High School rugby expands throughout the country as more and more leagues get going, and one league is almost close to wrapping up.

This week, we see some key early clashes in Louisiana, the start of Florida Youth Rugby's league games, and the road to SoCal's single-school playoffs.

SoCal

In the SCIRF league, Cathedral vs St. Augustine is the big game, as the Saints can come very close to clinching a spot in the final with a bonus-point win. Cathedral, meanwhile, can make it a four-horse race, five if Mira Costa also wins. Torrey Pines vs San Clemente also has a huge influence on who makes the top two.

In the Gold division, San Marcos leads everyone and should win this weekend. The Coronado vs Steele Canyon game basically decides who will be second.

In the Varsity White division, almost every game has an influence on how the playoffs will pan out. We go into closer detail here:

SoCal Varsity White Playoff Picture Clearing

... but basically Servite vs Los Alamitos is for 1st in the LA Conference and Murrieta Valley vs Corona Centennial is for the OC Inland title. There are still three wild card places to secure, so the losing teams in those two games, plus seveal others, have something to chase.

Louisiana

St. Paul's played Thursday night, and beat a Brother Martin team that has lost three league games, but all competitively. Now the game we're keeping an eye on is NOLA Jesuit vs the Bayous Hurricanes. Both of those teams have logged wins over Brother Martin, and while Bayou won by a larger margin than did Jesuit, this is still a game where you can't be sure who will come away victorious. There's plenty more rugby to play, but this is a key one in the early going.

Arizona

Much more to come from Arizona, but Brophy vs Salpointe is a massive meeting in D2.

Arizona HS Latest. Team And Player Moves Shake Things Up

Florida

Hoo boy, OK, so Florida starts up with Okpai already having logged a couple of nice results in preseason, and defending champs Jacksonville looking like a bit of a work in progress at present (don't count them out).

This week, Jupiter vs the Cardinals could tell us a whole lot about what's up in the South, while in the North the tightest game will likely be Cape Pirates vs Orlando.

Texas

We go into some detail on Texas here:

Texas Leage Out Of The Blocks

But word is that Strake Jesuit is going from strength to strength. We'll see.