It’s not often you get two major champions playing each other in a weekend. This weekend, we actually have that happening twice, as the men’s DIA and Varsity Cup defending champs are playing each other, and in Boys HS rugby, the HS Club and Single-School NIT winners face off.

The college game preview can be seen here. In this article, we’re talking about the high-schoolers. The Royal Irish (also known as Cathedral but that’s a confusing name so Royal Irish it is) out of Indianapolis start their season against Gonzaga HS Saturday at the home field of Wheeling Jesuit University. It’s a good mid-point for the two teams and a smart recruiting move by WJU. 

For the Royal Irish, this will be their first run-out after snow forced the cancelation of the annual Indiana-Ohio cross-border preseason event. Instead, the Irish played an intra-squad scrimmage.

“The weather has been weird,” said Irish Head Coach Scott Peterson. “We were outside in January, but unable to get out in February. It’s been tough but we’ve made the best of it.”

The Irish return much of their NIT-winning team from last year, with HS All American flyhalf Brian Hannon in excellent form.

“Brian has matured a lot,” said Peterson. “He’s brought back the training approaches from the national team and it’s rubbed off on the other players … usually.”

Peterson said his team has talent in the backs and he’d like to see them use it, but rain forecast for West Virginia means it might be difficult to get the ball wide. He wants them to try.

Up front, the Royal Irish are usually big and athletic, but Peterson says they’ve become more polished since forwards coach Ken Lessel joined the program. 

“They have a more in-depth understanding of what they need to do now,” he said.

As for Gonzaga, they have been on the field, winning two games in North Carolina and one in the DC area. Head Coach Peter Baggetta’s team has been forced indoors, although as a varsity sport they have been able to find gym space for running patterns, weight room space for workouts, and wrestling room space for contact.

It’s not the same as running in the open field, but it will have to do.

“We went to North Carolina and we won both games and one was in a lot of mud and the other in freezing rain, so I guess we can feel good about scoring scone tries in those conditions, but I don’t think we played all that well,” said Baggetta. “But we’ve had a good attitude from the guys and we’ve got a good culture here where players compete for places but also work to help each other.”

Epitomizing that is the pair for scrumhalves in Andy Etcheverria and Daniel Callahan. The two have been together for years, work to help each other, and are in a pitched battle for a starting spot now that Jimmy Ronan has graduated. Stepping in at flyhalf for the graduated Ben Cima is Patrick Sheehy, but it’s an easy transition, said the coach.

Cima was gone much of last year with national team assemblies and an injury, and Sheehy started ten games for the Eagles. The battle between Sheehy and Hannon, and who can manage the game in wet conditions, will be a big part of this game.

Also big will be the contest up front, where two sizable tight fives thump into each other. 

It’s early days, but this is still a clash of champions.