You win you lose you win you lose ... it doesn't get you anywhere.
That was a classic quote we remember from some NHL hockey player many years ago. It's quite deep in its simplicity. For us in the rankings we're battling through a series of wins and losses alternating through the mid-level of the rankings. This might seem like some of the teams in the #10-through-#25 area don't actually move, for us it does a lot ... it gets us somewhere.
Vienna doesn't move, but they have solidified themselves as a Top 15 team and are poised to push for Top 10 ... potentially. Same could be said of Berks, which beat Aspetuck (yeah yeah Aspetuck was missing the Hill brothers, but Berks was missing some of their key performers so that's a wash). What Berks and Vienna showed was depth ... and both have National Championship aspirations and to accomplish those, you need not only numbers, but quality.
Moving up 19 spots is 901Rugby (formerly Germantown). They beat two very good school teams over the weekend. That was in the Lindenwood Tournament, where the Kansas City Jr. Blues also showed well, albeit against not-so-strong opposition.
Pendleton and Royal Irish come closer with the Irish dropping and Pendleton moving up. Both played strong Ohio teams, and the results aren't that surprising ... Irish lost 47-5 to St. Ignatius, but the thing that drops them down is their depth issues within that context. Pendleton beat Moeller but the 7-0 result doesn't light us on fire. So ... what? These two won't play until May and it will be interesting to see how they compare common opponent to common opponent.
Also moving up thanks to solid showings at the Carolina Ruggerfest are Phoenix Alpharetta and Four Points. (Loudoun joins the Top 50 for the same reason.) Rebel Rugby the same story, and they move up 13 spots. This is a reflection also on the improvements in HS rugby in Georgia.
The big mover is Brighton in Utah, which has moved up to the top tier of club competition in Utah and opened up their account with a win over a good Te Mana team. Utah will shuffle around a LOT this year we think.
