GRR: Royal Irish
Rugby Indiana crowned seven state champions over the weekend.
Carmel won the Girls HS championship and also the girls 7th/8th-grade championship, while Noblesville won the girls Challenge Cup.
Among the boys, Center Grove won a close final in the Boys 7th-8th grade and St. Xavier (Ky.) took the Challenge Cup over Chargers.
Everything seems to have tightened up in Rugby Indiana and Wednesday night's result between Pendleton and Royal Irish just reinforced that notion.
After beating Bishop Dwenger by a single point, Royal Irish achieved the same feat Wednesday.
Pendleton is coming along with a young squad, and a late comeback from them fell just short.
With the injury to Ben Pinkelman every USA forward on the Olympic 7s team will have to raise their game to compensate.
Some of the load will fall on the admittedly broad shoulder of Joe Schroeder. The powerful, long-striding Schroeder has slowly been getting more and more minutes with the USA team, and he brings an extra offensive dimension team. He is also an intriguing story.
Which Campbell had the better June?
Bryce Campbell was named USA Men's 15s captain, but his brother, Jacob, helped coach Thunder Rugby to a Boys HS Club National Championship. Both played their HS rugby at Royal Irish (one of the teams Thunder beat on the way to the title), and we decided to ask the two who had the better month.
Bryce started laughing at the question.
USA Men's 15s Head Coach Gary Gold has confirmed changes for USA's against England on July 4 and Ireland on July 10.
Both matches will be streamed LIVE on florugby.com in the USA.