It may be a new calendar year, but we’re only halfway through the USA Club Rugby 25-26 season. However, January does mark the start of league play in most of our warmer-weather regions. They will dominate the lion’s share of this article as competitions in the North have either finished or remain on winter break until the spring. We’ll still be sure to note what happened in the fall or what lies ahead for playoffs in those competitions.
All of the information gathered for these articles come from the team-entered data on Rugby Xplorer. This means that the more accurate your team is about entering data, the more detail I can go into in these recaps. The power is in your hands. Or your team’s admin’s hands… If there does happen to be a mistake – feel free to reach out; I’m always in the interest of providing the most accurate information. Any additional commentary is added just for fun; from someone who has zero stake in the outcomes of these matches.
Now that we’ve covered that (or skipped over it because you’re a regular reader of the monthly recaps), it’s time for some rugby! Let’s kick it off with what’s happened in the Men’s Division 1 Competition.
Northern Super Regional
Midwest Men’s D1
No news in the Midwest. The Chicago Lions defeated the St. Louis Bombers back in November to earn their spot in the National Final Four, but they’ve still got a ways to go before they find out who they are playing. For more information about how this season wrapped up – check out the November Recap!
Atlantic Super Regional
Mid-Atlantic Men’s D1
Nothing has changed from the last recap; the next thing on our calendar is the semifinals scheduled for 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. Both semifinals are sure to provide edge of your seat action.
Pacific Super Regional
Northern California Men’s D1
We’ve got a hybrid D1/D2 competition in NorCal this year, so we’re just going to cover the action that takes place with our Division 1 teams in this section. For the rest of the D2 competition, check out the Men’s D2 Recap!
Life West (2-0) has two matches under their belts already, and they look pretty strong. Their first game was a 42-29 barnburner against D2 East Palo Alto. Joshua Allen scored in the first minute for Life West, setting the tone for the match, but EPA wasn’t to be taken lightly. The Razorbacks scored next, and the two teams traded blow for blow the entire first half. The score was 21-17 entering the sheds, still very much up for grabs for either team. Life West scored twice early in the second half, pulling away from EPA and making the deficit harder to topple. Despite the final try tally at Life West’s six to EPA’s five, it was the goal-kicking that stood out for the Gladiators. Louis Penent was perfect off the tee, kicking six for six in the match. The next match for Life West was much more cut and dry. The Gladiators dumped 118 points on D2 San Jose in a painful 18-try slaughter. Jordan Sandoval scored four for Life West on the day, and after slotting 12 conversion kicks, Penent finally took a break and shared the kicking duties with Maxime Rieuf, who added two.
Olympic Club (0-1) only kicked their season off this past weekend and they opened with a loss against D2 Silicon Valley. The score was locked even in the final minutes, thanks to a late try from O-Club’s Satchel Sevenau, but Silicon Valley managed to score at the death to take the win 38-33. Silicon Valley represented NorCal at the Pacific Super Regional last year, making it all the way to the final where they fell to Boise (who ended up 2nd in the Nation).
Olympic Club will get their next chance at clocking a win when they take on D2 San Jose on February 7th. Life West’s next one is against Sacramento the same day. On February 14th we’ll get to see the D1 heavyweights go head to head at Life West, the first test to see who will advance to regionals. It’s going to be a spicy season in Northern California that’s for sure.
Pacific Northwest Premiership
The Seattle Orcas defeated Boise United twice in the fall, cementing their place at the top of the table. However, the last game was a close one, final score 28-24. We get to see these two face off twice more this season, both in March. Boise will host Seattle on March 14th, then Seattle will host the final match of the season on March 28th. Now that playoff qualification is on the line, the stakes are even higher. They’ll each get a run out before the March 14th game; Seattle will host the Bend Roughriders and ORSU, while Boise will travel to the Tacoma Nomads in early March.
