Friday night saw the start of the South Regional Cup Tournament all-star event in Matthews, NC, with eight Boys Varsity and eight Boys JV teams in action.

In the Varsity bracket, the most impressive result was probably North Carolina taking Maryland down 45-7.

Head Coach Frank McKinney chalked it all up to a dedication to defense - his statement backed up by not only his Varsity score, but the NC JV team’s 34-0 shutout of the Eastern NC Predators.

“We really work on our defense and turning over the ball,” said McKinney. “We spent a lot of time working on that and working on jackalling the ball.”

Getting turnover ball set up some nifty individual efforts for tries, including two from wing Ty Graham of Myers Park in the first ten minutes. Graham’s scored put Maryland on the back foot, and North Carolina pressed their advantage after that. McKinney said, however, that the play was too individual in the first 22.5-minute half. Only in the second half did his team start to play as a team.

“Our early tries were more individual efforts,” said McKinney. “In the second half we started offloading more, calling for it, and running good support lines. We know we will have to do that as it’s going to only get tougher from here.”

Meanwhile, the Georgia Selects came back to beat the Tennessee Tri-Stars 27-15. Again, it was a case of a slow-ish start for the victors.

“What we weren’t too happy about was the lack of urgency and aggression,” said Georgia Coach Lukas Opperman. “But we had a good chat at halftime and said if you want to be an all-star player, then start playing like one!”

And so they did. The forwards led the effort for Georgia, with No. 8 Campbell Robinson (Phoenix) leading the way as the pack out-scrummed and out-rucked the Tri-Stars in the second period. With some good turnover ball in the breakdown, the forwards were able to set the platform, and scrumhalf and captain Nick Koumandarakis (Phoenix) knew what to do with it.

Flyhalf Shea O'Hanlon (Trojans) shook off a rough first half to direct the attack nicely.

“It was a massive team effort in the second half,” said Opperman. “It wasn’t individuals. We overcame a slow start, and winning is good because it takes the edge away. But we have got to be switched on when we get onto that pitch, especially in these short games.”

The Florida Juice, perhaps once of the more highly-regarded teams in the tournament, were shaken å little against South Carolina, finally coming away with a 15-10 win. 

The Celtic Elite, which draws from teams around the Cleveland area, shut out the Academy of Rugby Excellence 19-0. ARE is basically a development team out of Florida - the coaches freely acknowledge that the Florida Juice is the main select team from that state. But the ARE is designed to give promising players a taste of the next level, and they hung in there against a tough Celtic team.

Zach Heisterkamp, left, battles through tacklers. Right, Celtics Jacob Zupancic and Brock Yoho compete at the breakdown. Allison Bradfield photos.

The Ohioans, for their part, has a 12-hour bus trip before getting to North Carolina - traffic will do that - and they took a while to shake out the cobwebs from their legs and play the kind of attacking rugby they want to play.

“We were a little lethargic offensively,” said Celtic Elite Coach Tom Cleary. “Defensively we didn’t have a problem. But overall it was good to get a game in tonight and then reassess before we play Louisiana tomorrow.”

Jacob Zupancic was outstanding at prop, and when an injury forced a move to flanker, he was outstanding at flanker. Fellow loose forwards Zach Heisterkamp and Brock Oyoho took care of business, especially defensively, as well. And Patrick Conway score two tries in the shutout.

In JV Boys action, the Indiana Hawks beat Tennessee 19-5, DC United thumped South Carolina 39-7, and ARE beat Georgia 22-5. As mentioned earlier, North Carolina shut out Eastern NC 34-0.

Play continues Saturday.