.
All-Star Team MVPs from Pittsburgh
2014 CHALLENGE CUP Regional All-Star Tournament named their Rugby Imports Team MVPs this past weekend:
Varsity Boys:
NY West - Casey Morgan, 8
IN - Noah Schrader, 6
NJ - Terre Hellander, 6
MD - Robbie Happy, 4
Empire - Christian Artuso, 10
FL Juice - Mitchell Wilson, 10
IL - Andy Fraczek, 7
VA-2 - Larry Walker, 6
PA - Ryan McGuire, 10
VA-1 - Reis Sheckels, 8
OH - Ryan Bradfield, 13
Junior Varsity Boys:
IN - Cedric Vakalahi, 13
VA - Marshall Wilson, 6
FL Juice - Zach Dietz, 2
IL - Spencer Krueger, 1/8
MD - James Lyons, 10
NJ - Brendan Cunningham, 8
NY West - Mike Cotrone, 4/8
PA - Tyler Worthing, 6
Middle School Boys:
IN - Nathan Froelich, 12
NY West - John Minogue, 10
NC - Mason Middleton, 8
VA - Franco Camaca, 9
Florida Juice Make Splash in PittsburghAfter the Florida Juice defeated Indiana 19-17 in the final of the Challenge Cup Regional All-Star Tournament, more than one observer was surprised. Florida, after all, had not made an All-Star final since the days when current Eagle Cam Dolan was on their squad. “We thought we had the guns to make it to the semifinals,” said coach Chris Oosthuizen. "To be quite honest, we thought that if we reached the semifinal, that was goal achieved. But as the tournament progressed, and seeing how our players we playing better and better, we started to believe."
Washington JV Boys Keep Winning
For the 7th year in a row the Washington Boys JV team won the JV bracket at the Great Northwest Challenge regional all-star tournament.
The victory was notable in part because the team just looked younger than everyone else. They were small, for the most part, all freshmen and sophomores, and yet outplayed bigger, often older teams by executing superbly. They showcased correct technique in the rucks and the scrums, worked together in other aspects of forward play, made their tackles, and spun the ball effectively.
Flanker Kyle Saalfeld of Kent stood out as a field-roaming menace, and scrumhalf Tristan Ingold, also of Kent, just kept the ball moving. These two players are very good news for a Kent program that was, at one point, one of the best in the country, but has struggled to match the efforts of other teams in Washington in recent years.
Utah Lions Win Denver 7s
The Utah Lions 7s team followed up their HSRC 7s Championship with a win in the HS Boys bracket of the Denver 7s this past weekend.
In a very competitive bracket, Utah worked through some difficult matches and finished the stronger, beating East HS 40-0 in the final.
Utah opened up with a 57-0 victory over the Central Terrors, But things weren't so easy against a physical and skilled LIttleton Eagles team. LIttleton took an early 12-0 lead by leveraging their speed and physicality. Used to winning by comfortable margins, the Lions were a little shocked, but rebounded in the second half with tries from Colton Swapp (Summit Academy) and Aleni Aiono (Wasatch of Murray). Darian Power (United) kicked both conversions to give his side a 14-12 lead.
