Competitive Balance Rises as NIRA Season Looms
Competitive Balance Rises as NIRA Season Looms
The National Intercollegiate Rugby Association has some warmup work to do but the D1 season gets going in earnest in a little over a week.
With the addition of Navy and Queens into D1 the top level of the competition is as competitive as ever.
Meanwhile, DII has that triumvirate of West Chester, Davenport, and AIC who have all been in finals in the last couple of years. And all of them are looking over their shoulders at Lander, which has brought in an impressive freshman class and is building very nicely.
Division 1
The D1 season starts September 2 and it's a buzzsaw of a season limited only by geography—Queens is in but their travel will be somewhat limited. Everyone expects Mount St. Mary's to improve. Everyone expected Princeton to improve. Meanwhile Navy, which capped off their CRAA history with a championship last fall, will bring everything to the table. Is Dartmouth going to ease off a little since the veterans that led them to three straight championships have graduated? Possibly, but it would be naive to think they don't have depth.
Will the young talent that helped vault Harvard to the final in 2022 come in more seasoned and ready to win it all? Certainly they can. With a little bit of senior leadership and a lot of young talent—their sophomore class really is exceptional—the Crimson could do a lot of damage this year.
Army, so close so many times, is also young and they are athletic and could once again challenge for the title.
Sacred Heart emerged as perhaps the most improved team of the division. Brown was right there and those two meet September 9 in a game that could mean a lot. Quinnipiac has nine freshman who are all team captains, team MVPs, and major select-side or national age-grade candidates. Add to that a lot of senior leadership (nine seniors and one grad student) they might be poised to strike.
Here's how the schedule involving D1 NIRA teams looks. Semifinals are November 11 and the Finals are November 18 at Harvard.
| 9/2 | Harvard | at | Quinnipiac | NIRA D1 |
| 9/2 | Princeton | at | Brown | NIRA D1 |
| 9/2 | Army | at | Sacred Heart | NIRA D1 |
| 9/2 | Queens | vs | Navy | NIRA D1 |
| 9/2 | Mount St. Mary's | at | Long Island | NIRA D1 |
| 9/9 | Navy | vs | West Chester | NIRA Cross D |
| 9/9 | Brown | at | Sacred Heart | NIRA D1 |
| 9/9 | Dartmouth | at | Army | NIRA D1 |
| 9/9 | AIC | at | Harvard | NIRA Cross D |
| 9/9 | Mount St. Mary's | at | Princeton | NIRA D1 |
| 9/9 | Long Island | at | Quinnipiac | NIRA D1 |
| 9/16 | Queens | at | Harvard | NIRA D1 |
| 9/16 | Dartmouth | at | Princeton | NIRA D1 |
| 9/16 | Quinnipiac | at | Navy | NIRA D1 |
| 9/16 | Sacred Heart | at | Mount St. Mary's | NIRA D1 |
| 9/16 | Army | at | Long Island | NIRA D1 |
| 9/22 | Army | vs | Bowdoin | NIRA Cross D |
| 9/23 | Brown | at | Queens | NIRA D1 |
| 9/23 | Quinnipiac | at | Dartmouth | NIRA D1 |
| 9/23 | Army | at | Harvard | NIRA D1 |
| 9/30 | Brown | at | Harvard | NIRA D1 |
| 9/30 | Princeton | at | AIC | NIRA Cross D |
| 9/30 | Sacred Heart | at | Quinnipiac | NIRA D1 |
| 9/30 | Army | at | Mount St. Mary's | NIRA D1 |
| 9/30 | Navy | at | Long Island | NIRA D1 |
| 10/7 | Brown | vs | Navy | NIRA D1 |
| 10/7 | Lindenwood | at | Dartmouth | NIRA D1/ D1 Elite |
| 10/14 | Harvard | at | Princeton | NIRA D1 |
| 10/14 | Mount St. Mary's | at | Frostburg State | NIRA Cross D |
| 10/14 | Quinnipiac | at | Army | NIRA D1 |
| 10/14 | Long Island | at | Queens | NIRA D1 |
| 10/14 | Sacred Heart | at | Navy | NIRA D1 |
| 10/14 | Penn State | at | Brown | NIRA / D1 Elite |
| 10/21 | Harvard | at | Dartmouth | NIRA D1 |
| 10/21 | Mount St. Mary's | at | Navy | NIRA D1 |
| 10/21 | Army | at | Penn State | NIRA / D1 Elite |
| 10/21 | AIC | at | Quinnipiac | NIRA Cross D |
| 10/28 | Princeton | at | Queens | NIRA D1 |
| 10/28 | Quinnipiac | at | Mount St. Mary's | NIRA D1 |
| 10/28 | Long Island | at | Sacred Heart | NIRA D1 |
| 10/28 | Navy | at | Army | NIRA D1 |
| 10/29 | Dartmouth | at | Brown | NIRA D1 |
Division II
As we said, this is a division full of teams that know how to succeed. All also have a bit of a chip on their shoulder.
West Chester has a nice influx of young talent from the last two recruiting years. As we said, Lander has been hot on the trail of young talent and is much improved. Many of the players central to Davenport's run to the final return. New Haven, meanwhile, is building to the future Fully 72% of their roster is made up of players who are in their first or second years.
Many of the DII teams are playing cross-divisional games which will be a good challenge for them, and Davenport's season, because of their location, is much more of an independent schedule. But the league games we're looking at include AIC at West Chester on October 15, and Davenport at AIC two weeks later.
Division III
Bowdoin's longtime matriarch and championship Head Coach MaryBeth Mathews has retired—Laura Miller taking on that position—and it's a new world in DIII. Can Norwich or Adrian catch the rarely-beatable Polar Bears? How has UNE reloaded after last year's run to the final? Has anyone forgotten that the bulk of Bowdoin's championship team returns for another round? That includes the player who scored two tries in the final (Len Dodge at lock) and the other player who scored two tries in the final and got the MVP (Saniya Ridley at wing).
Longtime Bowdoin Coach MaryBeth Mathews to Retire
So, yes, Bowdoin's still formidable. But the others are catching up. Norwich hosts the Polar Bears and then Adrian on two successive weekends in October. We'll see what that tells us.
