It's early days but we have some high-profile games in boys HS rugby in January already.
Friday night brings us the clash of undefeateds in North Carolina's school league with the upstart Charlotte Catholic against the more established Hough Huskies. (Rescheduled to Jan 28 due to weather.)
Hough currently leads the league thanks to one extra bonus points. If you compare games against like opponents, Hough beat Marvin Ridge 27-5, and Charlotte Catholic beat Marvin Ridge 20-10; Hough beat South Meck 34-14 while CC beat South Meck 28-26. So maybe Hough is favored. The winner will be the #1 seed in the semis, and will play Marvin Ridge. The loser will play South Meck in the semis.
In SoCal's school season, Oceanside survived a very close game with San Clemente two weeks ago and now takes on a very good La Jolla team. The SCIRF league sees unbeaten Cathedral Catholic vs unbeaten La Costa Canyon. The LCC Dragons play a nice, quick game and can torch you out wide. But their bread and butter is their forward pack, especially a tough-minded front row. That might be their secret weapon—keep an eye on rugby newbie and football linebacker Henry Mallory. They also defend well and last week's 28-7 win over Los Alamitos and spent a good portion of the first half defending. Los Al came close to scoring but the tackling from LCC was pretty solid and held them out.
Cathedral is coming off a defeat of Jesuit of Sacramento, and LCC Head Coach Michael Mukuru knows it will be a challenge. "We were fortunate to win D2 last year and we're moved up and have received so much support from the community," Mukuru told GRR. "We're able to have three trainings a week at the school and the support from them and the parents has been a blessing. But we know we have work to do."
the big issue could well be field position. Mukuru said he wants his team to control field position and use the boot a bit more effectively. That, he added, is something Cathedral does very well.
Louisiana officially starts its league season this weekend and we have reported on that state getting more teams on the field. Hammond HS makes its league debut.
Florida kicks off their season with a slightly expanded league. Okapi is field two sides this year.
And in Northern California, two clubs that are always good and often get overlooked if you're not careful face off with Marin at Elsie Allen.
Texas has two games on the slate, with Strake Jesuit hosting Faith Family Academy, and Plano at Great Hearts. FFA and Plano faced off last week with Faith Family coming back from a 14-0 deficit to win 28-26. With most of the senior FFA class having been playing together since freshman year (when the team started), this could be a breakout year for them. Senior fullback Isaiah Williams was outstanding and scored a try for FFA, as did seniors Isaac Whittie and Alejandro Gallegos, along with Roman Deleon. Strake Jesuit is a very strong opponent for FFA.
