Deep South Rugby News 2013-14 Season

Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference Championship

South Carolina Claims the 2014 SCRC Championship with hard fought 41-26 victory over LSU.

Div 2 & 3 Men’s Play-Off Results

Shaw and Br Martin finished 1-2 in La on April 5th, but because of senior exams and senior proms, neither team can make the trip to Charlotte.

Loyola,  Best Small College in South

Loyola rugby team finished its best season in four years, taking home second place in the Mid-Atlantic Tournament after their 24-23 loss to Mount St. Mary’s University.

After four years of coaching the rugby team solo, Sam Brock added Jerry Malina (former NORFC coach) to help coach the team. This season the rugby team competed on a level that placed them among the top rugby programs in the U.S. Loyola’s team won the Deep South Collegiate League, beating teams that traditionally outplay them. Loyola went on to qualify for the Mid-Atlantic Tournament in National Small College Rugby Organization.

The Mid-Atlantic Tournament brought the best teams in the region to play for a chance at National title. In this tournament Loyola only played two games. In the first round Loyola Beat Mount St. Claire 44-15 increasing their national small college ranking to the elite eight. Winning against Mount St. Claire sent Loyola to the second round at North Florida University. But in the second round, Loyola was defeated by Mount St. Mary’s University.

New Orleans Royales in Las Vegas Invitational Elite Division

The New Orleans Royales  competed in the Elite division of the 2014 Las Vegas Invitational from Jan 24-26 . The elite division had many internationals playing including Ben Gollings former member of England national side and the all-time leading point scorer in the IRB  7s World Series.

The Royales won 2 and tied one in their pool. They beat the national side of Peru (35-0), the select side Atlantis (22-7) and tied Bahamian select side cOUScOUS (19-19). In the knock-out round they lost to Lionhearts (31-14) in cup quarterfinal and Mapleleafs (26-12) in consolation semi-final. The Lionhearts and Mapleleafs are select sides from Canada. Lionhearts took 3^rd in the tournament defeating Belgium 38-5.

Below is a link to Youtube video of 2^nd half of Royales vs. the Bahamian side cOUScOUS.  (Unfortunately the Bahamians are doing all the scoring in this half.)

35^th Battleship Rugby Tournament Results (Nov. 9-10)

Spring Hill College, the New Orleans Rugby Football Club and Louisiana-Lafayette won rugby championships on Sunday, Nov. 10^th,  at USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama.

Spring Hill won the men’s collegiate division and New Orleans won the men’s club division of the 35th Battleship Invitational Rugby Tournament. Louisiana-Lafayette won the Deep South Rugby Conference Division 2 championship game.

Spring Hill defeated Sewanee 32-0 in the men’s collegiate division final game.

New Orleans repeated as the Battleship Invitational men’s club division champion with a 54-7 victory over the Fort Lauderdale Knights Rugby Football Club in the men’s club final.

The Deep South College Rugby Football Conference held its Division 2 championship game in conjunction with the Battleship Invitational Rugby Tournament. University of Louisiana-Lafayette beat Troy 39-5 to take the title.

As conference champs ULL advances to USA Rugby national Division 2 tournament in St. Louis on Nov. 23-24.

For more information on the tournament go to http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/11/spring_hill_new_orleans_louisi.html

 

First Ever Fall Florida Panhandle U-19 Tournament

October 26^th, 2013,  Niceville hosted the First Fall Florida Panhandle U19 rugby tourney in the history of the world. A team from Orlando and the high school  team from Mississippi coached by Ray Campion attended. The tournament was more of a round robin with a switch teams format every 20 minutes.   Orlando had a very strong team with mostly seniors.  Niceville are proud to say they are starting to recruit frosh and soph and have 40 kids on their roster and hope to have a b-side to play New Orleans teams. (Info courtesy of Ed Frisbee – Niceville coach)