The University of Kentucky hosted several boys high school rugby teams over the weekend as a precursor to the regular season.

Highlighting the weekend were ranked teams Royal Irish (FloRugby #2 among HS Clubs), Fishers (FloRugby single-school #10), and St. Edward (FloRugby single-school #9).

Royal Irish beat St. Edward 12-7 on Saturday and shut out Charlotte Catholic on Sunday. Meanwhile, Fishers shut out Charlotte Catholic 45-0 on Saturday and beat St. Edward 45-15 on Sunday.

Jack Phillips was the top player for Fishers, making every kick he attempted, while Eric Thomas, Nick Coheen, Seth Dunnuck, Billy Reiter, Michael Longon, and Matt Holht all got on the scoresheet. It was a very solid opening for Fishers.

Photos by Dave Redden

For Royal Irish, Head Coach Scott Peterson was just OK about the performance.

"We played about 30 minutes total of quality rugby in the two games," he said. "We had to work extremely hard against St. Ed's to pull that one out. I was happy with the effort, for the most part, but we didn't have great execution of the game plan or skills, which led to a tight game."

With Royal Irish testing some newer players things weren't perfect, but defensively they were strong.

"It was a nice couple of wins, but we have a lot of work-ons this week before we head to La Salette," said Peterson.

That would be Notre Dame de La Salette. The Illinois-based team pushed Penn HS close in a 19-10 Penn win over the weekend, and look to be much stronger this year.

The teams involved brought their B sides as well, and Leo HS also participated in what was a good hit-out for everyone.