Rugby East Ramifications After Penultimate Round
Rugby East Ramifications After Penultimate Round
The Rugby East is going down to the wire, just like everyone wanted.
With Navy's win over Army, there is still a chance for St. Bonaventure to sit atop the heap. It's a little complicated, but here's how it goes:
1. We have been tracking Rugby East as one single conference, which is right, but also not. The thing is, teams don't all play the same number of games, so we could have ended up with, say, Queens at 7-0 and Navy at 7-2 or 8-1 ... which is the better team? As it is, the top points-getter is and will be Navy. No one can catch them.
| Rugby East-Overall | W | L | T | PF | PA | PD | BT | BL | Pts |
| Navy | 8 | 0 | 0 | 350 | 98 | 252 | 6 | 0 | 38 |
| Army | 6 | 1 | 0 | 210 | 92 | 118 | 6 | 0 | 30 |
| St. Bonaventure | 6 | 1 | 0 | 274 | 124 | 150 | 5 | 0 | 29 |
| Queens | 5 | 1 | 0 | 211 | 112 | 99 | 5 | 0 | 25 |
| Notre Dame College | 3 | 4 | 0 | 202 | 198 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 16 |
| Penn State | 3 | 5 | 0 | 178 | 226 | -48 | 3 | 0 | 15 |
| Kutztown | 2 | 4 | 0 | 145 | 186 | -41 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
| Mary Washington | 2 | 5 | 0 | 133 | 160 | -27 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| Mount St. Mary's | 2 | 5 | 0 | 88 | 203 | -115 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Southern Virginia | 1 | 6 | 0 | 130 | 262 | -132 | 3 | 1 | 8 |
| Virginia Tech | 0 | 6 | 0 | 32 | 292 | -260 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2. But ... because the schedule and the merger (Rugby East and Chesapeake) was decided relatively late, there were some other non-conference games to deal with. So to even that out there's also a divisional component, and there are standings for a North and South Division.
| North | W | L | T | Pts |
| Army | 4 | 1 | 0 | 20 |
| Navy | 4 | 0 | 0 | 19 |
| St. Bonaventure | 3 | 1 | 0 | 14 |
| Kutztown | 1 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
| Notre Dame College | 1 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Penn State | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| South | W | L | T | Pts |
| Queens | 3 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Mary Washington | 2 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| Mount St. Mary's | 2 | 1 | 0 | 8 |
| Southern Virginia | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Virginia Tech | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
3. So what means is this: if St. Bonaventure beats Navy, they would take 2nd overall and 2nd in the North, but could make a decent argument for being the top team overall. If Navy beats St. Bonaventure, the Midshipmen are undisputed top dogs in the North Division and also overall. Queens has the South sewn up.
4. There are playoff ramifications. Navy and Army are slated for the D1A playoffs in the spring, so we can address that later, but certainly Navy has to be considered a high seed there.
In the NCR playoffs this fall, St. Bonaventure and Queens are set for spots and the only question is how you seed them. If Bonnies beats, ties, or loses close to Navy they should be higher team simply because Queens has not had as tough a schedule. Now ... will there be a third seed from the Rugby East? We expected there would be, but maybe that's in question.
Proceeding with the assumption that there are three, there's an almighty race to get that spot. Notre Dame College, after putting in a good performance over Mount St. Mary's, can get to .500 in the conference and secure 5th place with a win over Penn State. The Nittany Lions, meanwhile, after a rocky start, can nab 5th with a win over the Falcons. Kutztown? They can't get there because a win by either NDC or PSU, or a tie, would put one of those teams too far ahead.
5. "It's going to be a massive game against St. Bonaventure next week," enthused Navy Director of Rugby Gavin Hickie after this week's victory over Army.
St. Bonaventure Head Coach Tui Osborne saw a somewhat younger Bonnies side beat Southern Virginia 44-28 to move to 6-1.
"We left some points on the board and didn't converted opportunities that we created," said Osborne. "But we're happy with the win. Our young guys stepped up today and that was great to see."
