GRR: Cardinals Conference
VMI, Radford, and NC State all won in the opening weekend in the Cardinals Collegiate DII Conference as the season kicked off.
For NC State it was a new competition for the Wolfpack as they moved into the Cardinals from the defunct (for 15s) ACRL. NC State ran out 40-13 winners over a solid Old Dominion team which finished 4-0-1 in last year’s conference season.
Greenville, NC welcomes a weird men’s DII bracket because in many eye it’s three conference champions and the favorite - but we’ll see.
The Virginia Military Institute men’s rugby program is solid at #3 in the nation and kept that ranking thanks to victories over Virginia Commonwealth and Old Dominion to win the Cardinals Conference title.
VMI and ODU were, in fact, slated to face each other during the regular season, but the game was fined out. VMI Head Coach Wayne Howe said that didn’t both him much.
Sunday sees the two teams everyone expect to be there playing for the Cardinals Conference final, but it almost didn’t happen that way.
While Goff Rugby Report #3 Virginia Military Institute won comfortably, 58-0 over Virginia Commonwealth, #24 Old Dominion had all sorts of problems with #32 Mary Washington, coming back to win 29-25.
Approval and backing for a college rugby team from the university administration is still a rare and elusive thing, but at some colleges it’s becoming a reality.
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