Lightning intervened in at least three state championship high school games this season, and to us, this constitutes a major story for the 2015-16 season.

Here’s why:

The response to each of the lightning incidents were all different, and resulted in some complaints, some shrugs, and perhaps a lot of questions.

Incident #1: Georgia state final. The Lassiter Trojans had just scored to take a 21-19 lead. The conversion was yet to be kicked, but looked to be relatively makable (not sure if that’s relevant or not). Then the lightning began, and the game was halted.

Here’s where the problems ensue. The venue was only secured for a finite amount of time. The game was played on a Friday night, and local laws say the lights have to be turned off at 11pm. The storm didn’t go away in time, and the game wasn’t finished.

The game was halted at 51:30 of a planned 65-minute game, 79% into the game. 

Georgia Youth Rugby had no rules specifying when a game is official. But in studying how other organizations handle the same thing, officials found that games are considered official when anywhere from 50% to 75% of a game has been played. So, when it seemed unfeasible to replay the game, they called it as completed, and Lassiter were state champs.

The losing team, Phoenix, were understandably upset, stating they felt there should have been a replay, or a meeting to complete the game. But eventually they accepted the decision and moved on.

Incident #2: The Deep South / Louisiana HS Rugby final. This final wasn’t played. What happened was the lightning showed up just after halftime of the 3rd-4th game. The score of that 3rd/4th game was 12-10, and the result was kept as the final result. The final was delayed a couple of days and played later in the week.

Like Georgia Youth Rugby, the Deep South league did not have a policy for a game that was not played to the end of regulation.

Incident #3: The Rugby Oregon club final was delayed 75 minutes before it was completed. This game was played in the afternoon in a region where thunder storms don’t last very long and don’t usually camp out in one place. So a 75-minute delay is on the high end, and there was time to finish the game.

Bonus non-incident. In one sense the Boys High School Rugby National Championships was fortunate, in that while the rains came, and the fields turned to mud, the lightning stayed away. That is, until right after the final game. At that point, Doug Shipley, the Director of Operations at the Rugby Athletic Center, got on the PA system and told the players and fans to vacate the field because the storm was coming.

What was surprising was how slowly people complied. Shipley had to make the announcement three times and then used and air horn. Certainly people wanted to celebrate, but maybe they could have celebrated in a safer place.

So the moral of these stories is two-fold

1. lightning is no joke. When a facility manager or referee or someone says lightning is coming, then get off the field and into a safe place. Many will remember back in 2000 lightning striking at a rugby tournament in Maryland. Many players and fans had hidden under a large tree thinking they were safe. The lightning struck the three, and then jumped to the people underneath it. One fan was struck and right after suffered a heart attack and died. Several players and fans were also struck. 

2. Leagues and organizations have to have a policy on what to do when weather halts a game. You need to make it clear for everyone, especially in the playoffs, what the policy is. Make it part of the pre-game coaches meeting. What should the completed-game threshold be? Many would say 50% - so once the second half kicks off the game could be called and ruled complete. Some overseas rugby organizations say it should be 75%. That we will leave up to the league. But they have to make a decision.

Organizations have lightning policies - they have them in terms of safety, and in fact some SBROs are nicely on top of this sort of thing (as usual, Rugby Oregon is one of the best http://www.rugbyoregon.com/page/show/2183080-forms-and-policies), but we haven’t found too many that have a policy of what to do if the game has to end because of lighting, hail, earthquake, or some other severe event. That’s the story - it’s a rarity that such a thing might happen, but lightning struck three times this season, and it could again.