In a competitive and intense night of rugby Carlsbad took the Southern California Open Division school title with a 22-12 victory over St. Anthony's.

The teams played shortened games on the night, with Carlsbad defeating La Jolla 26-7 and St. Anthony's edging Crean 19-14. Crean beat La Jolla 28-7 to take third.

"The high school season is challenging," said Carlsbad Head Coach Josh Williams, referring to the school-team first half of SoCal's season. Like a lot of school teams, Carlsbad's players will largely transition to playing for the Thunder club (with some players moving to other sports and others coming from different schools). This happens throughout the region—Torrey Pines heavily populating the San Diego Mustangs; Crean populating the SOC Raptors, and St. Anthony's populating Belmont Shore. So in this school season, said Williams, "you're trying to develop a team that can compete at nationals, but also take kids who are small and young and need time to play. Rugby requires development and building from below, but it also requires success up top. Players want to compete, and all of them need time to play."

One of the reasons Southern California rugby appears to be on the rise is below they have this school season and then a club season, said Williams.

So for the school season Carlsbad tested some combinations and gave newer players the opportunity to play important games. But once you get to the final, you're objective is to win.

"You need to focus on both winning and development," said Williams. "We need national and regional competitions, and we need it to be fun and focus on camaraderie and then build on that to compete. For this weekend, the games were really good and the teams were really good."

In the final, St Anthony's adjustments to the Carlsbad way saw them pressure Carlsbad with smart chip kicks and grubbers.

"We were beating them in contact and then they adjusted and used kicks," said Williams. "Very smart." 

Seniors and captains Sone Aupiu and Zephaniah Misa led well for St. Anthony's and played brilliantly throughout. Aupiu and Misa were huge on defense and battled to the end. RJ Pua was their MVP of the game. A utility player who played in both the forwards and the backs throughout the season, he suited up at inside center and helped set up many of Aupiu’s breakaway runs.

Sophomores Max Amasio and Rocco Burdett also made huge impacts with strong carries in traffic and their tackling.

But Carlsbad's physicality combined with some superb field vision from flyhalf Solomon Williams and the power-running Spencer Lane saw them through. Locks Mana Bulabalavu and Quentin Johnson were difference-makers in the game. Both sophomores and big, powerful second rows, they are "natural rugby players," said Williams the coach. They tested defenses in tight, while Williams and Lane worked the space out wide. It was a break by Williams and a burst by Lane that opened up the game.

So this season is over, but it's not over. Many of the top players from these teams will transition to the club season which kicks off in a week. Thunder, which comes out of the Carlsbad team, will be looking for a second national club championship. But everyone knows the competition in SoCal will be tough.