Men’s Division 1 – December 2025 Recap

It’s the holiday season, and that means there’s slightly less rugby to cover than usual. Most of the competitions in the northern half of the country are off for the winter; either waiting to decide champions in the spring or already having crowned their champions in the fall. The southern teams are a bit more active, we have some matches from December to recap, but only a few weekends. So in addition to our recaps this month, we’re going to dive into a bit of a preview of what the spring will hold as well as a look at the history books to see how it’s played out in the past. There’s still plenty of USA Club Rugby content to devour while you’re waiting for the rugby to return in 2026. 

As always – all of this information comes straight from team-entered data on Rugby Xplorer. If you see something that doesn’t seem right, please first check on there or with your local GU! The historical data comes from a couple other sources, there’s been a fair amount of movement in divisions and leagues that no longer exist, so I did my best. Obviously I can make mistakes; please don’t hesitate to reach out if you notice something off.

Without further ado, let’s dive into the last USA Club Rugby recap of 2025; Men’s Division 1.

We covered the Midwest Men’s D1 championship last month, with the Chicago Lions taking the win in the final minutes over the St. Louis Bombers. What a thriller that one was. 

So what’s up next for the Lions? Well, they have a long break, plenty of time to work off all those holiday treats and hit the ground running in the spring. They will advance directly to the National Championship tournament, likely taking on the Pacific representative*, though that is still TBD. 

The Chicago Lions have never won a D1 XV National Championship, nor featured in the championship match, though they did win the National 7s Championship in 2021 and were runners up this past year. Over the last ten National Championships, the Midwest representative has appeared only once; the St. Louis Bombers took the title in 2024 with a 26-25 win over Belmont. It is also worth mentioning that back in 2023 the Chicago Griffins defeated New York Old Blue in the semifinal, but were immediately found to have played an ineligible player, thus required to forfeit their berth to the National Championship game. Even if you count that as an appearance in the final, that’s still only two for the last ten years for the Midwest.

Now what does that mean for the Lions this year? Honestly nothing. It’s just fun to look at the history and play with the stats. Either way, we’re not going to know how the Lions compare until at least April; Chicago will be buried under snow until then.

*Based on last year’s final results, Midwest lost to Atlantic in the semi-final, who lost to Pacific in the final; one could expect 1v4 to pit Pacific against Midwest. But seriously do not quote me on this. 

Over in the Mid-Atlantic region, the regular season is over and we’ve got the semifinals scheduled for the weekend of April 11th. Schuylkill River (4-2) will host NOVA (4-2) and Rocky Gorge (4-1-1) will host the Potomac Exiles (3-1-2). 

Schuylkill and NOVA last went head to head on October 11th, with Schuylkill taking the win 50-33. The two have identical records and identical table points, the only difference is the overall point differential; Schuylkill has +92 while NOVA only has +27. In the regular season, Schuylkill lost to the Potomac Exiles and the Washington Irish while NOVA took their second loss from Rocky Gorge. As far as National Championship experience goes, both have had their opportunities. Schuylkill were National runners-up in 2022, but NOVA made the trip to the final four in 2024. Schuylkill won the Mid-Atlantic last year, but NOVA won the 7s National title this year. Based on the stats, it’s going to be a pretty solid match-up.

The other semifinal pits top of the table Rocky Gorge against the Potomac Exiles. Now when those two faced off on September 27th, it was a 14-14 tie. Doesn’t get much closer than that. Rocky Gorge had that one loss at the end of the season to Schuylkill, but they already wrapped up the top seed by that point, so how much stake can we put in that match? Potomac not only tied Rocky Gorge, they also tied Baltimore Chesapeake (who finished sixth overall) the weekend before. Their one loss of the season came at the hands of NOVA, back on opening weekend. This semifinal is also a rematch of last year’s semifinal, where the Exiles took the win over the higher-ranked Rocky Gorge 24-17. Back in 2023, the two played in the semi again, that time Rocky Gorge taking the win 17-15. The history books tell us that this will be an epic match.

As far as how the Atlantic teams stack up when it comes to Nationals XV titles, they’ve had a fair amount of representation. Over the last ten tournaments, Atlantic teams have featured in nine championship matches, winning five titles. But that’s Atlantic teams as a whole, including representation from the American Rugby Premiership [ARP]. Currently the MAC champion plays the Empire/New England champion for the berth to the final four; historically this has included the Life Running Eagles from down in Georgia when they were playing in the ARP. So what do I mean by that? Mid-Atlantic teams have only been in one of the last ten National Championship matches, and that was Schuylkill coming in second in 2022. The other eight appearances have been: Life Running Eagles (two titles), NYAC (1 title, 1 runner-up), Mystic River (2 titles), and Old Blue (2 runner-up). This does go to show that whoever wins the MAC, if they can take down the New England/Empire champion, they have a great shot at a final appearance, if not a title. 

Up in Northern California, the season kicks off in January, so this section is all preview. The competition is a D1/D2 hybrid, with two D1 sides and five D2 sides. Life West and Olympic Club are the two D1 representatives this year. They are currently scheduled for six matches, home OR away against all opponents. NorCal will send their top team to the Pacific Super Regional at the end of the season to compete against the top PNW Premiership side (either Boise or Seattle), and the top two from Southern California. The Pacific is the only region that has full Men’s D1 semifinals and finals at their Super Regional, proving that the competition is fierce on the west coast. Last year Life West won both matches over Olympic Club; the first 42-26 in March, the second 52-39 in April. The last time Olympic Club took the victory over Life West was back in May of 2023, when a game-ending try by Sina Tuncer vaulted O-Club into the lead, final score 17-14.

