Division I Senior Clubs Spring Forward

A lot of attention will focus on those USA Club Rugby Division I leagues that are sending champions to the Pacific Super Regional Championship (SRC) this year. Part of that focus is, simply, that three of the four competitions are fully active at this time of year. But also, the only other SRC that will feature a full, four-team bracket is Atlantic, which won’t resume its season until March 15. The Midwest, which is essentially the Northern SRC, named its champ in the fall, and there is no DI playoff in the Gulf Coast SRC this year.

RELATED: Jan. 14 update • SRC Details x 4

NORCAL fired up last weekend, and Life West is the lone DI team in the otherwise DII competition. The Gladiatrix put a handful of former WPL players onto the pitch against DII San Jose, but not overwhelming so. The day produced a 70-12 win for the Hayward program, and saw wing Uinise Hokafonu (3) and lock Beth Sherbo (2, lead photo) score multiple tries. Flyhalf Evelyn Varela-Wilkerson contributed 13 points on a try and four conversions. Life West will play DII East Palo Alto this Saturday, March 1.

The RED RIVER Premiership is also a DI/DII hybrid league, and all three DI teams hail from Texas. The competition is a split season, but the previous 30 days saw more DI vs. DI games. The Houston Athletic Rugby Club (sHARC, 2-1-1) and Dallas Harlequins (4-1) have traded wins with each other — the first going 24-19 to sHARC, and the Feb. 15 rematch going 17-15 to the Quins. The Austin Valkyries (2-2-1) aren’t out of the running, having tied sHARC 20-20 on Feb. 1, but last Saturday’s 55-5 loss to Dallas signaled a gap. T’yara Blades, who was called off the bench early in the match, led with three tries, and scrumhalf and MVP Madison Ohmann-Wilson kicked four conversions for the Quins.

 

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It’s worth noting that the Texas champ — which will be named on April 12 between the top-two DI teams in the standings — will advance directly to the national championship semifinals on May 16, thus bypassing the SRC stage (source). Last year, the Gulf Coast SRC held a playoff match between the Texas champ (sHARC) and Rocky Mountain champ (Utah Vipers) to determine one of the four national semifinalist berths, and the Vipers won 46-5. This year, the Rocky Mountain champ will head to the Pacific SRC (more detail below).

SOCAL is halfway through its season, as all four teams have played each other once. The rematches will occur from March 1-29, and then April 5 semifinals and an April 12 finale will follow. San Diego improved to 3-0 last Saturday, defeating Belmont Shore (0-3) 66-0. Flyhalf Lauren Thunen (4) and reserve Paris Jones (2) scored multiple tries, and Richie Walker chose openside flanker Jade Ng as Player of the Match. This Saturday, the Surfers host Tempe (2-1), who played San Diego to a four-point loss in January.

Santa Monica (1-2) was active last weekend, too, and hosted the Utah Vipers in a non-league match. The Rocky Mountain team is isolated from DI competition, with only two teams — Colorado Gray Wolves and Denver Black Ice — on its regular-season schedule. So the Vipers do what they can to bulk up their schedule, and SoCal — especially now that it’s only four teams this year — is a solid option. The 2024 national championship runner-up beat the Dolphins 70-0 on Saturday.

 

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The ROCKY MOUNTAIN regular season resumes on March 8, when the Vipers travel to the Gray Wolves. Denver Black Ice will also be on the road, traveling to SoCal to face Santa Monica — what a host! The league champion will for the first time feature in the Pacific SRC (April 25-27) in Las Vegas. Previously, this location only included the DI champs from SoCal and Pacific Northwest, but with the addition of DI Life West to NorCal this spring, there was an opportunity to create a four-team bracket if the Rocky Mountain champs also flowed to Las Vegas.

The PACIFIC NORTHWEST resumed action this past weekend, and its two DI teams got their rematch in. Seattle battled to a 14-0 win against ORSU (which saw all three A’au sisters on the pitch together again). Illinois-Urbana Champaign grad and No. 8 Alina Ampeh and hooker Sydnee Kimber scored the tries, and fullback Valerie Bank converted both. Seattle has three more regular season games, and the March 22 rematch against DII Portland is one to circle on the calendar. The DI PNW final is April 5, and the victor will head to Las Vegas for the SRCs.

Curious about the Division II space? Read more.