Men’s Division 2 – February 2026 Recap

The shortest month of the year has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean we have any less rugby to catch up on. The action primarily took place in the Gulf Coast and the Pacific regions, so the bulk of the new information will be in those sections; however I have updated some of the Northern and Atlantic sections as more information about playoffs has come to light. Some sections are the same as the last recap (looking at you snow-covered regions) but they had their glory back in the fall; if you really miss them, go ahead and read the old recaps in the archive. 

Disclaimer – 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. 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. 

For those of you ready to catch up on the new and exciting action, wait no longer, here is the USA Rugby Club recap covering the Men’s Division 2 competition!

The Midwest wrapped up their competition back in November with the Southside Irish and Fort Wayne winning the semifinals and advancing to the Northern Super Regional. The Southside Irish will take the higher seed (thanks to their win over Fort Wayne in the Midwest final), and the pair will play the champions from Mid-America and Rocky Mountain. For more detailed information on how this competition wrapped up – you can check out the November Recap.

Mid-America has a few more regular season matches left to play; kicking off in March. Currently Kansas City (4-0) are on the top of the table, despite having only played four of their games. The Omaha GOATS (3-3) are currently in second place, but have one more match played than the third and fourth place teams, Wichita (2-3) and the Bombers (2-3). The GOATS do have more than twice as many bonus table points than those teams, a product of all their close finishes through the season. The Royal Ramblers (1-3) are down on the bottom of the table but they still have the same number of losses as all three teams above them, so they’re definitely not out of the picture yet. A spring winning streak for the Royal Ramblers could easily shoot them up the standings. 

If the playoffs are the same as last year, the top two teams will progress to the Mid-America Championship for a chance to go to the Northern Super Regional to play against the Southside Irish, Fort Wayne, and the Gentlemen of Aspen. 

Rocky Mountain crowned their champion back in November, with the Gentlemen of Aspen winning back to back titles. The Gents will play the Southside Irish, Fort Wayne, and the undetermined Mid-America champion at the Northern Super Regional later in the spring. We expect the Gents to play a few warm-up matches before heading off, when we know, we will cover them here. Until then – nothing new to report!

New England also wrapped up their regular season competition in November, with Portland taking the title over the Boston Irish Wolfhounds. Portland will take on the champions from the Empire, Capital, and EPRU regions in the spring – the only team qualified so far. 

Over in the Empire Men’s D2, we’ve got three games left to finish out the season, all of which take place at the end of March. Buffalo (6-1) and New York Rugby Club (6-1) are tied on record, but Buffalo has three more bonus points to put them in first place. Both teams have one match left to play, Buffalo faces NYAC (3-3) while NYRC has to travel to Old Blue (1-5). Old Blue also has to play NYAC once more, which happens the weekend before, so we’ll get an idea of how those two fared coming out of the winter break. 

Capital has finished their regular season and the next matches scheduled are the semifinals on the weekend of April 11th. The Raleigh Vipers (4-2) tied the Riverlands Golden Boars (4-2) on record and table points, but won out in the head to head PD battle. Despite the Riverlands and Raleigh each winning one of the games, the total point spread was 70-65 in favor of Raleigh. That’s how close it was. Raleigh takes the top spot and hosts fourth-place James River (1-5) while the Riverlands host the third-place Norfolk Blues (3-3) in April. 

The last match Raleigh played against James River was a solid win in favor of the Vipers, 80-24. However, roll the clock back to September and you’ll see that Raleigh barely snuck by James River, winning 17-12. Raleigh will thrive having the home field advantage in this one, but definitely don’t count James River out. The Riverlands split their games with the Norfolk Blues in the regular season, losing the first 52-35 and winning the second 41-24. Again, home field advantage played an important part in those two matches, which the Golden Boars have on their side this time. 

Whoever wins the Capital championship will advance to the Atlantic Super Regional to take on Portland (NERFU champion) and the undetermined champions from Empire and EPRU. 

All eight teams wrapped up their regular season at the start of November, giving us the final four that will advance to semifinals on March 21st. 

North Bay (7-0) finished their season undefeated, granting them the number one seed and home field advantage in the semifinals. They will take on Old Gaelic (4-2-1) who finished fourth thanks to a resounding win over Philadelphia Whitemarsh (5-2) the final weekend of play. Whitemarsh and the Lancaster Roses (5-2) tied on record and table points, but Whitemarsh won the head to head back in September, so they get the home field advantage for that semi. 

