2009-10 Deep South Season Report

Deep South Rugby 2009-2010 Season Report

The following is an attempt to capture the highlights of rugby in the Deep South during the 2009-2010 season. If you have any other items you think should be added, send to deepsouthrugby@hotmail.com.

Congratulations to Steve Parrill on his appointment as Chair of Southern Referees Association (article in Archive Issue 3) and Michele Yarbrough on her appointment as USA Rugby South Assistant Collegiate Director (article in Archive Issue 3). 

The following LSU players (who played high school rugby in New Orleans) were selected to American Rugby News Collegiate All-American teams: Adam Ducoing (Brother Martin) , Bobby Johns (Jesuit), and Cody Cadella (Rummell). Congratulations to them and the coaches of New Orleans high school rugby.

Hilari French of the Baton Rouge Barbarians (Barbies) was selected as to the USA Rugby South All-Star Women’s Select Side to play in the National All Star Championship in Blaine, Minnesota on May 28-30^th.

Mary Ann Reynolds, Danye O’Mahoney, and Madeline Wilbanks from Auburn were selected to the USA Rugby South U-23 Select Side to play in the U-23 National All-Star Championship in Santa Barbara, California on June 11-13.

Cameron Falcon of Shaw H. S. was selected and attended the High School All American Camp and played against Canada in December. He was on the list of players selected for the tour to Toronto in the summer of 2010, but unfortunately suffered a tear of his ACL in the left knee during the La. H. S. Championship game against Brother Martin and was not able to tour.

Below are reports on the Deep South Union team champions and how they did in their divisions and who went on to win the national division titles.

 

Teams Review: Men’s Division 2 

(There is currently no Men’s Division 1 side in the Deep South Union.)

South’s West Division 2.

The Pool Points (3 for win, 2 for draw, 1 for loss, 0 for forfeit but played, -1 for forfeit not played, -3 for no show) for the USA Rugby South West Division for 2009-2010 season were are follows:

Baton Rouge 13

Battleship  11

Jackson  11

Little Rock 17

Memphis  15

New Orleans 19

NORFC finished ahead of Little Rock as the No. 1 seed even though NORFC lost to Little Rock on Feb 20^th in Little Rock by a score of 22-20. Based on the structure of the South Division 2 Pools, New Orleans only plays Baton Rouge and Battleship twice a year, and plays Memphis, Little Rock, and Jackson once a year. New Orleans scored 328 points to 56 points scored against them in the 7 regular matrix games they played in the spring 2010 season. In playoffs NORFC  faced Montgomery at home on April 10^th and won 51-0.  Little Rock faced Knoxville in Knoxville on April 10^th as #2 team out of USA Rugby South West Division and won 39-12.

In South Regional play on May 1^st and 2^nd  in Charleston, NORFC defeated Charleston  15-7 and then lost to Tampa Krewe 21-17. (Krewe beat Little Rock 39-17 the day before.) NORFC advanced to national play-offs as the USA Rugby South’s number 2 seed. On May 22^nd New Orleans fell to Lincoln Park in Columbia, South Carolina, (22-18)  in the National Division 2 Final 8 Play-Offs. NORFC defeated Bayonne (Northeast #1 seed going into the tournament) 53-12 in the consolation match.

Tampa Krewe defeated Chicago (26-17) and Brandywine (32-5) in Columbia to advance to the USA Rugby Division 2 Final Four in Glendale, Colorado, on June 5^th-6^th. In their first match they faced Snake River (Boise, Idaho). The other semi-final match was Doylestown (PA) vs San Francisco.

Men’s Division 3

In Pool G of the USA Rugby South Division 3 Matrix the points (3 for win, 2 for draw, 1 for loss,0 for forfeit but played, -1 for forfeit but not played, -3 for no show) were as follows:

Columbus   20

Okaloosa  21

Panama City  7

Pensacola  17

Tallahassee 7

On April 10^th in play-offs Birmingham (which was the USA Rugby South Pool D champ over Atlanta Bucks, High Country, & Athens) lost 6-0 to Johnson City in Johnson City, and Okaloosa hosting Krewe B from Tampa defeated them 28-13.  In the semi-finals on May 1^st in Charleston,  Okaloosa lost to Triad 36-13. Triad fell the next day to Hilton Head by a score of 39-8. Hilton Head advanced to the national tournament as the South’s #1 seed and Triad the #2 seed.

In the USA Rugby National Round of 16 Triad was defeated by Cedar Rapids (Midwest #1 seed) by a score of 40-0. Cedar Rapids advanced to the semi-final play-offs by beating Old Gaelic (Mid-Atlantic  #2 seed) 23-13. Triad lost to Buffalo 37-15 in the consolation match. The South’s #1 seed (Hilton Head) fell to Virginia (Mid-Atlantic #1 seed) 20-5. Virginia advanced to the semi-final play-offs by defeating Fox Valley (Mid-West #2 seed) 48-12. Hilton Head won their consolation match against North Jersey 15-5.

Men’s Collegiate: Division 1

There is no Deep South Division 1 Side, but LSU (who plays in the Texas Union) is a spiritual Deep South side. The Tigers repeated as Western Union champions and made it to the Sweet 16,  played at Life University in Marietta, Georgia.

On day 1 LSU lost to Penn State 31 to 25 but came thundering back the next day to crush UCLA 41-14. The Tigers ended up ranked 11^th in the country. Penn State was slaughtered by Univ. California – Berkeley 65-19 in the national semi-final.  Cal went on to defeat BYU (defending champ) in the national championship match by a score of 19-7 to claim their 25^th national championship.

