It’s another meeting of champions Saturday as, for the second year in a row, defending single-school NIT winner Gonzaga faces defending HS club NIT winner Royal Irish in an early game.

It may be a shade too early for both - we’ll see - as Gonzaga has just had a couple of scrimmages, and Royal Irish has not played at all.

Gonzaga did play a scrimmage this past weekend against West End, and won the first two periods 38-21. They were burned twice by speedy D’Montae Noble. But it’s still early days, and several Gonzaga starters are still finishing up the season in other sports.

And even with that and some graduation turnover, Gonzaga will still bring their combination of power and strength up front, and speed out wide. 

The Royal Irish out of Indianapolis also graduated plenty of players. Like Gonzaga, some of those graduates were HS All Americans. For the Irish, the big changes are in the backline, where only Kyle Hoeper, who was a defensive monstrosity for the team in the 2015 NIT final, returns from last years starting group.

“We knew going in that the backline was something we needed to work on,” said Royal Irish Coach Scott Peterson. “But we also knew we’d have a good forward pack, and we’re developing a pretty darned good backline.”

In the pack, James McGuigan and Dave Schroeder are now in their third year of starting and they are big front-rowers who move well. David Hannon, younger brother of former HSAA flyhalf and current USA U20 player Brian, will slot in at flyhalf , and he looks comfortable. Hoeper will stay at outside center, providing some experience in the middle of the field.

This is a first run-out, rally, for both teams, but last year’s game was a cracker, which Gonzaga won at the death. 

“We approach it like it’s a big game,” said Peterson. “But I do understand it’s our first game. They always have a lot of size but we have as big a forward pack and as big a front row as I’ve seen since I’ve been here. We’ll see how it going. The veterans want to get back into hitting, back into game mode. I think we come out with a positive no matter what happens. If we win, it’s a confidence boost. If we loose, it’s a good lesson and it gives us something to work on.”