Scouting talent at the five Regional Cup competitions this weekend was a tall order.

HS All American Head Coach Salty Thompson was at one tournament, and had trusted observers at others. But the scouting takes on something of an altered tenor when you think about who is really looking at what.

Many, if not the majority, of players on the Boys Varsity select sides are seniors. Of those, most are well-known the Thompson and his crew of coaches and scouts. A player might jump up and show that he’s got the goods, but it’s unlikely many will get a look at the HSAA team, simply because they are past high school.

Sure, graduate seniors play for the HSAA team all the time in summer tours (there is no HSAA summer tour this year). But it seems a waste of resources to send scouts all over the country to look only for the one or two seniors who emerged this year.

And, in fact, extend that to the juniors. 

“We should know about the juniors,” Thompson told Goff Rugby Report. Maybe there are a few who put their hands up, but not a huge number.

But that’s not the real scouting benefit of the Regional Cup Tournaments. The real benefit is two-fold: the JV teams, and looking at the upperclassmen for the U20s and beyond.

USA Rugby’s new player identification plan, which is supposed to concentrate on spending coaching resources on players and (somewhat) deemphasizing touring, has post-high-school players in mind. The juniors and seniors who played well in the RCTs are exactly the types of players who need to be brought into the new player identification fold.

“You know these kids are committed, because they spent the time and money to play in these tournaments,” said Thompson. Being committed is a big part of it.

So that’s why there is, even without a HS All American tour, a Stars & Stripes assembly. The players are supposed to use the assembly as an intro into the post-high-school High Performance Rugby. 

But … do players have to be in the Regional Cup Tournaments to get an invitation to the Stars & Stripes? It seems unfair to impose this limitation. First of all, USA Rugby has a touching habit of imposing such requirements on players and teams even as the National Governing Body changes the rules of the game every two years or so.

We’ve had other pathway scenarios sold to us - we’d all do well to expect coaches and players to get some adjustment time.

And we’d also all do well to acknowledge that other aspects of life, specifically school and football. Many players in the Empire team didn’t make the trip to Pittsburgh because the state Regents Exams are being held Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. 

Many other players are starting summer football practice, or going to camps. Should these accomplished athletes get the heave-ho because they aren’t 100% rugby?

Meanwhile, a large percentage of the Salty Thompson’s attention is on the JV teams. He is looking for  freshmen and sophomores for the upcoming Eagle Impact Rugby Academy trips this summer.

Ultimately, all of these tournaments are useful, and all should showcase talented players. Whether those talented players get a playing opportunity now, or a development opportunity that expands into more in a few years, remains to be seen.