It was a successful weekend for Germantown as the Tennessee HS team traveled to Little Rock, Ark. to play the Junior Stormers and also the Kansas City Jr Blues. 

In what was the first game of the season for both Germantown and KC, while the Stormers had already pitched up in a loss to Bixby.

In the first match of the day Germantown B played Little Rock. Things were close at half in soggy field conditions with Little Rock ahead 12-5. But ultimately Little Rock opened it up in the 2nd half as Germantown B lost several players to injury and ultimately the squad with 9 rookies fell 36-5.  

The second match was Germantown A vs KC Jr Blues and this was a rematch from Germantown's last season's Lindenwood invitational in St. Louis.

Germantown was challenged out of the gate with a slow muddy field and uncontested scrums due to some injuries in the front row for the Jr Blues. That negated some of Germantown’s forward power, but they handled it well enough.

Germantown got on the board first with a 25-meter penalty kick by senior Carson Richards, who plays scrumhalf and fullback. Germantown led 3-0 in the 9th minute.

Kansas City punched in a try on a quick tap after Germantown was offside and the Junior Blues led 5-3.

That’s how the first half ended. In the second half Germantown drove deep into KC territory on multiple occasions but missed two scoring opportunities with a knock-on at the 5-meter and an obstruction call on the goal line that brought back a try.

Germantown finally broke the strong KC defensive line with senior wing Josh Mathis taking one 30 meters to the corner to put the Mustangs up 8-5 with 15 minutes left in the game.

Kansas City responded with a deep kickoff that Germantown turned over with a knock on. KC had a scrum five meters out, and ran through three phases before scoring on another quick tap thanks to yet another Germantown penalty.

that made it 10-8 KC with ten minutes to go. Germantown applied significant pressure but missed scoring opportunities with players taken into touch on both sides of the field and close to the tryline.

But finally they broke through. After a counter on a kick, wing Jaylin Lee was set up for a burst over for the try. The conversion was good and Germantown had won it 15-10.

"Today was about knocking the dust off, getting our rookies game time in the first match and evaluating our A side lineup,” said Germantown Head Coach Kevin Roedel. “Unfortunately the field conditions weren't conducive to our speedy backline and we put significant pressure on ourselves with 13 penalties and several missed scoring opportunities.”

Both KC and Germantown have room for improvement, but Roedel said he was pleasantly surprised with his team’s fitness. 

“We are will work on ironing out the kinks over the next couple of week before we play St. Louis U High at home,” Roedel added. “A shout out to [KC] Coach Eddie Cummings and the always competitive and discipled KC Jr Blues squad making the trip down. Also special thanks to Little Rock Jr Stormers for hosting us. It's great the boys are able to play rugby again. I don’t know who was more excited, the players or their parents.”