Both Life West and O-Club have their share of experience on the National scene. Life West won the D2 National title back in 2015 over Wisconsin, while Olympic Club took the D2 title in 2019 over Atlanta Old White. 

Life West’s first match this year is scheduled for January 24th, against D2 East Palo Alto, while Olympic Club takes to the pitch on January 31st, hosting last year’s D2 champions, Silicon Valley. The big match of the season will be on February 14th when Olympic Club hosts Life West. The winner will most likely be the one representing NorCal in the Super Regional, so there’s a lot on the line. 

The Pacific Northwest has two Men’s D1 teams, both playing in the hybrid D1/D2 conference. Seattle Rugby Club were the resident D1 side, but were joined by Boise United this year, after a couple of standout seasons from the Idaho club. The two teams already played twice in the fall, but we’re unsure whether there will be one final qualification match in the spring. The first game was back in September with Seattle hosting; final score fell 51-17 in favor of the home side. The second was only a few weeks later, but held in Boise. This one was much closer, with Boise coming within four points of Seattle’s four converted tries. We’re not sure if this confirms Seattle as the postseason representative, or if the two will play again in the spring, but we hope the latter. We know that Boise has the ability to defeat Seattle, they did so last year when they were still D2. Should they face off once more, it’ll certainly be an epic game.

As mentioned in the NorCal and SoCal summary, the winning team will head to the Pacific Super Regional to play the winner of NorCal (either Life West or Olympic Club) and the top two seeds from SoCal. The winner of the Super Regional will advance to the National Championship final four. The last time a PNW Men’s D1 team made it to Nationals was when Seattle represented the Pacific region in 2023. There they fell to the Austin Blacks in one of the most intense matches in USA Club Rugby history (my opinion – but I am right). The final score was 55-50, and Austin won it at the death. They went on to smother Old Blue in the final; if it were Seattle that made it through, they probably would have a trophy in their case right now. 

We’re still waiting for a formal schedule to be posted in Rugby Xplorer from SoCal, but I’ve gone on a deep dive to social media to source what I can! The reigning National Champions, Belmont Shore, headline this league. They will take on Santa Monica, Old Mission Beach Athletic [OMBAC], Eagle Rock, the Old Aztecs, and the recently promoted Oceanside Chiefs in the regular season before the league semifinals and final at the end of March and start of April. From there, the top two teams will advance to the Pacific Super Regional where they will take on the PNW Champion (either Seattle or Boise) and the NorCal Champion (either Life West or Olympic Club). 

Southern California teams have three appearances in the last ten National Championships, and all of them have been Belmont Shore. Belmont were runners-up in both 2018 and 2024, both losses by a single point. They finally won the title last year with a 27-12 win over New York Old Blue. If we go back a bit further in NCS history, you’ll see a massive trend of SoCal dominance: OMBAC won six titles between 1988-1996, Santa Monica won back to back in 2005 and 2006, the Las Vegas Blackjacks won in 2010, and Belmont took their first title in 2012. 

There was a little bit of preseason action from December, Belmont and Santa Monica were joined by Olympic Club from NorCal to do a little round robin on December 13th. Decent competition for a preseason hit out, this league will be tough come January. 

The regular season in Texas will also kick off in January, but we did have some preseason matches this past month to recap! Houston Athletic Rugby Club [HARC] had their first D1 hit out against the Austin Huns on December 15th. It was a close first half, but the Huns eventually found their groove and scored enough tries to comfortably take the lead. Final score 57-26. If it were a regular season match, HARC would have gotten a losing bonus point for scoring over four tries, which as we have learned time and time again, matters in the long run. The Dallas Harlequins also took to the pitch to warm up for the upcoming season; first against hometown rivals, the Dallas RFC, and then down in Houston against D2 Houston United [HURT]. Both games were wins for the Quins, who played a mix of D1 and lower division players. Friendlies can only tell us so much though, it all heats up when the regular season rolls around. 

At the end of league play, the Red River Champion will take on the Miami Tridents at the Gulf Coast Super Regional. The winner of that match will advance to the National Final Four. How does the Gulf Coast Region fare overall? Gulf Coast teams have been in seven of the last ten National Championship games, winning three titles. The Austin Blacks make up the majority of those appearances (1 title, 3 runner-up), while the Dallas RFC and Austin Huns each have a championship to their name. 

Looking forward to the upcoming season: on January 10th we will see the Huns and HARC face off again, while the Quins host the Austin Blacks. The following weekend will see the Dallas RFC jump into action when they travel to the Quins for Texas’ derby day. 

Florida’s regular season doesn’t kick off until the new year, so we’re stuck waiting until January 17th to see the start of the hybrid D1/D2 competition. The Miami Tridents are our only D1 side, so they automatically qualify for the Gulf Coast Super Regional final against the Red River Champion, no matter how they finish against their fellow Floridian D2 sides. The Tridents also participated in the ARP this year, playing in the South Conference against Life and Atlanta Premier Rugby. Honestly, it wasn’t great for the Tridents in the ARP, they lost all four matches; it is worth noting that Life won the whole thing, defeating Mystic River in the ARP Championship, so perhaps Miami were just unlucky to draw the best team in their conference. This whole D1 pathway is still relatively new for the Tridents, they won the D2 National Championship back in 2024, and moved up the following year, so be sure to give them some credit as they are growing into this division. For instance, last year they faced the Austin Blacks in the Gulf Coast final, falling 69-10. As Austin had won the 2023 D1 title, it’s a massive jump to make for a team who doesn’t have any local D1 competition. So we’re here for the Tridents. We’re looking forward to tracking their progress this season, and seeing what they bring to the Super Regional.