Last time North Bay took on Old Gaelic was in October, at Old Gaelic. It was a pretty solid win for North Bay, final score 64-21. The whole season has been a strong one for North Bay, racking up a total PD of 317 over their seven matches. Old Gaelic can definitely pull an upset, as we mentioned – they took down second-place Philly Whitemarsh to close out their season. It won’t be easy, but it’s certainly possible. Whitemarsh defeated the Lancaster Roses by a similar score back when they played in September, 71-26 final. However, the Roses are on a three game winning streak. If they come out of this winter break just as sharp as they went into it, they also have a chance of pulling off the upset. We’ll have to wait until March for those games.

Hopping over to the Pacific Super Region, we’ll start our check-ins with Northern California. NorCal plays a hybrid D1/D2 competition, so Life West and Olympic Club feature occasionally, but for this article we are focused on the five D2 sides. 

Silicon Valley (4-0) added two more wins to their record this past month, keeping them undefeated and on top of the table. They absolutely smashed Sacramento (0-4) on February 14th, 105-5. This was really surprising because the week before, Sacramento was going toe to toe with D1 Life West, even getting two bonus points in the loss. SV followed this up with a 50-point win over San Jose (1-4), bringing their total PD of the season to +211. Or about 53 points a match so far. They’ve got two games left in the regular season and they are both tough ones. They’ll host East Palo Alto (1-3) before traveling to D1 Life West to really test their strength. Remember, they already defeated D1 Olympic Club earlier this year, so if they manage to get a win over D1 Life West, I would be terrified to be another D2 club in the Pacific right now. 

In second place we have Santa Rosa (2-2). Santa Rosa split their matches this February, cleaning up a nice win over EPA 52-17 before falling to Life West this past weekend. They still managed to score 41 points in the loss, and Life West did score 33 points in the last 20 minutes, so it was a decently close match for the first half. They take on San Jose this weekend before hosting D1 Olympic Club on March 14th. I think they’ve got a solid chance of winning both of those, which would give them a good run-up to the postseason.

East Palo Alto and San Jose both only have one win on the board, but EPA’s is over San Jose, while San Jose’s is over Sacramento. And let’s be clear, EPA didn’t just beat San Jose, they smashed them. Back on the 14th they ran in 14 tries to San Jose’s one. Aliki Alofi scored four tries for EPA while Dreq Agilam scored three. San Jose’s lone try came from second-rower Thomas Scott in the 62nd minute. San Jose only has one match left to play, against Santa Rosa, while East Palo Alto has two more: traveling to Silicon Valley and Sacramento. 

Finally we’ve got Sacramento, who haven’t yet gotten a win this season. They had two incredibly close matches at the end of January and start of February, including an admirable battle against D1 powerhouse Life West. I’m hoping they didn’t give everything they had on those two games, as they still have two left in the season. On the 7th they will travel to D1 Olympic Club before coming back to end their season hosting East Palo Alto on the 14th. 

We started slow and steady into this spring season with two matches taking place this past weekend in February. First up, the Valley Kangaroos (4-1) defeated the ORSU Jesters (2-3) 35-21 this past weekend in a league match. This keeps the Kangaroos in the same spot, but moves them closer to the Eastside Tsunami (5-1) who still have a solid hold of the top spot. The Bend Roughriders (2-3) also played an interdivisional match against the Seattle Orcas this past weekend. As we didn’t get a final score for that one, and it doesn’t really matter in the table, we’ll accept it as a “fun was had by everyone” kind of match. 

Coming up next weekend, the Kangaroos will host the Tsunami in a top of the table clash while Chuckanut Bay (1-3) gets back into the action by hosting the Roughriders. The Tacoma Nomads (2-5) return the following weekend when they travel to the Jesters to kick off their spring season.

Down in Southern California we have three weeks of the regular season left to play, but we still have two undefeated teams left battling for the top position.

Belmont Shore (6-0) and the Los Angeles Rugby Club (6-0) are absolutely tearing through the competition. Belmont has racked up a total PD of +482 while LARC has +431. That’s an average of over 72 points per game. PER GAME. Both teams have hit triple digits twice this season, which is two times too many if you ask me. The good news? They do eventually have to play each other. The better news? They will do that next weekend, March 7th. Los Angeles will be the lucky hosts of that one, taking the home field advantage for all it’s worth. The winner will top the table and likely get home field advantage for the playoffs. 

