Life, Jesuit, United grab crowns

Life erased an 11-point halftime deficit to upend St. Mary's 16-14, adding USARFU's 2013 collegiate 15s title to its 2011 7s championship.

Separately, Jesuit and United nabbed high school and under-19 crowns with 21-16 and 24-10 wins over Gonzaga and Cathedral, respectively.

In Greensboro, North Carolina, the Gaels moved to a 14-3 edge behind converted tries from fullback Tim Maupin and center Mike Haley, but were shut down in the second stanza.

Running Eagle fullback Joe Cowley booted a penalty goal and then scored in the corner to narrow the gap to 14-11. Prop Drew Ohmann's 56th-minute try then gave Life its first lead while closing out the scoring in a match marred by second-half rainstorm.

In Elkhart, Indiana, a pair of tries from Devin Kelly helped Jesuit of Sacramento, California, capture a back-and-forth contest with Washington's Gonzaga. The win earned the Marauders their seventh US title.

Throttled by Indianapolis' Cathedral in the 2012 championship, Alpine, Utah's United this year turned the tables with a convincing four-try showing. The 2010 champs moved out to a 17-5 halftime edge en route to its second national crown.

Despite 2013's being the first year of independent organization, the single-school field was notably deep. In recent years Gonzaga, Charlotte, California's Dixon, and Utah's Herriman -- which dropped an 18-17 opening match to Jesuit -- have all made notable gains.

In the senior division 1 playoffs, unheralded New Orleans bested PAC and Minnesota's Metropolis, 57-8 and 15-10 respectively, to reach the final four.

Former Super League teams produced the remaining three qualifiers for the June 1-2 semifinals: Denver Barbarians, Life, and Old Puget Sound Beach. San Francisco Golden Gate, which withdrew its entrant from the division 1 playoffs, meets Life this weekend for the Elite Cup championship.

Some 30 national team hopefuls mustered in Glendale, Colorado, this past weekend in preparation for May 25's Pacific Nations Cup opener against Canada. The squad includes for recalls for prop Mike MacDonald, hooker Phil Thiel, flanker Peter Dahl, and utility back Troy Hall as well as the balance of America's overseas professionals. Twenty-four will travel to Edmonton for the first-round contest.

United States of America training squad
Forwards: Chris Biller (San Francisco Golden Gate), Todd Clever (NTT), Tom Coolican (New York AC), John Cullen (Univ. of Utah), Peter Dahl (Belmont Shore), Cam Dolan (Life), Brian Doyle (New York AC), Zach Fenoglio (Glendale), Eric Fry (London Scottish), Graham Harriman (Chicago Griffins), Mike MacDonald (Olympic Club), Liam Murphy (Boston), Shawn Pittman (Trinity College), John Quill (Dolphin), Louis Stanfill (Vicenza), Phil Thiel (Life), Nick Wallace (St. Mary's)
Backs: Shaun Davies (Glendale), Troy Hall (New York AC), Luke Hume (Old Blue), Seamus Kelly (Univ. of California), Toby L'Estrange (New York AC), Chad London (Glendale), Zach Pangelinan (OMBAC), James Paterson (Glendale), Chris Saint (Houston Athletic), Blaine Scully (undeclared), Robbie Shaw (Richmond), Adam Siddal (Old Blue), Andrew Suniula (Chicago Griffins)

Comments

[Middy]

Holy cow - Army must have done something really bad!

http://www.rugbymag.com/college-news/8118-army-rugby-suspended-out-of-crc.html

[oh my]

where were the fans in Greensboro?

[Rollie Massimino]

Villanova will replace West Point in the CRC.

http://www.rugbymag.com/tournaments-special/crc/8119-crc-confirms-army-out-villanova-in-.html

[Fake it till you make it]

So what happen at Army? Must have been bad because there is some big money invested into rugby at West Point by some influential alumni.

What's the odds the rugby media does any decent reporting on this news?

[Ghost of General Patton]

There won't be anything to report. The academy isn't going to release any information and I doubt anyone connected to the team will talk.

Can't blame the rugby media (such as it is) for that.

[Fake it till you make it]

If it is a behavior issues of the nature of boys being boys, someone in the know will talk because they don't like the severity of the punishment and will want to get public opinion to hopefully pressure the administration to reduce the punishment. If it is something horrible like a sexual assault or criminal activity, the news will most likely come out in the regular media. If it is some Army specific thing, then we probably will not hear about the offence.

[Grant]

The US rugby media (such as we are) will leave it alone. Why? Because only the gossip hounds that have nothing else better to do want to know what really happened. And because we all are smart enough to know that if we dig deep and report on negative stories like this, the coaches and administrators of not only the affected organization, but also many others, will close ranks and cease to talk to us. Finally, there are many more rugby stories that deserve telling and we only have so many hours to dedicate to our craft after our 70hr/wk real jobs release us.

[Fake it till you make it]

@Grant

Your view seems pretty shortsighted, and even protectionist. I suspect your motives in this case is to report the truth, and thus your credibility should be in question.

What if the issue is worth reporting so that it helps other collegiate programs not make the same mistake?

[Fake it till you make it]

...not to report the truth...

[Grant]

@Fake

You are above an "ad hominem" response.

Rugby - at any level - does not need an example to know what NOT to do. Mistakes are made, corrective and disciplinary action is taken. If they don't understand that, doom on them.

[mongrel]

New Orleans Rugby Club on a pretty decent run. Not bad for a club that was barely alive playing D3 in 2005.

[Just the Facts]

Riiiiiight only gossip hounds want to know what happened...

Rugby Media in this country is pathetic as is, and this is just another example of why.

