Contrast of Styles in Great NW Challenge

The Great Northwest Challenge will finish up the regional all-star season with a small but strong contingent of teams.

Rugby Oregon hosts the event and runs out a strong Boys Varsity team coached by current USA player Troy Hall. Top-finishing teams such as Union (Brendan Curle, Kyle Vermeulen, Chris Berry), Beaverton (Lepa Sione, Joseph McRae), Newberg (Stefan Grumazamescu), and Eastside (Siano Kalamafoni) all have representatives on the squad. Snappy halfback Kalamafoni will have a lot of work to do, but Oregon's bette noire in select-side play has often been power up front, so they will need that.

Facing off against Oregon will be Montana, Hawaii (the Kalihi Raiders), and the Washington Wolverines. The Montana team is strong and physical, but hasn't been exposed to a lot of rugby outside of the state. Montana struggled to win games in the GNC last year, but not through lack of effort. The Hawaii team is the Kalihi Raiders club - it is not a state select side and hasn't drawn from other major teams in the region. So they all know each other, but their depth is an issue. Like Montana, the Kalihi team is younger than the other two teams in the Boys Varsity bracket. Montana has three players born in 1999 or later; Kalihi has ten. Oregon and Washington have no players that young.

The Washington team in the GNC is not the same as the Washington Loggers. The Loggers is the official select wide of Rugby Washington, and that team played in the Southwest GNC last week, going 0-4. But a maverick team of Rugby Washington players, dubbed the Wolverines, will play in the GNC. Three players who suited up for the Loggers last week - Liberty lock John Crichton, Liberty hooker Jordan Johnson, and Eastside wing Kasey Self - will also play with the Wolverines, who are led in part by outstanding back Alfsono Cornu-Labat.

​It will be a battle of contrasting styles, for sure, with Oregon hoping to get enough ball for their backs, Washington needing to play solid team defense, and both Montana and Kalihi trying to exert physical dominance.

In the JV bracket, the Wolverines bring six players who played for the JV loggers a week ago, including HSAA hopeful David Ainuu, and his partner in the front row, Bubba Isaia. Those two will want to set the tone. Jake Burns, Killian Keane, Ernest Sio, and Elias Taylor also double up. 

GNC Schedule - Hidden Creek Polo Fields, West Linn, Ore.