Beast of the East in 33rd Year
Beast of the East in 33rd Year
The Beat of the East, in its 33rd year, has three brackets of men’s college teams with DI, DII, and DIII teams totaling more than 40.
Division I
Heading up the DI bracket is Boston College, ranked #38 among all DI college teams by Goff Rugby Report. UConn, Albany, UMass, Rhode Island, and Kings Point rounds out a highly-competitive bracket.
BC, UConn, and Albany are in one pool, with URI, Kings Point, and UMass in the other. UMass would likely be favored in the second pool. Teams play two pool games on Saturday, and then games for 1st, 3rd, or 5th on Sunday.
Division II
It’s a much larger DII bracket, with several ranked teams involved. UMass-Lowell, ranked #24 by Goff Rugby Report, heads up a pool with Central Connecticut State and GRR #45 Sacred Heart.
RPI, ranked #25 by GRR, is pooled with Scranton and #42 Bentley. Roger Williams, #30 by GRR, joins Boston University and #50 Providence College. Salve Regina is #41, and faces Vassar and Holy Cross, while #37 Molloy and #39 Plymouth State play alongside the URI 2nd side. And finally, #36 Bryant, and #47 Endicott face Maine-Orono.
Teams play two pool games on Saturday and then go to a Cup or Plate.
Division III
The DIII bracket features 17 teams, three pools of three and two pools of four.
These are the teams: UMaine - Farmington, Brandeis University, Fitchburg State, Bates College, Williams College, Western Connecticut State, Bowdoin College, Mass Maritime Academy, Babson College, Lasell, University of New England, Wentworth, Maine Maritime Academy, UMass Dartmouth, Curry College, Wesleyan, Colby College.
The tournament is presented by the Rhode Island Rugby Football Foundation and supported by Rugby Imports and is held all weekend at the Gardner Seveney Sports Complex in Portsmouth, RI.