🇺🇸Women’s RWC (game 3): Sat, Sep 6, 2025 (TOMORROW)- USA Women’s Eagles vs Samoa

🇺🇸Pacific Nations Cup (game 2): Sat, Sep 6, 2025 (TOMORROW) — USA Men’s Eagles vs Japan

West Coast Sevens (round 1): September 27th

USAYHS Rugby dropped their annual report this week. In 2024/25, enrollment climbed 9% nationwide with 56,225 total youth registrations.

Some highlights:

🙃 Just for fun: On a per-capita basis, Utah is the lead dog, with about 119 registered rugby players per 100,000 residents.

👉You can see the full report here.

Rich Vernon (Cavemen coach & co-founder) shared this story with us out of Utah, and we had to pass it along:

A local football coach came out to watch the Cavemen play, and his mind was blown watching “linemen” tear down the field with ball in hand. He said: “I might need to think about a big boy package on the goal line to get them the rock.”

Well, turns out he wasn’t the only one thinking that way. Last weekend Lehi High lined up prop Briggs Love (Cavemen, USA U18 player) at running back, and he punched in a touchdown. Meanwhile, American Fork put the other Cavemen prop Jaybian Na’a in the backfield as a lead blocker — and that play went for six too.

🎥 Watch the clip here (Briggs Love)

We love it when football coaches start pulling ideas from rugby. It’s good for both sports — and the big boys clearly don’t mind.

And just for good measure, here’s a photo of Briggs Love doing badass rugby things 👇

Hunter Bentley, a junior at St. Paul’s in Louisiana—and Rugby Riot contributor—shared his boots-on-the-ground perspective on the recent closure of the NOLA Gold.

All fair points, Hunter. We hear you, brother.

Hopefully the higher-ups are thinking about this. If not, maybe some new blood can turn their attention to the region with fresh ideas.

The San Diego Mustangs have been coming to nationals for over a decade, but they’ve always fallen just short. This year was different. Today, we’re taking a look back at the Mustangs’ path to a national club title this spring👇

You can’t tell the story of the 2025 San Diego Mustangs without rolling the tape back to February, when Cathedral Catholic and Torrey Pines met in their annual neighborhood showdown—the “Battle of Del Mar Heights Rd.”

The schools sit less than two miles apart, and every year their rivalry delivers a match full of pride and bragging rights. This one was no different. At the center were the “dueling 9s,” Cathedral’s Spencer Huntley and Torrey’s James Curtis, two of the best scrumhalves in the country, guiding their sides in a back-and-forth battle.

It ended 28-28 when Curtis pushed a last-play penalty just wide of the posts. On paper it was only a non-league friendly, but it didn’t feel that way. Both teams emptied the tank, and both went on to dominate their winter school seasons.

To SoCal fans, the signs were clear: the San Diego Mustangs—a spring club team anchored by both Cathedral and Torrey standouts, plus key players from other area schools—were going to have a stacked roster this year.

When March rolled around, those rivals slipped on Mustang colors, and the buzz was already building. This group looked special.

The truth test came fast. Belmont Shore away in Long Beach—the second game of the season. Mustang assistant coach Ethan Willis rolled out an aggressive, line-speed defense that suffocated Belmont’s vaunted attack. The Mustangs stormed home 29-5, raising the question on the ride back: are we that good, or is Belmont down this year? Belmont’s later run at a state title and nationals gave the answer. This Mustang team was the real deal.

They followed with a 48-13 win over the SOC Raptors (who’d later win Tier 2 at nationals) and a 52-8 win over Carlsbad Thunder.

By mid-season, their Nationals Tier 1 invite was locked.

But Belmont wasn’t done. The two sides met again in the SoCal final, and this time it was a dogfight. The Mustangs built a 22–10 halftime lead behind tries from Spencer Huntley and Will Barrett, but Belmont stormed back with an interception try and a go-ahead score to take a 24–22 advantage. With the game hanging in the balance, James Curtis slipped a perfect ball to winger Gunnar Paul, who scorched down the sideline for the winner. A nail-biting 27–24 finish — and SoCal belonged to the Mustangs.

On to Nationals…

Nationals in Elkhart is a brutal gauntlet for all attending. You’ve got to survive three straight days against top competition. As assistant coach Matty Sandoval put it:

With an experienced recovery crew on hand—complete with cryotherapy—the Mustangs were prepared to stay patched up and they landed in Elkhart like a meteorite.

Day one, the Mustangs blitzed The Woodlands 53-18.

Day two, they put together arguably their most complete performance of the year, dispatching the impressive Cavemen 36-17.

One last opponent: the Charlotte Cardinals, back for a second straight year after surviving a double-overtime slugfest with Belmont Shore in the semifinal.

“Huge credit to the Cardinals,” Sandoval said. “We know what it’s like playing Belmont Shore. To have that game the day before and still play like they did in the final—it says a lot about their program.”

The title game lived up to its billing. Cardinals drew first blood when Kai Campbell powered over at the goal line. San Diego answered just before the half: Huntley linking with Reece Reiter for a try, though the kick was missed. Charlotte led 7-5 at the break.

Then Huntley seized the wheel. The Mustang scrumhalf put his stamp on the match, orchestrating multiple scores to push the Mustangs ahead 19-7. Charlotte clawed back to 19-14, but San Diego’s defense held firm.

Full time: Mustangs 19, Cardinals 14. Champions at last.

In 2025, it all came together for the San Diego Mustangs. And you can trace it all the way back to that local rivalry game in February.