Royal Irish may have beaten St. Edward 15-0 during the Lindenwood Tournament last week, but you might also feel comfortable discounting that result.

The games were short. The season is still young. It was SAT Weekend. So did it really tell us what we need to know? Never fear, HS rugby fans, that will all be rectified this weekend because Royal Irish will play St. Edward in a full-length game.

For Royal Irish, which ended up winning the Lindenwood Tournament, this will be an important test. 

Coach Terry Rankin ran the Royal Irish team with Head Coach Scott Peterson away on business.

“We came into that weekend with a lot of questions, which were certainly answered - at least some of them,” said Rankin.

The coaches were looking for fitness and continuity, and they got that, and they also wondered how some of the new recruits would fair. 

“You’ve got some new players, good athletes, who played their first rugby game, and you wonder how they’re going to respond, but with the leadership we’ve got out there it worked out pretty good,” said Rankin.

That leadership is centered around fyhalf David Hannon and prop Jonas Petrakopoulos, who are both excellent players and smart veterans. Rankin said the coaches were a little concerned with how the pack would perform, especially in the scrums, but Petrakopoulos anchored that group nicely and with hooker Nile Mylin working his magic they took eight scrums against the head last weekend. In the backs, Hannon saw space and exploited it well.

New players Gabe Coleman and Jack Kafka have folded in nicely. Coleman was a championship running back at Bishop Chatard HS and he and Kafka have embraced the game impressively.

The Lindenwood Tournament ended with Royal Irish beating Penn HS in a close one (so what’s new?). Ranking called the Irish-Penn rivalry one of the best in the country, and added that the respect each team has for the other fuels that rivalry.

But other rivalries are building, too, and St. Edward, led by Jack Bradfield and looking strong despite some key graduations, is one of those. 

Notes: And speaking of Indiana-Ohio rivalries, Penn plays St. Ignatius this weekend. And now you have four of the very best HS teams in the nation facing off.