Mustangs have a loaded arsenal
They just dropped 55 points on Belmont freaking Shore. Now, maybe there’s more to the story, but on its face, a 55-14 win over Belmont Shore is nothing short of extraordinary.
We asked a few in attendance for insight — the answer was “Stangs are stacked, bruh.”

More on their matchup with the Carmichael Hawks below in our Match of the Week section.

Cardinals (NC) are crushing it
We already spilled a gallon of ink on these guys’ performance at Friendship Cup, so we won’t pile on. Instead, here’s an anecdote:

I was walking the sideline as the Cardinals prepared to play a highly-ranked team. I asked three different players from different teams, “who ya got in this one?”

“Cardinals by 30.”
“Cardinals by 50.”
“Cardinals… by a lot.”

That tells you everything you need to know about the current zeitgeist.

Xavier (NY) had a big weekend
The NE Jesuit Tournament was the type of weekend Xavier needed to remind everyone their pedigree. They went 3-0 and took the Premier Cup, beating Fairfield Prep 28-19 in the final.

That season-opening loss to Doylestown feels like a thing of the past. Xavier is cruising into April with the throttle wide open.

SLUH on the rise
The hosts of the All Catholic Rugby Fest enjoyed a great weekend, where they took down regional powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas (KS) 19-15.
They backed that up with an April Fools Day victory over the CBC Cadets. That 64-0 loss to La Salette gets further in the rearview with each game. It feels like this squad is just hitting their stride heading into Easter.
Pendleton looms in a few weeks, but SLUH is trending up and to the right.

Strake Jesuit (TX) and St. Xavier (OH) each looked polished too with undefeated performances at the All Catholic Fest. We’ll follow up after Easter to see if they carry that momentum forward in their state leagues.

📣We called it — St. Ed’s is renewed

When St. Edward lost to St. Ignatius several weeks ago, we noted that they actually held the lead at halftime—and we sensed a rejuvenated Eagles team despite the eventual 27-7 loss.
Well, we might be right. They just tied La Salette 14-14 in a nail biter last weekend. Recall that La Salette placed 3rd at Nationals last year—and will be back again. The momentum for St. Ed’s feels very real.
Next up for St. Edward: Gonzaga on April 18th. Consider it circled ✔️

🛩️ Teams abroad

It’s travel season! We’ll miss some, I’m sure, but here are a few teams we know of who are taking their show on the road overseas:

⭐️ Texas quietly heating up

Woodlands is still king of the roost in Texas. But with playoffs on the horizon, we’re buzzing to see how things shake out for the next three club teams: Barbarians, Boks, and Spartans.

Barbarians and Spartans are neck and neck this year. They’ve both dropped games to Woodlands—with Barbarians keeping it close. But then the Spartans shocked with a 40-35 victory over Barbarians. The Boks are a solid team—they went to the state final last year. Their biggest issue might be depth this year, but we like their chances to make a splash when May rolls around.
Can any of these guys truly challenge Woodlands? It’s a tall task—but we’re saying there’s a chance.

🌴 Tropical Sevens underway

It’s that time of year again. Sun, rugby, teams from across the globe. It’s all going down in Tampa this weekend, beginning today.
📺You can catch the action here with Game on Live Studio — same group that produced it last year 🙌

🗓️Saturday, April 4th
📍San Diego, CA

We’ve had this one circled.

For Carmichael, they’re chasing a chance to play at Nationals. And while this isn’t technically a play-in game, you can bet the Nationals Committee will be paying attention to how they perform against the defending national champs.

The Mustangs, for their part, are coming off a dominant win over Belmont Shore—an impressive feat. Resting on their laurels isn’t really in the Mustangs’ DNA, though, and their roster is loaded with top-level talent hungry to make another deep run this May.

These types of regional matchups always grab our attention, especially because there’s some interesting crossover from the school season.

Here’s the skinny:

Carmichael is essentially the club version of Rio Americano. Rio had a stellar NorCal season, and they were the only team to take down the eventual state champs, St. Francis. Mustangs draw from several elite SoCal school programs, including the Torrey Pines team that went 10-0 before falling to St. Francis in the CA state final.

Also worth mentioning: Many of these players will know each other from West Coast Sevens in the fall. Carmichael won the NorCal leg of that circuit, with prop Noah Gomez famously quoted “just give it to the big man and let him run” when asked by Will Hooley what the game plan was for Carmichael. The “big man” in question was, of course, Noah Gomez. Kid’s got game 😂

Things to watch:

Mustangs are tactical masterminds. They force teams to play in their own half with a barrage of kicks, lineouts, mauls, and heavy forward play. Try to compete with them in the kicking game? You’d best be prepared for an electric counterattack and a pack that supports every inch of the pitch.
Test them in the midfield and you’ll be swiftly introduced to Shay Farkash, Adrian Aybar, Ean Glover and the rest of the Mustang brute squad.

There’s not a glaring weakness on this roster.

But we like how Carmichael matches up.

The Hawks showed off incredibly high rugby IQ in their Rio Americano iteration, and we imagine they’ve picked up some additional talent for club season. The Carmichael boys have excellent opportunity-recognition, and their forward pack excels at using leverage and changing the point of attack.

Add to that a fleet-footed Carmichael back line that can make you miss in a phone booth, and I believe we’ve got a real battle cooking up.

Riot prediction: This one will come down set-piece execution. The team that wins their own lineouts—and maybe steals a few—gives themselves the best chance to control the narrative and dictate tempo.

Front-foot ball is always the name of the game. It’s an elusive thing to define—but when you see it, you know it.

Which squad will create more front-foot momentum? We can’t wait to find out.