We have resisted this move for the #1 team for some weeks now.

The reasons are this: 1) St. Ignatius lost big to Charlotte Tigers way back in March. Now, we're often inclined to put aside an early-season result in the rankings if a team started to produce other results that make that one loss kind of an anomaly. However, when the result is 49-7, it kind of takes a while to put that score aside; 2) as many of you know, our World Headquarters have moved to Ohio, and as a result we've spent a lot of time around the St. Ignatius team, so we were very cautious about being caught up in what we saw regularly against what we saw occasionally.

But eventually we have to acknowledge that the team that lost to Charlotte and then to Royal Irish, is not the same team that beat Aspetuck, Gonzaga, and Moeller.

The other thing is that Herriman, as good as we know they are, has played exactly one out-of-state team. The entire ranking is predicated on our subjective understanding that Utah HS rugby is one of the best leagues in the country. We stand by that. But the Ohio league is pretty good, too, and Ignatius played over a dozen ranked teams including seven games against out-of-state opponents, all ranked at least at the time, and they went 5-2, losing to the top-ranked club and another top-five club (Royal Irish), which whom they split.

They played seven games against Ohio teams that are ranked, and won all seven games. 

A couple of additional moves this week:

Jesuit of Sacramento moves down because they aren't playing anymore and really we can' justify a higher ranking based on their short season. Georgetown Prep kind of backed up their tie with Gonzaga earlier this spring with an 18-13 loss to the same Eagles team. We felt that Georgetown had done enough to move up to a Top 20 spot. Woodward HS (aka Toledo) won the Ohio D1 championship and moves into the Top 50 as a result. 

Thanks again to our presenting sponsor, Next Phase Rugby. If you are a HS rugby player who wants to connect with college rugby coaches, you can use the Next Phase Rugby app in your device's app store or go to NextPhaseRugby.com. 

Rank	Prev	Team	Notes
1	2	St. Ignatius (OH)	Beat Moeller (8)
2	1	Herriman (UT)
3	3	Gonzaga (DC)	Beat Georgetown Prep (27)
4	4	St. Thomas Aquinas (KS)	Beat Missouri Selects
5	5	Bixby (OK)
6	6	Rocky Mountain (ID)
7	7	De La Salle (CA)	Beat Elk Grove
8	8	Moeller (OH)	Lost to St. Ignatius (2)
9	9	Bishop Dwenger (IN)
10	10	Regis Jesuit (CO)	Beat Monarch
11	11	Dallas Jesuit (TX)
12	12	Brother Martin (LA)
13	13	Cathedral Catholic (CA)
14	15	Gregory the Great (PA)
15	18	Staples (CT)	Beat Greenwich (19)
16	16	St. Joe's Prep (PA)
17	19	Greenwich (CT)	Lost to Staples (18)
18	20	St. Louis U High (MO)
19	27	Georgetown Prep (MD)	Lost to Gonzaga (3)
20	12	Sacramento Jesuit (CA)
21	17	Strake Jesuit (TX)
22	21	Capital HS (ID)
23	22	St. Edward (OH)
24	23	St. Xavier Cincinnati (OH)
25	24	Cardinal Gibbons (FL)
26	25	St. Augustine (CA)
27	26	Xavier (NY)	Lost to Aspetuck (C8)
28	28	Olympus (UT)
29	29	Warrior (OH)	Beat Brunswick
30	30	East HS (UT)
31	31	Eagle (ID)
32	33	LaSalle (PA)
33	34	Cumberland Valley (PA)
34	35	Kingfishers (KS)
35	36	Palmer (CO)	Beat Valor Christian
36	37	Westlake (TX)
37	38	Delbarton (NJ)
38	39	St. Augustine (NJ)
39	43	Belmont High (MA)
40	40	Pelham (NY)	Beat New Rochelle / Play Rugby
41	44	BC High (MA)
42	Unr	Woodward HS (Toledo) (OH)	Beat Medina (32)
43	32	Medina (OH)	Lost to Toledo
44	41	Brother Rice (IL)
45	42	Penn (IN)
46	45	Salesianum (DE)
47	46	Brownsburg (IN)
48	47	Loyola Blakefield (MD)
49	48	Calvert Hall (MD)
50	50	Jesuit New Orleans (LA)