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🏉Weekly Grubber: Only One Unbeaten Team Left in NC 🔥

Plus: Match of the Week, SoCal style đź’Ą

Author

Ipse
January 31, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time ⏳ 7 minutes

Hey there, Rugby Rioter!

🏉 Welcome to this week’s edition of Rugby Riot, where we bring you cool high school rugby stuff from around the nation.

Sometimes, rugby hands us a gift: multiple banger matchups in one week. This is one of those weeks.

While we’re tracking high school rugby across the country, SoCal and North Carolina are a little further into their schedules—and the action has been “whoa” worthy. Don’t worry, we’ll be rolling out deep dives and analysis on every region soon. So keep those highlights and game film coming ([email protected]).

In North Carolina, Charlotte Catholic kept their streak alive (5-0 now) with ANOTHER statement win on Tuesday night. Full recap below. đź”Ą

In SoCal, our upcoming Match of the Week features Torrey Pines vs. Cathedral Catholic—a heavyweight battle between two powerhouses who just so happen to be neighbors. Full preview below. đź‘€

Without further ado, let’s dive in. 👇

Tip: Keep an eye on the RANKINGS page so you can keep up with scores and trends around the country 🏉

In This Issue

Spring 15s: 29 days (March 1st - unofficial start of the season for many teams)

Carolina Ruggerfest: 29 days (March 1st -2nd)

Gonzaga Classic: 71 days (April 12th)

Montana Invitational: 85 days (April 26th)

Nationals Tournament: 111 days (May 22nd)

🇺🇸 RUGBY WORLD CUP HOSTED IN THE USA: 2,404 days-ish 🤓

Interesting Upcoming Matches

St. Ignatius SF (CA) vs Bellarmine (CA) - Feb 1st
Some good NorCal action to kick off February.

Gregory the Great (PA) vs Vienna (VA) - Feb 1st
First NorthEast/Mid Atlantic action—between two historically good teams.

Orange Lutheran (CA) vs St. John Muir (CA) - Jan 31st
Orange Lutheran may be a dark horse in CA this year — we’ll be following them.

Murrietta (CA) vs Oceanside (CA) - Jan 31st
A SoCal match between two teams with a 2-0 record.

Okapi (FL) vs Jesuit New Orleans (LA) - Feb 1st
Solid matchup between two highly regarded SouthEast teams.

🔥Match of the Week👀

Torrey Pines (CA) vs Cathedral Catholic (CA) - Feb. 1st
(read our preview below 👇)

Did you see these?

📣 Charlotte Catholic defeats Hough in a Thriller. 🔥

NC saw some ridiculously good rugby Tuesday night: Charlotte Catholic victorious đź’Ą

www.rugbyriot.com/p/charlotte-catholic-defeats-hough-in-a-thriller

📣 Showdown in SoCal on Saturday🔥

đź‘€ Preview: Torrey Pines and Cathedral Catholic face off in an epic SoCal clash đź’Ą

www.rugbyriot.com/p/torrey-pines-cathedral-catholic-epic-clash

Luke Zehmke, Charlotte Catholic, grounds the ball for the first try of the game against Hough on Tuesday night.
Credit: Shel Powell

Big hit during last year’s Torrey Pines/Cathedral Catholic match.
Expect more of this on Saturday…

Rankings Update ↕️

  • This week so far, Charlotte Catholic leapfrogged Hough after their win on Tuesday night, going from #4 to #3.

  • Orange Lutheran launched into the top 5 with a dominant win last week. But it’s only one game. Let’s see where they’re at in a few weeks - consistency is king.

  • The little movement arrows (ęś›green, ęśśred) reset every Tuesday morning. So check on Monday to see how everyone shifted from the previous week.

  • We have some new teams joining the fray this weekend, so stay up to date by checking the rankings page → Rankingsđź“Š

A quick note about the Rankings👆

These rankings are POINTS BASED, not opinion based.
Why is that important?

  • More games = more points (added or subtracted).

  • If you beat an opponent BUT they have played—and won—3 more games than you, it’s unlikely that you will immediately jump them in the rankings since their points total will be higher than yours. But beating them will certainly help close the gap.

  • An example: IF Torrey Pines beats Cathedral Catholic this weekend, that doesn’t guarantee they will jump them in the rankings. Why? Because Cathedral has played one more game than Torrey, and thus has an extra full game’s worth of points. But Torrey (or anyone) could catch up to Cathedral as the season goes along by consistently playing good rugby and beating opponents.

  • The goal is to be able to look at the Rankings at the end of the season and see who has been the most consistent. Think of it as a tool to track which teams are trending up and which are trending down.

  • Got questions? Just shoot us a note [email protected] 

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“Fundamentally, rugby is a not a contact sport. Rugby is an avoiding-contact sport.”

Blake White, coaching consultant

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Oddball musings, induced by borderline hypothermia.

🏉 Is there an ancestry .com for rugby? Because every hooker looks like they came from the same family tree.

🏉Match we’d love to see: Cathedral Catholic vs Charlotte Catholic. It would be an East Coast vs West Coast, Catholic vs Catholic showdown. Fun Fact: Both head coaches are from South Africa.

🏉 Why isn’t there a Skills Competition at Nationals? Most accurate kicker? Best scrummy throw? A rucking showdown? Club vs. Single School tug-of-war? Maybe make all the coaches arm wrestle…

That’s a wrap, gang!

Next week we’ll have more dope rugby stuff to share with you; scores, highlights, stories, RANKINGS UPDATES… 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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