Sitting in a very sneaky third place is San Luis Obispo (5-1). SLO’s only loss of the season actually came back on February 7th against Los Angeles. The final score was 49-31 in favor of LA, but SLO could easily make some changes that could get them a lot closer to a win. LA only outscored SLO by one try, meaning that penalty goals and conversions were the majority of the difference. If SLO can tighten up the discipline a bit, they could take serious advantage of a tired Belmont Shore at the end of the season and pull off the upset. Even if they drop that match to Belmont, they still have games against the Gurkhas (1-5) and Ventura County (2-4) that they will be expected to win, which would help them advance to the playoffs. 

The Grunions (4-2) are next in the standings, coming off a two-match win streak over the Gurkhas and Kern County (1-5). Their opening match in February was a loss to Belmont Shore, but they managed to keep the deficit to 26 points, which as we mentioned above, is pretty good where Belmont is involved. The Grunions will hit the road against San Fernando (3-3) next weekend before hosting Beach Cities (2-4). They’ll close out their season by hosting LA on the 21st. 

San Fernando is closing the gap between them and the Grunions and will be eyeing up that match next weekend as an opportunity to leapfrog into fourth. They nabbed a win over Pasadena (0-6) at the start of the month, but followed it up with two tough matches against SLO and Belmont Shore. They also have to take on Los Angeles before the season is out, ending their regular season by hosting Kern County. 

Beach Cities and Ventura County are both currently 2-4, but Beach Cities have three more bonus points than Ventura. This is thanks to their 29-13 win over Ventura back on February 7th, as well as the close loss to San Fernando back in January. Beach Cities were the D3 Champions last year, and although this is a far cry from the points they were putting up on the other D3 opponents, it seems that Beach Cities can compete at this level. Their last three matches are against the Grunions, the Gurkhas, and Pasadena; a decently easy way to end the season. Beach Cities could make a move into the top four if they play their cards right. Ventura County, on the other hand, still has to play SLO. They are coming off a 61-7 win over Pasadena, so that might spark a fire under them a bit, give them some good momentum heading into their next match.

The Gurkhas and Kern County are both currently 1-5. Although their hopes at a postseason run is probably all but over, they still have a few more matches at the end of the regular season that they have a realistic chance of winning. Kern County will host Ventura County on the 14th while the Gurkhas will host Beach Cities on the 7th.

Unfortunately, there always has to be someone on the bottom of the table, and in this competition it is Pasadena. Pasadena haven’t had a great season, but despite being 0-6, they still don’t have the worst differential of the league. In fact, of the four 100-point matches, Pasadena have only fallen victim to one; and that was the cut and dry 100-0 loss to Los Angeles back in January. Hey, it could be worse. Pasadena have three more games before they can call it quits for the season, all on the road, against Kern County, Belmont Shore, and Beach Cities. If they come out firing on the 7th, they’ve got a real shot of winning that Kern County one; and once that gets the ball rolling, who knows? Pasadena could be poised for the upset of the season.

Ask and you shall receive! We finally have updated information in Rugby Xplorer regarding the Men’s D2/D3 conference in the Southwest, which means we have results to cover all the way from back in September (oh boy). Let’s just dive in.

In the Men’s D2 there are four clubs that all primarily play against each other. However, since there’s only four of them, they do play some matches against the top D3 sides in the region. So we’re going to cover all the matches that involve D2 sides, and everything covering D3 will be in the D3 recap, which is logical.

On top of the table are the Red Mountain Warthogs (5-0) who are the only D2 side left with an undefeated record. They kicked things off in January with a 45-3 win over the D3 Tucson Magpies. Their next match was significantly closer, as they took on the Scottsdale Blues (4-1). That one finished 24-20 in favor of the Warthogs, with Scottsdale scoring last to get a bonus point in the loss. Both teams failed to score four tries or more so no winning bonus point for Red Mountain; I wonder if that will come back to haunt them. Outside of that close one, Red Mountain has been pretty solid; they blanked the Las Vegas Irish 41-0 and demolished Tempe 59-12. Their most recent victory came over D3 Phoenix back on February 21st, final score 47-15. So, it’s pretty well in hand for the Warthogs. They’ll face the other three D2 teams once more in March, but they’re well on their way to finishing in the top two.

