2016 A Look Back - February
2016 A Look Back - February
February began with an intense time for the USA Men’s National Team.
This was a new competition for the Eagles, the Americas Rugby Championship. Built on the old ARC held each fall for non-test-match-level teams, this ARC featured full international teams from the USA, Canada, Chile, and Brazil, plus a non-test Argentina XV. Eagles Head Coach Scott Mitchell, working with a roster he didn’t choose and many players inexperienced with international rugby (Where Inexperienced Eagles Come From), started off surprisingly well, tying Argentina, and beating Chile and Canada. There was reason to believe something big might happen.
Clever Hat-Trick Sees Eagles Past Canada
Ruggamatrix America Podcast - Do We Believe?
Elsewhere, the USA U20s played Canada in a one-off qualifier for the Junior World Rugby Trophy. The game ended in dramatic fashion, with Ben Cima slotting a 50-meter penalty goal to win the game.
Massive Last-Second Kick Wins it for U20s
In 7s, the USA Men’s Team was looking inconsistent, getting decent results on Day One to get the points, but not finishing it off on Day Two.
Eagles 7s Flop Again on Sunday
For the women, the big news seemed to be that Jillion Potter had made the comeback from cancer to the Eagles.
Potter Discusses Comeback This inspiration story is perhaps all the more poignant because Potter announced this week that her cancer has returned.
The Women Eagles 7s team had a new coach in Julie McCoy, and put in a good performance in Brazil as a hoped-for harbinger of future Olympic success.
4th in Brazil, and a Jolt of Confidence for USA
But tumult was around the corner …
In the domestic scene, early on we found out that the Florida competition would be a dogfight.
Jupiter v Orlando Highlights Florida Weekend
Meanwhile, in Southern California, we encountered a distressing result in the playoffs, as View Park Prep left their quarterfinal thinking they had beaten University City 36-34. Only later did it turn out that there’d been a miscount on the conversions, and the teams had tied.
Wild Weekend in SoCal Quarterfinals
With no time for a rematch, the game was decided by a best three-of-five coin toss, with University City moving on to the semis.
Playoff Question Answered with Coin Toss
In the end, we crowned two champs in the SoCal school season.
La Costa Canyon Wins SoCal Varsity Red
Mira Costa SoCal Varsity White Champs
We started to see new, more regional HS leagues. Rugby NorCal created a Premier League featuring most of the top teams in the region, with those involved being able to field three squads.
The Deep South was an expansion of the Louisiana league, and started to show some interesting developments, especially the Bayou Hurricanes.
Hurricanes Storming Through Deep South
This set up the changes we saw for the 2016-17 season, with regional leagues in the South and the Mid-Atlantic region.
In college rugby, the close game between BYU and St. Mary’s (BYU Holds Off St. Mary’s) was the game of note. But off the field we had two huge pieces of news.
First was the shocking death of longtime Northern Iowa women’s coach Steve Murra - Influential Coach, Mentor Murra Dies Suddenly - a loss that was felt heavily by those in the game, especially in the Midwest.
The other piece of news was the development of two new national college player awards. Co-supported by the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle, Wash., and Goff Rugby Report, the Sorensen and Scholz Awards for the top women’s and men’s college players would be awarded in the spring.
