🏟️Friendship Cup
🗓️March 27—29
Nashville, TN

🌴Tropical 7s
🗓️April 3—4
Tampa, FL

⚖️ Huge battle, tiny schools, slippery hog
La Salette (IL) and St. Martin’s (KS) have less than 200 total students combined. Yet somehow both teams are consistently near the top of the national conversation. La Salette even claimed 3rd place at Nationals last year. St. Martin’s, meanwhile, is the Kansas monster nobody wants to face.
Both teams have started the season strong, and St. Martin’s hosts this time.
PLUS: There’s gonna be a greased-pig chase at halftime, which is amazing 🐷

The link isn’t up yet, but this game will livestream here tomorrow. We’ll update the kickoff time on the Riot Hub once we have it.

🗡️ Valor looks for redemption
Valor (CO) and East (CO) already played once, with East taking a 19-3 win. Then Monarch narrowly beat Valor too, a 15-12 result that surprised some. Now Valor gets another shot at their rivals as they clash with East again this Saturday. Can they find the win column and get their season back on track?

📣“Gather the Horde”
That’s the message the Barbarians (TX) are putting out before their match against the Spartans (TX). Both sides are off to strong starts, and both have just one loss—each to Woodlands.

Barbarians dropped that one 10–0, but have since won four straight, including a statement win over KC Jr. Blues (MO) on a recent cross-state tour.

Texas rugby may lean Woodlands, but both of these teams are closing the gap.

📈Midwest Contenders Emerging?

The Midwest picture is wide open right now.

Detroit Central Catholic (MI) is one team starting to make noise. DCC recently defeated a strong Bishop Dwenger side 24–14. Dwenger returns most of their roster from last year, which makes that result stand out.

There are plenty of other teams in the mix. Pulaski Roos (WI) hits the pitch this weekend vs New Trier (IL), and Marquette (WI) also takes on New Trier in what should give us a better read on where things stand. Pendleton (IL) has shown flashes, but losses to St. Ignatius and St. Martin’s leave some questions.

This weekend should start separating teams.

And we said this in a recent Quick Hit, but St. Ed’s might quietly be building toward a deep run—they just clinched an invite to Nationals when they beat St. Xavier (OH).

🐊 Bayou banger incoming
Saint Paul’s vs. Brother Martin is suddenly must-watch rugby. Color me delighted. It’s great to see how Saint Paul’s has elevated their play this year. Brother Martin won’t take them lightly, regardless of past results. Most recently, Saint Paul’s went down 29-14 to Brother Martin several weeks ago.
This one will tell us how real Saint Paul’s rise is.

☀️ Midweek Florida
Okapi snuck a game onto the schedule Wednesday that nearly escaped our attention. St. Joe’s Prep (PA) flew down to Southeast Florida and started strong against the Wanderers, but Okapi is well-conditioned and playing sharp rugby right now—they took over and rolled to a 69–7 win in this cross-state clash.

St. Joe’s brings their sunburns back to PA for their first league game against La Salle (PA). Okapi has some time off before a post-Easter clash with Boca Raton (FL).

🏁CA Clubs at full strength
In SoCal and NorCal, club teams have been waiting for the school season to end—and for more players to become available again.

In SoCal, several clubs kicked off last weekend, including the SOC Raptors, Thunder Rugby, and OMBAC. Notably, the SD Mustangs join the mix this week. On paper, their roster looks loaded. We’ll get a sense of how that group stacks up after they face Thunder tomorrow.

In NorCal, things were already rolling, but now teams like Wolverines and Carmichael Hawks are getting key players back following the conclusion of the CA single school playoffs.

🔥 Herriman locked and loaded
Herriman… is there a school team more feared right now? All the coaches I speak to around the country say the same thing: “Herriman is going to be scary good this year.” That’s because they return so many starters from last year’s nationals squad that pushed St. Ignatius to the limit in the final.
They also went toe to toe with Cavemen at the Puriri Invitational a month ago — more evidence of their strength. Look out 👀

📍Washington, DC
Saturday, March 21

This one’s always a cracker. St. Ignatius and Gonzaga have a tremendous rivalry that spans years of regular season and Nationals clashes.

St. Ignatius are the defending nationals champs, while Gonzaga looks to build on last year — when they narrowly missed the second round of Nationals with a young squad.

Both teams come in battle-tested. Gonzaga just dropped a close one to the Charlotte Cardinals—no small feat keeping that one tight. Ignatius, meanwhile, just took the first round of the Cavoli Cup vs St. Edward (OH).

This one will absolutely impact Nationals seeding.

Keep an eye on Gonzaga’s kicking attack vs Ignatius’ coverage and counterattack.