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The Weekly Grubber
Plus: A Special announcement. (hint: it's about our new rankings system)
Ipse
January 10, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time ⏳ 7 minutes
Hey There, Rugby Rioter!
We received some feedback.
The feedback:
“Hi there excuse me mister rugby riot sir. Umm, your emails are too long.”
So we’ve made a slight change to how you see our game recaps: Instead of posting the entire article here in the email, we’ll be giving you a preview and link to the games we have covered this week. That way you can click the content that most interests you without sifting through 2,000 words. Hope that helps!
Also, we’re teasing our Rankings System below 👇 which we’re hoping to launch next week.
Enjoy!
In This Issue
đź“ŁSpecial Announcement - Rugby Riot Rankingsđź“Š
We’ve been busting our buns to get this launched. And we’re thiiiiis close.
As a preview, here are the basic details about our brand new ranking system:
Fair and Objective: Sure, we have opinions about who the best teams are, but we felt that HS Rugby also deserves an OBJECTIVE RANKING system.
Points system: Rankings are based on match results, with points associated with performance; win/loss, opponent strength, defensive performance, offensive performance, and more.
Good defense gets rewarded: example: If you hold a team below 20 points in a game, you get more points for that.
No Blowout Bonanzas. While beating a lower skill-level team still results in gaining points, it’s not linear. Meaning that beating a team 50-0 isn’t going to award you twice the amount of points as beating a team 25-0. (We didn’t think it made sense to have a top ranked team accumulate a boat load of points for smashing lower ranked teams. That would make it too hard to catch up with them, especially for teams that have more difficult schedules.)
Everyone’s Included: If you submit your game scores to us (via the match report we send to coaches) then your team will be included in the rankings. This is very exciting because there are a lot of teams in the country who previously received no exposure. Now they will.
Our goal is to give you something accurate and fun to check out regularly and see how your team stacks up. We want to help high school rugby grow, baby! And that starts with having a place where every single team is represented and can track their growth.
Note: For now, we can only handle varsity squads. But once we are comfortable with how the rankings system works, we would love to add JV teams too.
We’re hoping to have this launched next week, but here’s a little sneak peek in the meantime:
This is just an example of what it will look like. Hang tight while we finish it up!
Important: For Coaches
Hey coach,
I’m gonna ask you for a solid.
Not just for me, but for your team.
Here’s the deal, the rankings are going to get kids fired up. Can’t you hear it?
Timmy: “Bro, check it out! We climbed 4 spots this week after yesterday’s game!” Jimmy: “Heck yeah! Let’s go practice tackling!” (ok that part might be a stretch)
But you know what would stink? If your team wasn’t in the rankings…
There’s nothing worse than feeling like you’ve been left out of something cool — like being the only kid on the bench, the only person without a date at the dance, or in this case, the team that wasn’t included in the rankings.
So we created a super simple way to make sure this doesn’t happen: A Match Report that literally takes 30 seconds to fill out. That’s it - half a minute.
We’re going to have to work together to make this as awesome as it can be. So here’s my promise: I’ll make sure your team gets the coverage it deserves. I just need you to send me your scores after every game via the Match Report below.
And there you have it. I extend my pinky finger to you.
This is going to be awesome!
Cheers,
Ipse, Chief Rioter
👇Save this link somewhere you won’t lose it — Your home screen, your notes app, your scheduling spreadsheet — Whatever works for you.
SoCal 15s: 0 days (BEGINS TODAY)
Storer Classic: 8 days (Jan 18th-19th)
Louisiana 15s: 15 days (Jan 25th)
Spring 15s: 50 days (March 1st - unofficial start of the season for most)
Carolina Ruggerfest: 50 days (March 1st -2nd)
Gonzaga Classic: 92 days (April 12th)
Midwest Invitational: 106 days (April 26th)
Nationals Tournament: 132 days (May 22nd)
The Storer Classic takes place at UCLA next week, January 18th-19, serving as the unofficial beginning of the Socal and Norcal HS rugby season.
Recent Game recaps:
Thomas McKillop (Charlotte Catholic) powers through a Marvin Ridge defender.
The scrum caps are giving 1776 vibes.🇬🇧 🇺🇸
Date: 1/08/25
Credit: Shel Powell
Think you know rugby? Prove it!
Can a player score a try by grounding the ball against the goalpost padding? |
Oddball musings, induced by borderline hypothermia.
🏉 Wanna know how you can tell that ChatGPT wrote a sports article? Crazy analogies. For example, I just saw this gem in an NFL piece: “like a beefed up freight-train running in butter.” Hmm, so was he running fast or slow?
🏉 Someone needs to make a t-shirt that says “Where the Wild Things Are” with a picture of a rugby field. I’d buy that shirt.
🏉 Bad business idea: Scrum caps with lights that light up every time you make a hit. Hell, throw a small speaker on there too with a siren noise.
That’s a wrap, gang!
Next week we’ll have more dope rugby stuff to share with you; scores, highlights, stories, RANKINGS… all the goods.
If you like this content, share it with your friends! The easiest way is to copy this URL www.rugbyriot.com and text it to your pals.
Be well, ruck with gusto, and may your compression shorts always stay in place.
-The Rugby Riot Team
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