HS Teams: Get Nationally Ranked!

Nationwide girls’ high school rugby rankings are tough. Consistently accurate, timely and easily sourced information is not the standard, although there are some notable exceptions at the local level (Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Wisconsin come to mind). But rankings are a worthy exercise. The lists educate the public on the larger rugby picture, and in the case of high school nationals, help seed participants and identify rising talent for future invites. The Girls XV Nationals Committee is taking on the challenge of well informed high school rankings and has launched its own initiative that hinges on the participation of the teams themselves. [lead photo: Jackie Finlan / TRB]

RELATED: Match report form

“While nothing is infallible, we’re building a more accurate and up-to-date national ranking system based on real match results submitted directly by teams,” explained Alicia Tice, one of six Girls XV Nationals Committee members who is based out of Charlotte, N.C. “Instead of relying on reputation and spending days scouring thousands of outdated social media accounts and websites, we are looking to [teams] to help provide real-time context where it historically has not been available.”

 

The committee’s rankings would combine both club and single-school teams into one list, and employ a modified World Rugby points system and NCAA ranking system. Rankings would update every 3-4 weeks. The hook is the participation of the teams themselves and their consistent usage of this match report form, which includes required fields for basic information as well as many optional fields that provide context to the match. For example, was the game a developmental opportunity? Were star players missing? Was the match an abbreviated tournament game?

“Our goal is to create a fair, data-driven system that recognizes performance across all regions; accounts for strength of schedule and match context; and gives every team the opportunity to be seen,” Tice explained. “The more teams participate, the stronger and more representative the rankings will be. Quite simply, teams that do not submit results will not be accurately represented in our rankings.”

The deadline for match results is the Tuesday of each week for matches played the previous weekend. The committee will not be soliciting teams for submissions; the onus is entirely on the teams themselves to self-report. And both teams may submit a match report for the same match.

 

The committee will be using the rankings to seed teams into the 2026 single-school and high school club national 15s tournaments this May 15-16 in Salt Lake City.

“I foresee teams that consider themselves to be more competitive to put a little bit more effort into it,” Tice noted. “Nonetheless, it should help us seed teams for the National Tournament and hopefully identify teams that should be added to our invite list for the 2027 tournament.”

For more information on the rankings, e-mail the Girls XV Nationals Committee at girlsrugbynationalsxvs@gmail.com, and to learn more about nationals, visit the organization’s Instagram page at @girlsrugbyxvsnationals.

Girls XV Nationals Committee Board Members

Chris Kovac, Chairman – Boise, Idaho (Rocky Mountain RFC)

Brian Ahern – Raritan, N.J. (Morris RFC)

Matt Frank – Buffalo, N.Y. (City Honors WRFC)

Robert Pahulu – Long Beach, Calif. (Belmont Shore RFC)

Kraig Smikel – Eagle, Idaho (Eagle HS Rugby)

Alicia Tice – Rock Hill, S.C. (formerly Charlotte Cardinals)

Letizia Kailiola Ika Wolfgramm – Salt Lake City, Utah (Majestics Rugby)