Rugby Oregon’s boys club league is heating up as Linn-Benton survived a stern test and two other teams remain undefeated.

Linn-Benton entered the weekend 2-0 and set to face a big, hard-hitting Bend team. If Linn-Benton were to be taken seriously as a contender, surely they had to beat Bend, and they did, 19-5.

Justus St. Clair was outstanding with his goalkicking, slotting four out of four penalties and converting the lone try by Kieran McCullough. Oddly, Linn-Benton’s Zbyszek Sikora was clear through to score another, but was penalized for early celebration, a new one for us here at Goff Rugby Report. 

“We’ve got a good team,” said Drew Wolf, who coaches the team with Joe Alvernaz. “We have about 50% returning players and 50% new. We’re usually smaller than the teams we play, so we emphasize better technique and good body position in the rucks. We want those rucks crisp and clean and we know that will beat out brute force.”

With the win, Linn-Benton moved to 3-0 and 14 points in the standings. Rugby Oregon has a unique way to handle bye weekends - every weekend three teams play a round-robin of shortened games. The games are counted in the standings, but for half points. So a team could have more wins but fewer standings points. That is actually the case with Eastside, who sit 4-0 with 12 points.

Coach Matt Manley said his squad is one that likes to power over opponents, but is slowly learning to use their skills. 

Eastside won comfortably over Valley Rams and Clark County this past weekend in shortened games.

“We are starting to play a more open game,” said Manley. “Our defense is pretty solid, but early on we were just a group of big, strong kids attacking the inside channels. We can be more creative and I think as we go on the guys will use the space more and use the ball more.”

The halfback combination of Siano Kalamafoni and Semi Kalamafoni (they’re cousins) is starting to click and that could well be Eastside’s ticket to the top.

But in the way, along with Linn-Benton, is Beaverton. Very deep and well-organized, Beaverton has beaten West Linn, Valley Rams, and North Clackamas, all by the maximum margin of 35. Their development team is 2-0, as well.

After a week off, these teams will find out a little more about what’s what as Beaverton and Linn-Benton meet in a shortened game (both also play 0-4 Columbia County). Eastside will play 0-4 West Linn and it won’t be until two weeks later that they start facing heavier firepower.