On Friday night the Georgia state HS rugby organization held its championships, and it was a supremely successful evening, with one very noticeable complication.

The evening began in front of almost 600 fans at Roswell Area Park in Roswell, Ga. with a state Middle School championship, won by Alpharetta Phoenix 19-17 over the Rebels. There followed a showcase of Elementary School rugby, and then the JV Boys final, which Alpharetta Phoenix won comfortably over the Barbarians. There followed a showcase of girls rugby - still somewhat new to the state - in which the Titans beat the Harlequins.

So then to the Varsity Boys final. It was a hotly-contested clash between the two teams, just as it was earlier in the season when the Trojans emerged 22-17 winners. In this game, Phoenix was leading 19-16 with about 14 minutes to go when the Trojans scored to go up 21-19. The conversion was being teed up to make it 23-19, when things started to change.

Lightning and thunder had been threatening all evening, and the lightning came within a a six-mile radius, and as per state and league protocol, the game was suspended. Officials at the game were using several different ways to monitor the weather, and all showed the same information - the lighting storm was not moving away. The game was suspended for at least 30 minutes, and when 30 minutes were up the lightning was still there. Eventually, the game had to be stopped, because local ordinances prohibit the stadium lights being used past 11pm.

And this caused a problem for the Rugby Georgia organization.

"We had planned for every contingency," said Daniel Pretorius, Rugby Georgia Director, "except for what to do when a game cannot be finished. It's our fault - my fault - that we didn't have a rule in place, but we had to figure out what to do."

Pretorius immediately asked the referee to confirm the score, and the time (51:30 played in a game slated to last 65 minutes), and also confirm every player on the field and every player who had been subbed off.

Then everyone went home, and Pretorius set about figuring out what to do next. He called various people experienced in the game, including Michael Lovinguth in USA Rugby's Youth office, trying to find out whether the proper course of action was to re-start the game at another date with 13:30 left on the clock, re-play the game in its entirety, or accept the game as complete with the score 21-19 for the Trojans.

What he, and Goff Rugby Report, found in the research was this: several rugby organizations around the world have a contingency for weather-suspension. They all say the same thing - for an 80-minute game, if 60 minutes have been played, then the result stands with no re-play or further playing of the game. Since 60 minutes of an 80-minute game is 75%, Pretorius looked at the planned length of the Varsity final - 65 minutes - and came up with 48 minutes and 45 seconds. The game had passed that benchmark to 51:30.

In addition, the Georgia HS Athletic Association, as well as some other local rugby organizations (Life University) use a different threshold - if the game has started the second half, then it will be deemed a full game if weather stops play. 

"The guidance we received from USA Rugby in how to approach a decision was very valuable and very much appreciated from our committee," said Pretorius. What Lovinguth said, in part, was that any ruling should be something you can use consistently in the future - take the emotion out of it and settle on a proper ruling.

And so the Rugby Georgia leadership committee ruled that the game result will stand, and the Trojans are champions.

Understandably, any team losing a close game where they could reasonably think they could come back to win would be disappointed in this, and certainly Phoenix has to be disappointed. However, said Pretorius, while they did serious consider resuming or replaying the game, the rules precedence points to the game being seen as completed.