NCR Playoff Rugby
💥 Too many livestreams to list them all
📅 This weekend
📺 Watch here

LIT7s Sevens
📍 Bradenton, FL
📅 Saturday, November 29
📥 Sign up here.

🎥Brothers on Three
Info on this rugby film here.

⏱️High School 15s countdown
SoCal — December
North Carolina — December
Texas—December/January
NorCal—December

🇺🇸We have a number problem

3

That’s the number—by my rough calculation—of homegrown players on the Eagles traveling roster right now. I’m talking played-up-through-the-youth-and-high-school-ranks homegrown.

Just 3. On our NATIONAL TEAM.

Let me be clear. This is not a knock on the players sporting the jersey who aren’t of Star Spangled descent. You don’t need to be in Colonel Sanders’ bloodline to rep the USA.

But it’s startling that we’ve failed to identify and elevate more players from the robust youth and high school grassroots to our national squad.

If you needed any more proof that something is broken—this is it.

I will die on this hill: We have the talent right here in the U.S. We’re just not nurturing it properly.

Sidenote: I guarantee more Americans would tune in to our international matches if more homegrown players were on the field.

🎥NCR Playoffs loaded and ready to stream

We were going to make a list of livestreams you could tune into this weekend.
But NCR has so many games on deck that—honestly—we couldn’t fit them all in an email.

So instead, here’s where you can find every livestream for this weekend’s NCR playoff action: 📺 NCR Livestreams

Schedules haven’t been released yet, but the winter school season is just around the corner for SoCal and North Carolina.

When I spoke with SD Mustangs head coach Matty Sandoval over the summer, he pointed to a winter-season moment as the launch point behind their National Club Title run in May.

“You can’t talk about our (The Mustangs) national title run without talking about Torrey Pines vs Cathedral Catholic back in February.”

Spot on.

The winter season is the first sorting hat for regional club teams. The standouts on school teams often become the core of club selections once March rolls around and club season takes over.

Same goes for North Carolina. The Charlotte Cardinals and Charlotte Tigers—both imposing club squads—draw from the surrounding school talent to build competitive rosters.

We thought it would be fun to do a short preview of the coastal winter leagues and make some predictions (gasp!).

North Carolina this week. SoCal next week.
Enjoy!

Squads to watch:

South Meck won the whole damn thing last year despite a few hiccups during the regular season. When playoffs arrived, all the wrinkles were ironed out and they unleashed the beast in the state final, defeating Charlotte Catholic in a stunner.

Charlotte Catholic was the feel-good story of the year—going from 0–7 in 2024 to 7–0 in 2025 on their way to the final.

Hough looked sharp all season and played a crisp, disciplined brand of rugby that was genuinely fun to watch. Their season ended in heartbreak, though, when South Meck snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on a shocking final play of the semifinal.

Marvin Ridge had a down year by their standards, but they’re always a tough out and could be gearing up for a bounce-back season.

Every squad loses seniors each year. That’s part of the deal in high school sports. But some players leave a bigger hole than others. We’re curious to see how South Meck replaces Jameson Beatty, Jackson Wilson, the Flemings twins, and Quinn Miller. Last year’s state title would have been a much heavier lift without that bunch.

Charlotte Catholic and Hough lost some studs too. Vince Keller and Finley Costello (Catholic) and Porter Kuebler and Andre Brown (Hough) are the first names that come to mind, among others.

Youngsters emerge every year though, and we’re stoked to see how kids like Miles Caples—Charlotte Catholic’s Paul Bunyan-esque sophomore 8-man—rises to the occasion. Luke Zehmke returns in his junior year, bringing power and great defense to the Catholic back line. While Hough returns the decisive Max Colson at flyhalf and the bruiser, Kai Campbell, at 8-man.

Ah man… why did I sign up for this?
If you twisted my arm, I’d predict a Hough vs Charlotte Catholic state final. But I wouldn’t be shocked if South Meck makes a push for the title too—I just feel that the number of seniors they lost is going to make the mountain harder to climb this season.
Second Prediction: South Meck HC Rick Norvell will provide the best quote of the season… possibly while blasting my first prediction.

👉Hey West Coast teams! Think all this North Carolina talk doesn’t apply to you? Think again, boys.
At nationals this past year, you played the Cardinals and the Tigers—both from North Carolina, both loaded with players from the teams listed above. I recommend you don’t tune out just because they’re 2,100 miles away—cause you might be tackling a freight train named Miles Caples in Elkhart next spring 👀

🗓️ Next week — SoCal winter season preview!

Spencer Huntley and Corbin Smith are doing us proud over in the UK. Both of them made the starting XV for Hartpury University in their big time matchup against Cardiff Met this week. And they both played very well.

Corbin—a Connecticut native and former Trumbull player—scored a beautiful try, while Spencer was superb on defense and commanded the breakdown very well at scrumhalf.

The game was insanely fast and entertaining.

Check it out here 👇

A big clash on neutral ground.

Arizona and Lindenwood face off this weekend in Glendale, Colorado for what should be a cracker.

Lindenwood has been a force this fall, most recently posting a dominant 50–10 win over Davenport—their biggest margin over Davenport since 2018.

Arizona’s looking hot as well, and they’re stacked with familiar names from the high school ranks:

Both teams are undefeated. Both are dialed in.

This one should be a showdown.

📍Infinity Park, Glendale CO
⌚️1pm MST, November 15th
🎥 Find it here on game day.

What do you think?

Oddball musings, thanks to the cold tub.

🏉 Got this message yesterday: “Your rugby ball icon emoji looks like a sh*tty football.”
Newsflash—I don’t design the emojis. Like this one 🏉or this one 🏉 or this one 🏉
Excellent feedback though, mate.

🏉 Somebody help me out. The CRAA has games happening, but on their website I cannot find a schedule OR a link to any livestreams. What gives?