Men’s Collegiate Division 2

Points: (4 for win, 2 for draw, 1 for 4 or more tries, 1 for loss by less than 7 points)

Southeastern Division 2 Standings

Univ.  Georgia  25

Univ.  Tennessee  25

Vanderbilt  5

Univ.  Mississippi 14

Univ. of  Alabama 12

Mississippi State 6

Auburn 3

No Deep South side advanced to play-offs.

The  South #2 seed, North Carolina State, advanced to the round of 8 by defeating the Pacific #1 seed, California Maritime Academy, 28-17. In the Round of 8 NC State lost to Miami Univ. of Ohio 43-5. The South #1 seed, Appalachian State, defeated Western Oregon (Pacific #3 seed) 33-17 to advance to the Round of 8 where they were defeated by Temple 25-10.

Claremont Colleges (California) defeated Temple University in the Division 2 championships in Stanford, California by a score of 25-19 to claim its first ever national championship.

Men’s Collegiate Div 3 Bayou League

West Division: University of Louisiana Lafayette (Champ), Tulane , Loyola

East Division: Univ. West Florida, Univ. Southern Mississippi, Spring Hill

ULL had playoff victories against Springhill College, West Florida, Sewanee and the reigning Division 3 champion, Coastal Carolina. During their matches in play-offs ULL outscored opponents 178-24.

ULL advanced to the Final Four of the National Small College Rugby Championship.

The National Small College Rugby Organization (www.nscro.org) was created so that “small” colleges and universities could compete for a national championship in rugby. NSCRO was formed three years ago. In 2009 the NSCRO Men’s Division 3 National Champion was Coastal Carolina University. Participating teams in the championship this year were:
Region 1 Champion – Keene State College (New England RFU)
Region 2 Champion – William Paterson University (Met NY RFU)
Region 3 Champion – Penn State University – Berks Campus (East Penn RU)
Region 4 Champion – University of Louisiana-Lafayette (Deep South RU)

There were 99 eligible Division 3 teams representing 13 Local Area Unions  which were part of 4 different Territorial Unions.  ULL lost to Keene State (N.H.) College 25-22 in the semifinals, but rebounded to shut out William Paterson 43-0 in the consolation game. Penn State-Berks won the championship, defeating Keene State 11-6.

Tremendous congratulations to the coaches and players of the ULL Ragin Cajuns. Sixteen of the 26 players on ULL’s roster hail from the New Orleans area. Nine more are from Lafayette, with one Texan.

 

Women Division 2

Baton Rouge lost to Miami 21-7 in USA South Semi-Finals in October, 2009. BR Barbies went on to defeat Memphis in the consolation match to capture 3^rd place in USA Rugby South.

Miami defeated Charleston 22-5 in the finals and both sides advanced to the national championships held in Houston on Nov. 7^th and 8^th. In the national tournament 10 teams competed in 3 pools. Miami lost to Providence in their pool match 31-12. Providence went on to lose to Raleigh in the semi-finals by a score of 31-5. Raleigh won the championship by defeating Pittsburgh by a score of 12-0.

Miami defeated Houston 31-0 to finish 5^th in the national tournament.

 

Women’s Collegiate – Division 2 (No Deep South Div 1 sides)

Points in USA Rugby South Central Division:  (4 for win, 2 for draw, 1 for 4 or more tries, 1 for loss by less than 7 points)

Lee University 23

GA Tech 17

Auburn 15

Mid TN State  11

Emory 0

Univ. of  Alabama 4

Auburn won 3 and loss 2 (losing to Lee University and Georgia Tech). University of Alabama played 5 and loss 4. Defeating Emory.

On March 6^th  Auburn defeated the University of Alabama 40 -21 scoring 8 tries to 3.

Deep South Youth Rugby

The  State B- Side Tournament was held at ESA in Lafayette. The following are the results of the B-side tournament.
ESA 35 Bro Martin (B) 20
Jesuit (B) 12 ESA 5
Jesuit (B) 29 Bro Martin (B) 5
 
Saturday,  April 17, was the Louisiana Youth State Championship. The following were the seedings in the tournament.
  #1 Shaw v #4 Bro Martin
 #2 Jesuit v #3 Niceville

Jesuit Blue Jays captured the 2010 Louisiana State High School Championship by defeating Niceville 28-10 in their first match and Brother Martin 27-3 in the final.

Shaw represented the Deep South Union at the April 24^th USA Rugby South Youth Championships at Furman College in South Carolina due to Jesuit and Brother Martin not being able to muster a squad for the trip. Shaw finished 5^th out of the field of 8 teams . Shaw’s High School All-American Cameron Shaw was sorelymissed as he was out due to torn knee ligament suffered in LA High School Championships. Charlotte Catholic from North Carolina repeated as the South Champion defeating Walton High School from Marietta, Georgia, 15-8 in overtime. In the national tournament in Utah on the weekend of May 21^st Charlotte Catholic defeated Snow Canyon (Pacific #2 seed) 17-12, but lost to Xavier (Northeast #1 seed) in semi-finals 24-15. Xavier defeated Gonzaga (mid-Atlantic #1 seed) 32-10 to take the High School Championship in the first all Eastern side final. Charlotte lost to Jesuit of Sacramento (who were the defending champions and Pacific #1 seed going into the tournament) 61-3 to end up in 4^th place in the 8 team play-off tournament.

Louisiana (Deep South Union) had no Boys U-19 Club side competing at the USA Rugby South Championships. The final was a repeat of the last 3 years – Highland Rugby Club (Utah) playing the United Rugby Club (Utah). United won the very hard and closely fought match to end Highland’s 20 straight national championships.