Granite Bay and Royal Irish will meet for the second straight year in the final of the Boys HS Rugby National Championships club bracket after both won semifinals Friday.

The games were won under very different circumstances, with the Royal Irish v United game on a knife edge the entire time, while Granite Bay controlled their semi against the KC Junior Blues until the final ten minutes and won fairly comfortably.

Royal Irish and United bashed into each other like two rhinos spoiling for a fight. Their physicality was such that both teams made errors and had a difficult time making any attacking movement stick. And, so, naturally the first points would come from a turnover - United’s defense loosening the ball and allowing for some snappy passing out to the wing for a long-range try. 

Royal Irish replied with a David Hannon penalty goal to make it 5-3, and that’s how the first half ended.

But Royal Irish kept up the pressure in the second half, looking for opportunities out wide, but then consolidating with pop passes to onrushing forwards.

That’s how they got an offside call against United early in the second half and went for posts - Hannon was good for it and it was 6-5 Royal Irish.

United replied quickly, chasing the restart kick and running the forwards vertically through the Royal Irish defense and then finishing it off with the backs.

So United led 10-6, but still with plenty of time to go.

But Royal Irish didn’t back down and didn’t panic, either, finally working their way into United territory. United got into penalty trouble, but Royal Irish opted not to kick for points - they perhaps felt they didn’t have enough time. And then after a yellow card on United for not wrapping on a tackle, Royal irish pounded the line before sending it wide to outside center Kyle Hoeper, who took the corner and slid in.

That made it 11-10, and now Royal Irish head to weather a long period of pressure from United. One promising break for the Utah team was called back for a penalty of jumping over the tackler (dangerous play), and then Royal Irish put the pressure on. With time essentially up, they pounded the line again and flanker Russell Lemaster was shoved over by his teammates to seal it 16-10.

United got to kick off one more time, but Royal irish held.

It wasn’t always pretty, and it certainly wasn’t high-scoring, but Royal Irish, again, found a way to win.

Meanwhile, Granite Bay found a way in the first half. Using the boot to pin the KC Jr. Blues back, and returning KC kicks with interest, the Grizzlies looked in control. A kick from Desi Streater into the corner allowed wing Jon Rogers to chase it down and score as he slid into in-goal. Rogers then converted his own try from the touchline, and added a penalty soon thereafter.

The game was marred by many penalties in the breakdown, but overall Granite Bay had the run of play, thanks to a stronger scrum and a little more pace in the backs. Sam Cusano cut back to score and make it 15-0. Then the forwards showed they can run, with lock Pono Kayoshi scored a wing’s try on the outside to cap off a nice movement from Granite Bay and set the halftime lead at 20-0. KC hardly got out of their half that first 30 minutes.

In the second half, Granite Bay struck quickly, A weakside scrum move led to Cusano kicking the ball down to the KC tryline. John Gibson fielded it for the Jr. Blues, but had to take it back in-goal and touch it down. From the ensuing 5-meter scrum, No. 8 Ryan MacIntosh picked it up, wriggled out of contact, and went in.

Granite Bay ran in the subs after that, and also got a yellow card for Ryan Ortez - his second of the day for lying on top of the ball. That meant a red card, and the Grizzlies finished the game with 14 players. As a result, it wasn’t as pretty at the end, and KC scored two tries to make it 25-10. But by then the result was secure.

Also in the club bracket, South Greenville held on in dramatic fashion 24-20 over Union County Lions in a South Carolina v North Carolina clash. Union County had the ball in-goal ready to score the winner, and lost it forward. 

“We’ve never played before, but I think we’ll be rivals now,” said South Greenville Coach Phil Weston.

Doylestown beat Phoenix 20-0 in the other consolation semi in a game where Phoenix was note competitive than the score indicates.

So Doylestown will play South Greenville in the consolation final, for 5th.

Photos by Dan Bandoni.