YORKVILLE, Ill. – Week 2 of the Rugby Illinois RugbyX series saw across the board improvement which in turn provided greater parity. Score lines were much tighter as team play improved dramatically. Players’ stamina went further and fewer runaway trys were being scored against exhausted opposition.

One team did manage to escape the weekend unscathed: Silverbacks earned four wins and sole possession at the top of the series standing. Silverbacks Director of Rugby, Joey Rasmus, said of his squad’s growth, “As a motley side of athletes from across a large region, we’re not able to connect for sessions during the week. We can share film and suggest individual work but it comes to the self-discipline of each individual athlete for the team to progress. That’s why skills like discipline, accountability, and resilience are much more important criteria to selection to our Pathway Program than size, strength, speed or skill.”

“Our athletes demonstrated those qualities in droves last week," added Rasmus. "Our communication in attack, tackling, and team defense were miles better than Week 1. The rapid improvement for our athletes and the other teams is really exciting – especially thinking how it might impact the standard of play come Spring.”

Silverbacks Captain Konrad Kulat (West Suburban Bulls) was extremely pleased with how he and his peers had progressed. “I think we improved on communication and holding a better pace both on defense and offense. Overall, I think as a team we have worked out a lot of kinks and begun to recognize each other’s strengths and weakness. That understanding is especially important going from having 14 other teammates on the pitch to only four.”

Rugby Illinois President, Paul Bergman, took note of the second-place team in the standings. “It was great to see one of our newest clubs, the Huskies from Oak Park, have such a good day. They had a good number of talented young players. They look to be a force in an area where rugby needs to have a strong presence.”

The Huskies sit one game behind the Silverbacks. Bob Domez, Brendan Dwyer, Terri Cullerton, and Jon Lichterman built the club from the U13 age-grade up. Now, their first crop of athletes is filling out a High School side. The young Huskies show tremendous athleticism and passion for the game. Despite having a core of Sophomores and Juniors, they show no hesitation taking on the big lads. The Huskies not only impress with their on-field performance: the Go For It Sports Dome was a sea of Orange & Blue jerseys last Saturday. A deep, passionate pool of young ruggers is typically indicative of future success in the Rugby Illinois XVs competition. Expect big things from the Huskies in Week 3 of RugbyX and beyond.

Domenz commented, “RugbyX has been a fantastic opportunity for the Huskies players to stay engaged with rugby during the winter, and for us to introduce new players to the sport. We are excited to have athletes from football, track and field, and wrestling come out and play their first game of rugby. We’re proud of how passionately and hard they are playing. The boys are thrilled with their 6-2 record so far. We should all see some intense games on the final Saturday.”

The Fox Valley Predators are another team in the hunt. The Predators leapt at the series as an opportunity to blood some young newcomers to the game. “First off, I'd like to thank Tom Kean our former VP of Development here in Illinois for setting this up,” said Coach Richard Belanich. “It's been a well-run tournament. As for the Fox Valley Predators, we're a young team, and I'm happy with the level of play up to this point. I'm also pleased with our captains Carson Bollinger and Josh Pettit, they are working very well together with our young talent.”

The series concludes next Saturday. Each team will play four matches: the team with the best record takes the Series. If there’s a tie at the top. The top teams will play a Championship final. Expect more fireworks as a talent-packed peloton attempts to overtake the pace setting Silverbacks.