GRR: Tennessee HS Rugby
The Tennessee state championship went to South Doyle after they held off Ravenwood 24-18 in the final Saturday.
In a physical game where both teams wanted to play open rugby, the teams were separated by just a point on three different occasions before a late South Doyle try put it away.
The Tennessee state semifinals are set after this past weekends conference playoffs.
Christian Brothers defeated PCA and Germantown in impressive fashion to win the West Tn. Conference. South Doyle beat Bearden 41-0 to ensure their place into the semifinals, joining Ravenwood and Father Ryan.
The weather in Tennessee has been brutal and forced the cancelation of several games and a shift from playing two games against conference opponents to playing one.
Snow, ice, rain have all had their say, and it means the first part of the season has been depressingly short.
South Doyle limped out of the Jesuit Classic battered but smiling and turned around with a new group of players to beat Maryville Tuesday evening 47-25 in SMAC league play.
There’s still plenty of rugby to be played, but South Doyle got by a major opponent in the Smokey Mountain Athletic Conference (SMAC) in Tennessee this week with a 42-18 defeat of Bearden.
South Doyle were quicker to get over the ball than Bearden and produced ball quicker than Bearden could form their defensive line.