Games and scores for girls and women’s rugby games occurring in the U.S. from Friday-Sunday, March 11-3, 2022. The lineup also includes international games that feature U.S. players. Send updates to Jackie Finlan. [Photo courtesy Highland Lady Buzzards]
INTERNATIONAL
Saturday, March 12
USA Falcons 31-23 Wales
Sunday, March 13
USA v Australia (7s) Watch Live
Australia 14-5 USA
Australia 41-0 USA
Australia 31-5 USA
Australia 15-0 USA
CLUB
DI EAST
Charlotte 14-5 Philadelphia
EPRU
Northeast Irish – South Jersey CLD
FLORIDA
Tampa 82-0 Jacksonville
MID-AMERICA
OKC Crusaders def Wichita (7s)
NORCAL
San Jose – Life West
Berkeley 40-19 East Palo Alto
Sacramento – Reno
RED RIVER
San Antonio 50-22 Austin DII
Bay Area def Round Rock
ROCKY MOUNTAIN
Boulder – Denver Black Ice
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Portland 47-15 Tacoma
SOCAL
Santa Monica 45-5 San Diego
Tempe 77-0 Belmont Shore
Fullerton – Santa Barbara
Riverside – San Fernando CLD
SOUTHWEST
OP Lightning 26-12 Albuquerque
Las Vegas 86-17 Phoenix
TRUE SOUTH
Memphis – Knoxville
COLLEGE
BLUE RIDGE
East Carolina fft to UVA
CAPITAL
Towson – John Hopkins CLD
DI ELITE
New York RC 32-12 Penn State
Lindenwood 31-5 Chicago North Shore
Central Washington 34-5 Seattle RC
FLORIDA
Florida International fft to Eckerd
PACIFIC DESERT
CSU Long Beach fft to San Diego State
PACIFIC MOUNTAIN
Cal fft to Fresno State
Chico State fft to UC Davis
WEST COAST
San Jose State 37-19 Santa Clara Univ
7s: Cal Poly v CSU Monterey Bay
7s: UN Reno, USF @ Sac State
ST PATRICK’S TOURNAMENT
UCF 71-0 NC State
UCF 26-24 Notre Dame College
HIGH SCHOOL
EGRL
Doylestown – West Carroll
North Bay – Aspetuck
IDAHO
Division 1
Owyhee – Capital
Eagle – Rocky Mountain
Mountain View – Centennial
Meridian 87-5 Idaho Falls
Division 2
Timberline 24-14 Middleton
Emmett 43-0 Mountain Home/Magic Valley
NORCAL
15s: Lamorinda – SacPAL Amazons
15s: Land Park – Overfelt
15s: Carondelet 36-30 Bishop O’Dowd
10s: Mother Lode, Berkeley, Marin, Elk Grove
10s: Pleasanton – Liberty
10s: Milpitas, Wolverines, East Palo Alto
NORTH CAROLINA
Charlotte Cardinals – Raleigh Redhawks
Clayton – Raleigh Cobras
Greer – Wando
TENNESSEE
Spring Hill – Riverdale
ICRON – TRIBE
TEXAS
State 7s Rd 3 @ Fort Worth
UTAH
Majestics 45-0 Wasatch
United 62-17 Hurricane
Provo 45-0 Mountain Ridge
All Comments
Lots of recruitment work needs to be done at the following schools: Sacramento State, Cal State Monterey Bay, University of San Francisco, St. Mary’s College. These schools have had trouble getting fifteen on the pitch this season, though in seasons past they did not. They’ve had to do 7s on some weekends with the other schools they were scheduled to play. Covid has played a part, trying to meet protocols this season, as well as a missing season last year for everyone. CSUMB had a problem right off the bat when the school year started for the men’s and women’s teams with an on-field trainer not supplied by the university as it has before, due to some changes in contractor worker law in California, meaning they could play no home games. They played one away game of XVs back in December at San Jose State. So, overall, the West Coast Division Two had Santa Clara, San Jose State, UC Santa Cruz, U of Nevada-Reno, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as the five schools who could compete in fifteens competition in each and every game for the season that is now, for all practical purposes, done, unless some of the other schools can get fifteen players on the pitch for any games still left on the schedule.
Congratulations then to San Jose State for winning the division overall with an undefeated record, and to Santa Clara for having a very good year with a new coach, Michelle Coleman, Class of ’17. I’m sure Cal Poly and Reno will rebuild their forces. Now it’s time for those other schools to do their part so that the 2023 season will have more matches with 30 players on the pitch at kick off.
One final note: it’s not unusual that there’s a web and flow in rugby. I’ve been involved in rugby since 1973, my frosher year at Santa Clara. At that time, colleges and clubs played each other. There were rarely any trainers on the pitch, women’s rugby was still two or three seasons away from reality. Playoffs didn’t exist, but there were the end of season tournaments in Monterey, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco. Many of the top rugby schools today didn’t have women’s rugby for a few decades, the 90’s, while stalwarts like UC Davis, Stanford, and Cal Berkeley have always had teams since the mid and late 70’s. Rugby, it has been said for decades, is the fastest growing sport in America. It’s time for recruiting, organizing, and having a good and reasonable relationship with club sports administrators to live up to that promise in West Coast Division 2. One recruiting tool could be to find out who is not happy playing basketball, softball, water polo, or soccer and tell them if they played rugby they’d be playing and not sitting on the bench!