Two significant boys HS rugby results came out of the Midwest this weekend with St. Ignatius taking on St. Xavier of Cincinnati and St. Edward taking on Royal Irish.

Ignatius bounced back from a rough loss to Charlotte Tigers last week with a comprehensive 66-5 defeat of St. Xavier. Ignatius Head Coach Dan Arbeznik said he left the field feeling like his team had missed some prime scoring opportunities, but after studying the film he changed his tune a little.

"We made some real good progress with our defensive structure and our one-up tackling," said Arbeznik. "So I was happy with that. of course, St. Xavier wasn't as big as Charlotte so that's part of it, but we did see a lot of improvement. We did attack well but sometimes that final pass wasn't quite there."

Meanwhile, Royal Irish is back with a fairly large and deep roster and a re-made coaching staff of 12, all Royal Irish alumni. Playing St. Edward at Fortess Obetz in Columbus, the Indianapolis team slammed home a victory 58-6. 

"This is one of the best overall clubs we’ve put together in a while," said Head Coach Dave Snyder. "We put in a new system and they absorbed it. We were offloading out of contact and playing unselfish rugby and they stuck to the system."

Twin brothers Sam and Eli Neier, who patrol and No. 8 and lock, respectively, both scored and were a powerful duo in tight. In the backs, Tommy Hannon, the latest of a string of Hannon brothers to play flyhalf for Royal Irish, directed the attack nicely and had excellent support from his center pairing. Outside center Nathan McCahill, who quarterbacked Cathedral HS to a state title in the fall, was called inup to fill in for an injury and did very well. Inside center Todd Kelsey was superb in open space and scored two tries.

It was an excellent start for a Royal Irish team that still had questions about its ability to recruit. They've done that and more, and their new commitment to ball movement should have opponents nervous.