The Scottsdale Blues are in a comfortable second place with three matches left to play. They’ve performed similarly to the Warthogs, which makes sense since they only lost to Red Mountain by four points. However, their match against Las Vegas back on February 14th was a bit closer than Scottsdale probably would have liked. Similarly to the match against the Warthogs, the Blues only scored three tries against the Irish, eventually winning the match 24-17 with the help of a few conversions and a penalty goal. Since Scottsdale’s first match against Las Vegas was a solid 43-10 win, this probably won’t make a huge difference in the final standings, but you never know. Perhaps Las Vegas is just getting better as the season goes on. The Blues still have one cross-divisional match to play, against D3 Phoenix Camelback, as well as one more against Tempe and their final match of the season against the Warthogs. 

The Las Vegas Irish (3-3) are currently in third, but have the most matches played of all the D2 sides. They have been up and down, but notably secured two wins over the Tempe Old Devils, including a heartstopping match two weeks ago. Tempe ran up the score with 28 points in the first half, but Las Vegas went slow and steady to chip away at the difference. The Old Devils added a penalty goal around 50 minutes, but that’s the only points they put on the board in the second half of the match. At the final whistle, the visiting side were victorious; final score 33-31 to Las Vegas. They will also take on D3 Phoenix Camelback before ending their season hosting the Red Mountain Warthogs on March 21st.

Finally we have the Tempe Old Devils (1-4). Their lone win of the season comes back from January 10th when they hosted D3 Phoenix. They barely got away with that one, thanking George O’Brien for his try in the 54th minute that made the difference. Flyhalf Dillon Casey also added a conversion and a penalty goal to help stretch the points further. Final score 20-19 to Tempe. Alas, Tempe wasn’t able to get a bonus point in that win, so both of their bonus points come from the 33-31 loss to Las Vegas mentioned above. Tempe has two D2 matches left and one cross-division game. Barring all four teams advancing to playoffs, Tempe will end their season traveling to the D3 Landsharks on March 28th.

Only three matches to report on from the True South region, which only has four teams. 

Atlanta Old White (5-0) added two wins to their perfect record, 45-0 over the Birmingham Vulcans (0-5) and 52-31 over New Orleans (2-3). That was the closest game so far for Atlanta, who have racked up a +157 PD and had two shutouts so far this season. The defending National Champs are well on their way to another Super Regional fixture.

New Orleans righted themselves after a forfeit loss to Nashville (2-1) and the loss to Atlanta with a 64-17 win over the Vulcans last weekend. The forfeit certainly hurts their chances at a playoff run, but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. New Orleans has one match left, on March 28th when they host Nashville. 

Nashville has the best opportunity to take down Old White, and they’re going to get the opportunity this upcoming weekend when they host Atlanta in Tennessee. The last time the two played, it fell in Atlanta’s favor 29-7, but that was back in November. Many rosters could have changed since then. 

The Birmingham Vulcans only have one match left before they call an end to their season; March 14th against Nashville. It wasn’t a great February for the Vulcans, who are still searching for their first win of the season. It can get quite cramped when you’re in such a small conference and you have big dogs like Atlanta and Nashville hanging over your shoulder. But every loss is a learning opportunity, and the Vulcans will have learned a lot this season.

Down in Texas we’ve got about three weekends left of regular season play, and all teams have played about five matches. There’s only one undefeated team left on top of the table, but the top four teams advance to the Red River semifinals, so there’s still chances for everyone else. 

The Houston United Rugby Team [HURT] (5-0) is the only club still sporting a donut in the loss column. They had a full slate of matches this month, with four back to back (to back to back) weekends of rugby. This didn’t slow them down though; they scooped up a couple easier wins against bottom of the table teams, adding them to wins over bigger opponents, like the 38-13 defeat of the Austin Blacks (3-1) back on February 21st. With only two matches left, HURT have secured their place in the semifinals. Their next big test will be next weekend when they travel to Grand Prairie (3-1); win that one and they might just wrap up the top seed heading into the postseason.

