Easter Weekend Shakes Up HS Schedule With Easter this weekend the slate of 15s games drops. Florida doesn't play and the Carolinas are chill as Tropical 7s takes over in the Southeast. Some teams are on tour (GRR is on tour with one of them) and we;ll have notes on those. MIAA (Massachusetts) and MIAA (Maryland) teams are in action. The Cascade league in the eastern part of Washington/Oregon—the flatter parts—gets going. BC High Defeats SImsbury So there's some stuff moving but it's a little different this week.
Tropical 7s Set to Kick Off The Tropical 7s kicks off this weekend. As was the case last year, this tournament has a significant international flair; in additional to the many teams from the USA and Canada, this year the Jamaica Junior Cros, Trinidad & Tobago Moka Lions, Cayman Rugby, and Future Elite Sports from England are all competing. The schedule runs all day Friday, March 29 and Saturday March 30. Here's a look at some teams to watch: Boys U18 Elite. This is a 16-team bracket and includes the two-time NAI 7s winners and hard-luck semifinalists at Tropical 7s in 2023, Rebel Rugby Academy. Also suiting u is Next Phase Rugby, which made the final of the NAI 7s in their first outing and look solid again this time around. Atlantis, Jamaica's National U18 side, and Tsunami Misfits are also teams to worry about. Girls U18 Elite. Ten teams play in this bracket in two pools of five.
Strake Jesuit Wins, Sets Up Tex-La VC Playoffs Strake Jesuit defeated St. Thomas 50-10 Tuesday evening to round out the Texas/Louisiana Varsity Cup playoff bracket. With a couple of seniors unavailable for the game, Strake had to pull Jackson Hebert into the starting scrumhalf position. Hebert excelled on the day and even capped off the day at flyhalf. But it was the forwards that controlled the day—flanker Emiliano Fernandez sparked the attack and defense with high intensity and work rate. Marcus Harris was a force at prop and captained the side. Lock Nick Hernandez mastered the lineout throughout. This result secured the district title for Strake, but there's more rugby to play.
Jesuit Sacramento Looks Toward Sanix Tournament in Japan Defending National Single-School runners-up Jesuit of Sacramento is set to make history this season by becoming the first American team to play in the Sanix Tournament in Japan at the end of April 2024. “We were honored to be invited to play in this tournament against some of the top high school teams in the world,” said Head Coach Andrew Acosta. “We graduated over 20 seniors from our team that placed second in the high school National Invitational Tournament last year, but this talented young group is learning fast and will look to represent Jesuit High School and the USA with honor in Japan." The Sanix Tournament is an annual tournament that takes place in Fukuoka, Japan and will celebrate its 25th year in 2024. The tournament consists of 16 teams (eight Japanese teams and eight teams from around the world). The winner in 2023 was Paul Roos Gymnasium from South Africa.
Boys School Top 50 2024: Week 12 What an eventful weekend of school-team rugby. St. Ignatius sent a message that they're not going away quietly. St. Edward logged a statement win. St. Thomas Aquinas kept their hand up in the air. SLUH, which quietly used all their players on tour in Illinois (which precipitated a somewhat harsh ding in the rankings) showed in two very close losses that they belong in the conversation. Boston College High made a huge statement. BC High Takes NE Jesuit Tournament at Fairfield Oh, and #2 De La Salle lost. All of this means we have to make some aggressive changes. Teams are moving up and down. Now, remember we told you this was likely to happen—teams that don't play anymore (school teams out of Southern California and North Carolina) would eventually be overhauled because results trump not playing. In this case, it all happened really quickly because De La Salle lost to SFGG.
Boys HS Club Top 50 2024: Week 12 When everyone in the Top Eight that played won, you might think we're pleased. But in a way, we're not. We live for upsets. It's what makes sports so maddeningly fun. And if we got the rankings right the first time, we wouldn't have to update them! Overall, though, the rankings held up in a week where at least 21 HS Clubs listed below played teams ranked as clubs or schools (although the club-school thing is getting increasingly separated these days). The big upset may well have been Eastside 21-0 over Granite Bay—Eastside of Washington Shuts Out Touring Granite Bay—although SFGG over De La Salle is a close second. The thing about the Granite Bay vs Eastside result is that this was a Spring Break tour for GB. And these tours are sometimes a case of the team taking whichever players are available.
STA Impresses at SLUH Tournament The SLUH All-Catholic Tournament finished up with a strong performance from St. Thomas Aquinas. Led by their second row pairing of Jake Ernsting and Carson Kraft, the Saints beat a very good SLUH team 14-3. STA’s defense was very solid, with flanker Trever Mogren making some key plays in the breakdown. Yes Max and Mike Doerfler were strong at No. 8 and flyhalf, respectively, and the team overall played superb team defense. SLUH had their moments. They used prop Kodi Cade to push the gain line and scrumhalf David Kuebler to push the pace. Babson commit Trey Dino was solid as well. But STA did really well to defend their line. They gave up some penalties, but they weren’t going to give up points. Kraft put the game away with a rollicking charge through tacklers from 25 meters out, and that was it. Overall St.
