South RCT Rosters - Preview

Here are the rosters we have so far for the South Regional Cup Tournament in Matthews, NC.

While the tournament itself has possession of all the rosters, the rule is that coaches have to consent to those rosters being sent to the press. As a result, we have spent much of this week asking coaches to submit rosters. Not everyone has - We are waiting on South Carolina, ARE Academy, Florida Juice, and Maryland. We will have those to you as soon as possible.

Here are the rosters of the other eight teams. A note on Virginia - they have submitted two teams, with a Virginia 1 roster including a certain number of players who have been designated as able to fill in as subs for Virginia 2. According to the coaches in Virginia, they had larger-than-usual attendance at tryouts and decided to create a Varsity development side for players who had put the work in. So if you see some Virginia 1 names in a report on Virginia 2, that's perfectly normal.

As for how these teams will do, this is a very strong field. The Ohio Celts is packed with players from some of the best programs in Ohio. Arkansas is led by the superb scrumhalf Ruden De Haas, but watch out for Union HS player Tyren Al Jiboori out of Oklahoma (a couple of Oklahoma-based players have hooked on with the Arkansas team). Al Jiborri, younger brother of Malon and Michael, may well be the best of the three. Virginia 1 is led by the central figures in Fort Hunt's outstanding program, including powerful No. 8 Chad Abdalla, and Springfield/West End standouts Jacob Estes and John Lefevre. This Virginia program hasn't lost a game in three years. Hooker Zach Biggs and flanker Jack White lead an imposing North Indiana team, while big man Will Waguespack heads up Louisiana.

This competition is packed. Don't count out Tennessee, a very athletic Louisiana team, or Georgia. There could well be several surprises here.