Southern California Men’s D1
We’ve got plenty of action to cover from Southern California who kicked off their season on January 10th. Our top two teams from last year have narrowed the gap even more as they both start their seasons off tied with 3-0-1 records. Yep, Belmont Shore and OMBAC tied their first head to head of the season 33-33. You may recall that last year OMBAC defeated Belmont in the SoCal final 34-33 after splitting their regular season matches; they just had to make it even closer this year. Outside of that tie, they’ve both been reasonably dominant in the rest of their matches. Eagle Rock (1-3) came within eight points of Belmont in their January 31st match, but failed to score four or more tries, losing out on both bonus points.
Santa Monica (2-2) are third on the table thanks to two wins over Eagle Rock and the Old Aztecs (1-3). Their match against Eagle Rock was particularly tight, with all of Santa Monica’s points coming in the first half. Eagle Rock managed to creep back close enough to get two losing bonus points, but the Dolphins took the win 50-46.
The newly-promoted Oceanside Chiefs (1-3) got their first win of the season last weekend when they defeated Santa Monica 57-33. Marcus Nguyen scored three for the Chiefs, including the first and last tries of the match. Asher Hannon took the majority of the kicking for Oceanside, slotting six conversions and one penalty goal to add to the total.
The Old Aztecs barely snuck by Oceanside 31-30 to get their first win of the season, then got pounded by OMBAC last weekend 84-0. This drops the Old Aztecs to the bottom of the table on point differential.
February brings us another exciting slate of matches: Oceanside will host Eagle Rock, OMBAC will take on Santa Monica, and the Old Aztecs will host Belmont, to name a few.
Gulf Coast Super Regional
Red River Premiership
The Texas Men’s Premiership kicked off with a bang in January, as five heavy-hitters went head to head over three weekends of play. One weekend was snowed out, which deprived us of the opportunity to see the Austin Blacks (3-0) and the Dallas RFC (2-0) duke it out, but there’s plenty of time for that to be replayed in February.
The Austin Blacks have indeed started the season undefeated, like they usually do, but this time, the scorelines are a bit closer than the Blacks are used to. The Dallas Harlequins (0-2) have put up two very impressive performances against the top teams, and are unlucky to have come away with losses. They led for the first 20 minutes against the Austin Blacks before falling 29-18. Their next match against the Dallas RFC was even closer, final score 29-20. Unfortunately, the Quins failed to get bonus points in either match thanks to the differentials being just over seven points. But watch out, because the Dallas Harlequins are not going to let the next opportunity slip out of their fingers.
The Austin Huns (1-2) have established themselves firmly in the middle of the table for now. They opened with an impressive win over D1 newbies HARC (0-2) on January 11th, final score 41-12. However, their cross-town derby against the Blacks didn’t end the way they wanted. It was close for the first 30 minutes, a charged down kick by Clayton Means led to a try that kept the Huns one score away, but the Blacks kept the foot on the gas. Two quick scores before the half meant the spread was 26-10 heading into the break. Christian Alvarez slotted a penalty goal early in the second half to chip away at the difference, but the Blacks countered with a try from Ronan Murphy that essentially sealed the deal. Final score 40-13 to the Blacks. The match against the Dallas RFC played out in a similar fashion, final 34-14 to Dallas. February 7th we see the Huns and the Quins face each other for the first time this season; that one is important as far as standings go.
Finally we have the Houston Athletic Rugby Club [HARC]. A steep learning curve for the men from Houston, who are playing their first season of D1 footy. They’ve only taken on the two Austin teams thus far, but fate has not been in their favor. Their next match sees them hosting the Dallas RFC on February 7th. Hopefully the home field advantage will play out for HARC, as Dallas are undefeated and looking to build momentum leading into their games against the Austin Blacks on February 14th and 21st.
Florida Men’s D1/D2
Finally, we’ll check in on the Miami Tridents (0-2) down in Florida. As the record would suggest, not a great start by the Tridents. However, both of those games were forfeits, so there’s more than meets the eye in this league. Miami is scheduled to play a D2 season with Florida before advancing to the D1 postseason and taking on the Red River champion at the Gulf Coast Super Regionals. They are required by USA Club Rugby to play a minimum number of matches before advancing, so they can’t just forfeit the entire season and still head to playoffs, but forfeiting the opening two games is an interesting move. I’m not going to read between any lines here until the next recap, so let’s just sit and wait to see what Miami does with the rest of their season.