More Results and Developments Around HS Rugby What a wild weekend in Boys HS rugby. We went over some of the big games here: Eastside of Washington Shuts Out Touring Granite Bay Marin, SFGG Take Big Victories in NorCal Gonzaga Holds Off Ignatius in Freezing Cleveland Charlotte Cardinals Ride Strong Second Half to Beat Tigers Reports and Thoughts from SLUH Tournament Day One Mustangs Win Big Battle in SoCal BC High Takes NE Jesuit Tournament at Fairfield STA Impresses at SLUH Tournament Scores this weekend Texas Woodlands battled Four Points in Austin and came away with a 40-17 win. Woodlands opened the scoring when No.
BC High Takes NE Jesuit Tournament at Fairfield Boston College High won the Northeast Jesuit Tournament held at Fairfield Prep, beating the hosts in the final. This was a welcome out-of-state showing for a Massachusetts IAA team, and a successful one. BC High beat McQuaid Jesuit and Fairfield Prep in driving rain in Saturday's shortened pool games. While teams were looking to win the tournament, this was also an opportunity to get game times for as many players as possible. So there were a lot of shuffled lineups— The had a successful weekend at Fairfield Prep, beating McQuaid Jesuit and Fairfield Prep in driving rain on Saturday in shortened matches. Teams also wanted to shelter players from the cold rain and moved their teams in and out of shelter throughout the day. Max Mihalov interviewing for us at NE Jesuit Tournament in Fairfield CT.
Mustangs Win Big Battle in SoCal In a meeting of two of the top HS Clubs in Southern California, the San Diego Mustangs defeated the SOC Raptors 31-21. The Mustang halfback combination of Spencer Huntley at scrumhalf and Rocco Pool at flyhalf produced the fireworks. Huntley accounted for nearly all of the scoring for the Mustangs with three tries, four conversions, and a penalty goal for 26 points on his own. Two of those tries were assisted by Pool off thrilling linebreaks. Pool's timely kicking repeatedly put the Mustangs in good position, or relieved Raptors' pressure. For the Raptors, costly mistakes and penalties have been the theme for them over the last few weeks. "We knew the Mustangs thrive on mistakes and are a very well-coached team with maybe the best 9/10 combination in the US," said Raptors Head Coach Sam McMillan.
Charlotte Cardinals Ride Strong Second Half to Beat Tigers Charlotte Cardinals beat cross-city rivals Charlotte Tigers 43-7 Saturday with a dominant second half display. It was a well-contested, physical, and high-quality contest with no quarter asked or given as one would expect from a top-tier local rivalry. The respective captains, Finlay Mitchell of Cardinals and Jameson Beatty of Tigers, opened the scoring—both going over with strong runs in an evenly-matched first quarter, before Cardinals built some sustained pressure and prop Jacob Eroch powered over to give Cardinals a 14-7 half time lead. In the second half, the Cardinals scored 29 unanswered points and largely dominated territory and possession.
Eastside of Washington Shuts Out Touring Granite Bay On a day marked by looming Washington skies over Highland Middle School, the Eastside Lions Varsity welcomed the touring Granite Bay Rugby Club in what was anticipated to be a thrilling encounter. Granite Bay, on a tour of the Pacific Northwest with Irish Rugby Tours, brought a considerable number of supporters, setting the stage for an intense showdown with Eastside, a team riding high on a winning streak across Washington and beyond. The match kicked off with both teams displaying high levels of energy, exchanging tactical plays on the wings and through the center field. However, early opportunities were squandered by knock-ons and a lack of discipline at the offside line; nerves, perhaps, in this much-anticipated matchup.
Marin, SFGG Take Big Victories in NorCal Two results out of Northern California HS Rugby turned heads this weekend. Marin, on a roll and having already logged a couple of notable wins, got by Danville 25-15. Marin received four yellow cards in the first half but still pulled out yet another difficult win on the road. At one point Marin was down to 12 players on the field. Danville did manage to score during that time, but only once. "Our coaching staff couldn't be more proud of these boys," said Marin Coach John Vantress. Marin now is 5-0 in the Northern California Premier League. They get next week off before a tour of New Zealand in April.
Reports and Thoughts from SLUH Tournament Day One On Day One of the SLUH All-Catholic tournament, we saw some drama. Two games were very, very close, as St. Thomas Aquinas edged Notre Dame de la Salette 7-0 in a game where both teams had chances. Later on, St. Xavier needed all they had to beat SLUH 12-11. Meanwhile, Marquette looked very impressive in their opening game of the season, beating Father Ryan. La Salette rebounded with a well-taken win over St. James, while Aquinas beat St. Xavier to go 2-0. GRR is partnering with UReportNow, an AI-generated, human-edited game report system that any school or club can sign up to use. If you are interested in finding out more, let us know at agoff@goffrugbyreport.com>> Meanwhile, we covered some of the games at the SLUH tournament using the UReportNow interface.
Gonzaga Holds Off Ignatius in Freezing Cleveland In a result that was a bit of a surprise in how close it was, Gonzaga held off St. Ignatius of Cleveland in Brooklyn, Ohio Saturday. This was a physically punishing match and both teams saw injuries to key players—Gonzaga losing a prop and a flanker and Ignatius losing their sophomore flyhalf with a very high ceiling in Hank McGowan. Ignatius brought the intensity they had been lacking somewhat and led into the second half. But Gonzaga eventually pulled it out. “The first half they played exactly the way we thought they would; they ran really hard and we helped them out with a bunch of penalties,” said Gonzaga Head Coach Peter Baggetta. “They came out with a lot of emotion and we knew that would happen, too. We told our guys in the morning meeting that winning on the road in these weather conditions is very tough. They had the crowd.
