The Rugby East is not getting any easier.
This D1A conference sports hugely capable rugby teams from top to bottom. Navy has been in the D1A final in three of the last four seasons, including a championship in 2023. Army became the first cold-weather team ever to win a D1A title, taking home the trophy in 2022.
Life University has won four titles, in 2013, 2016, 2018, and 2019, and has made four more finals, most recently in 2025.
Mount St. Mary's was 2-3 in the conference last year but many observers were impressed with their improvement. They lost by only nine to Army, and in the playoffs lost by only six to Arkansas State.
Penn State and Mary Washington are improving. Southern Virginia took a break from being officially-officially in the conference because they needed a bit of a culture and depth reset.
The upshot of that? A bowl game win over Florida State by a wide margin.
So while we don't want to repeat the cliché and say that all of the teams are above average ... the quality of the worst game in this conference is still a high level.
Life doesn't really get going until later in September, while MSM plays a club team and UMW plays a local community college in what is clearly a warmup. Penn State will do the same in a week.
But this week, Army, Navy, and SVU are all in action. Army takes on a Queens University team that already played a game, beating Rio Grande 47-0 in their first outing. Navy will take on defending NCR D1 champs St. Bonaventure in a tough one for both teams early.
And Southern Virginia takes on James Madison.
"Time will tell how we are," said Mary Washington Head Coach Andrew Spencer when GRR tried to pin him down.
We have a good young group of guys that got some experience last spring in some tough matches, including the playoff loss to Navy. I think that will suit them well for the Rugby East challenge ahead."
Of the projected starting 23 for UMW, only five are seniors.
"We're looking forward to some preseason fixtures this weekend against local men's clubs and getting some freshman in the mix early on," Spencer added.
That situation is very different at Navy, where 20 firsties (seniors). It's an interesting group because this is the group that joined the Academy after their championship in 2023. But those seniors are stacked with All Americans and All-American-caliber players, including Ed Soeder at lock and flanker Trevor Gayron, who will co-captain the squad, as well as the talented Drew Baublitz at center, hooker Dalton Sand, flanker Aidan Gerber, front-rower Ian Bullock, and Kade Williams, who is effective at flyhalf or fullback.