San Antonio (3-2) and Grand Prairie are in second and third on the table. San Antonio takes the nudge up thanks to their head to head defeat of the Mavericks last weekend. At 48-26, it was a pretty resounding win for San Antonio, but they did give the Mavericks a bonus point in the loss, which allows them to squeeze in above the Austin Blacks, who are stuck in fourth. San Antonio’s last two matches are against a surprisingly low Fort Worth (0-5) side and the Dallas RFC (1-5). Win those two and San Antonio is sure to be back in the playoffs once more. Grand Prairie has a bit of a harder schedule to round out their season; they have to host HURT before traveling to the Austin Blacks later in the month. We could see some shifts in these top four teams before the season is out. 

As mentioned above, the Austin Blacks are currently in fourth, but still have three matches left to play. They added a win over the Dallas RFC to their tally in February, and since they’ve already taken down San Antonio, they could still nab one of the top spots if they can get by the Mavericks on the 14th. 

The Woodlands (2-2-1) are in the middle of the table with only two matches left to play. The Woodlands are unpredictable, they started the month with a loss to San Antonio, but still got a bonus point; final score 49-30. Then they logged a big win over Fort Worth 48-10 on the 21st. The end of their season isn’t too kind, they travel to the Austin Blacks before hosting HURT. With both of those teams trying to secure home playoff games, it might not be pretty. 

The Austin Huns (1-3-1) got their first win of the season last weekend, 56-12 over Fort Worth. It was an impressive eight-try performance with Preston Reine clocking up 19 points through tries, conversions, and penalty goals. Jeez Preston, save some for the rest of the Huns! The Huns aren’t going to make it into the top four, so they’ll end with their last two matches of the season, hosting Dallas RFC and traveling to Grand Prairie. 

The Dallas RFC are also out of contention, having lost the last three in a row this past month. Their last win was back in January, defeating Fort Worth 21-18. This next game against the Austin Huns is going to be their best chance of a win to end the season, but Austin are saying the same thing, so expect it to be spicy. Their final game of the season will be when they host San Antonio, who is working hard for those playoffs. 

Finally, we have Fort Worth. Well, someone’s gotta be at the bottom of the table, and this year it’s Fort Worth. At 0-5, Fort Worth have two matches left on the schedule then can close the doors and start thinking about next year. They’ve got two road games left, first to San Antonio, then to the Austin Blacks, not a nice way to end the season. 

Still plenty of rugby to be played, and spots open for teams seeking the playoffs! Every match counts for those in contention, so expect some thrilling rugby coming out of the Red River region.

The five Men’s D2 teams (and the Miami Tridents) are in the middle of their season, but we’ve already got a clear front runner. The Fort Lauderdale Knights (6-0) are still undefeated, having taken down the Pelicans (2-4) 48-5 last weekend. They dispatched Orlando (1-4) at the start of the month, then battled it out with the Tampa Krewe (3-2) two weeks later. That one was pretty close, with the Krewe making a late surge, but the Knights prevented the Krewe from getting a bonus point in the 35-21 victory. With the second and third place teams both having four matches left to play, the Knights are not yet safe in securing the top spot for playoffs. However if the top four teams make the final cut, the Knights will be there.

Boca Raton (3-2) and the Tampa Krewe are next on the table, tied on record and points. (Side note – in RX it doesn’t appear that Florida uses bonus points. I’m kind of assuming this is an error in the system, which is why I referenced them above – but who really knows). The two faced off back on February 14th, with Boca snatching the win 34-33. Both teams scored five tries and the Krewe actually slotted more of their conversion kicks, but Tristan Grey slotted an early penalty goal for Boca about six minutes in, which ended up being the difference. Next week Tampa will host Boca, a battle for second place. 

The Pelicans are in fourth, just above Orlando. Orlando forfeited to the Pelicans back on the 14th, so they haven’t yet played each other. The Pelicans have one forfeit win from the Miami Tridents, and they defeated Boca Raton way back on January 17th. If the top four teams advance to playoffs, the Pelicans will be in, so they’ll need to turn things around if they want to make a late play for the postseason. Fortunately their best chance is coming up this weekend when they travel to Orlando.

Speaking of Orlando, they are another team that benefited from a forfeit win over the Tridents back in January. Outside of that, they haven’t yet won on the pitch this season. However, if they can top Orlando next weekend, they can still jump up in the standings and finish in the top four. 

Big games to look forward to next month include Tampa Krewe hosting Boca Raton on the 7th and the Knights hosting the Krewe on March 14th.