The Richmond Strikers defeated Vienna 33-17 over the weekend, making for a very close league in Rugby Virginia.
With Richmond having dropped a 24-14 decision to Fort Hunt the week before and in March Vienna beat Fort Hunt 19-12, this is a wide open league.
Rugby Virginia U18 League Results and Standings:
Vienna 19 Fort Hunt 12
Richmond 36 Loudoun 19
Fort Hunt 24 Richmond 14
Richmond 33 Vienna 17
Fort Hunt 49-19 Loudoun
April 27 Vienna vs Loudoun
With Fort Hunt's two bonus-point wins and one bonus-point loss Fort Hunt has clinched the most points. Richmond is 2nd and Vienna, even if they beat Loudoun handily, will be 3rd. The Warriors came back from their trip to Ireland nicely poised to hit the rest of the league season. Games against Shannon and Saint Michaels were good challenges for a fairly young Fort Hunt team.
"For our seniors, the games, the adventure course in Connemara, the coaching sessions we received at Presentation Brothers and at Saint Michaels have really made a difference in our team culture," said Head Coach Dale Roach.
Rugby Virginia Boys U18
W
L
T
PA
PA
PD
BT
BL
Pts
Fort Hunt
2
1
0
85
52
33
2
1
11
Richmond
2
1
0
83
60
23
2
0
10
Vienna
1
1
0
36
45
-9
0
0
4
Loudoun
0
2
0
38
85
-47
0
0
0
04.15.2024HS Boys
Richmond had five tries by five different players. Junior Kaiden Kohler put in a lot of work at fullback, catching kicks despite the major wins, and slicing through the defense. he scored the first try of the match and when Vienna broke through put in a massive, try-saving tackles.
With regular flyhalf Liam Albon injured, the Strikers called up Mewen Le Roy and he was very effective, attacking the line nicely and kicking four conversions out of five attempts. Junior wing Chandler Nelson racked up meters on the outside and was voted player of the game.
The Richmond power prop combo of senior Jackson Skarie and junior Jayden Moomau continued to set the tone in the middle of the pitch with their strong runs.
"Vienna is the gold standard for technical rugby," said Richmond coach Todd Boykin. "So we learned, from our Fort Hunt loss, that we would need to settle and play our game and execute our plan of attack and stay focused when Vienna would inevitably make life difficult."
The lessons paid off in the second half when Richmond scored 19 unanswered after being down at the half to end the match with a 33-17 victory.