This is one of the premier teams in the country being suspended for "administrative action" and it seems rugbymag has cleaned up its own release and taken away the words "indefinitely". So you dont think any questions deserved to be answered???? How long are they suspended? Has the coach and administration been let go? Is this a black eye for the CRC as its well known that the connection between Army and the CRC is pretty tight, to say the least. And what does that mean for the CRC?

This isnt a baseball player from the 1920's that you need to protect so you get better access for a story later down the road.

But some reporting from such a "stellar" member of the "rugby media", such as you are... is well deserved.

[Katrina does not get the last word]

@Mongrel - You are right.

Kudos to them for finding ways to improve, for continuing to seek out greater challenges, and for then succeeding at those.

I don't see them winning any more games this year, but what they've done is awesome.

[Go Army]

What does this Army thing mean for Rich P? He seems an unlikely coach for the USMA.

[Fake it till you make it]

The two top collegiate competitions in the country are marred by 2 top 10 teams being sanctioned in the same season and Grant's take is that there is nothing to see here, move on. Obviously Rugby Mag is going to do nothing because they're owned by USA Sevens who produce the CRC. The CRC is looking more like the Philly Collegiate Keg League 7s than an elite competition.

[Event(er)]

Building events 101

Nuetral events do not work in America for rugby, hard enough around the world.

CRC is widening the non branded school dialogue while trying to fill the stadium. No easy task.

How many colleges have an event once a year, let alone use campus stadiums, charge, etc. USA Rugby does not mandate anything, so they are building the value proposition and yes include local teams to help facilitate the growth.

The organizers make no assumption that they have an invitational, only that they are growing towards the way of merit entry and fans and sponsorship.

NBC today or at the start however need to push to the national audience that this is an event with merit, there in lies the balance.

So, support the CRC by watching or going, or just your local school/team even if you did not go there (alumnus) or play there like we do for all other sports and we start to fix the dialogue on who is and is not invited.

If you disagree name one venue in the last 15 years where more than 300-500 people watched any event outside the Eagles where both teams were "away."

[Show Me The IRB Money]

How is the CRC "widening the non branded school dialogue"?

[Event(er)]

smt irb m

Life & Kutztown this year and they are talking to other schools about multiple qualifying tournaments outside of just LVI. NBC said categorically we cannot put your normal/traditional rugby teams on TV we must put brands the american public know. Educating about rugby and brands is not the recipe for success, i.e. ratings. Couple this with the newness of who is and who is not good in the 7's v 15's space, when teams play (season) and how hard creating new commercially successfual sports are you either say yes to the opportunity with those challenges or say no and leave 5m people who would have seen or in this case have now seen rugby to watch X games or MMA.

[Show Me The IRB Money]

The LVI wasn't a qualifier this year.

[college]

I'm surprised Shawn Davies isnt on the roster for Canada.

[Deal with it]

Agree NOLA has made great strides. But just 3 league games? What is wrong with Rugby in the South? Why aren't other D2 clubs stepping up to D1? Scared to recruit, work hard and compete? (Not USAR's fault)

[backrow]

Is Taylor Mokate injured? Really surprised not to see his name on the roster.

[Katrina does not get the last word]

Three games? That sucks on every level. Why don't they just join Texas RFU? (I think TRFU has OK and LA teams.) That might get them a lot more competition. Who wants to just play three games?

[Old Boy Rugger]

I heard that there were more players on the field then in the stands with Life vs St Mary's. Can anyone confirm this ?

Either way St Mary's needs to go to Varsity Cup.
Life can join Miss Mary's school of Hairdressers rugby league.

[D1A]

Just saw the reply of the webcast on ESPNU. To start Hightower is getting better but he was teamed with John Morgan who hasn't seen a game in 15 years, he was terrible.

The game wasn't so great either, we must have better referees, the guy had a shocker. The best part of which he loses his cool and tells the entire broadcast audience "my balls he did". Then realizes he having an out of body experience and says he's sorry to anyone who will listen over the 10 minute.

300-400 fans to start, then it fell off with the rain. It was in Life's backyard and they had only 100 overweight fans in day-glow LIFE tees.

Shouldn't we expect more from a USA Rugby National Championship?

[No sport gets taken seriously without fit fans.]

God, overweight fans? Those are the worst! What a disgrace.

[Pete]

I watched the replay of the Life V St Marys game. I happened to walk away from the tv at half but left it on so I could hear the start of play. I wasn't paying attention to the time but I heard play by play again and went out and noticed that it was already 17 minutes into the second half. I hit rewind/reverse to see how Life scored 16 points but to my shock they went from half to 17 minutes in to the second half. I turned it off at that point b/c I knew that was going to be the outcome.

A few comments about Hightower/John F Morgan:

I thought Hightower was about what I would expect from an ESPNU play by play guy: Decent but a little rough/inexperience but what else would you expect for a rugby play by play guy in the US? It's not as if there is rugby on broadcast tv every week. He was 10x better than the crew for the BYU V Cal game. The only real issue, which was comical, was Hightower kepting calling Life "Life College".

John F Morgan is a straight Donk. I think any "rugby player" in the country could have done just as well as John F Morgan. His added comments are why I hate watching games with fellow rugby players. You know half informed, gotta say something because there is action on the field type of responses. It reminded me of the commentary I have running in my head, which is brothersome enough.

[Confused]

So, when did Greensboro become Life's back yard? That's one giant yard seeing as Greensboro is something like 5-6 hours from Marietta. That's like saying Washington DC is in Cleveland's back yard.

Feel free to whine away about everything perdoesn't the normrugby here but really? Back yard?