Men’s Division 3 – 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 3 competition!

The Midwest closed their doors in November, with the Detroit Tradesmen and the Chicago Blaze advancing to the Northern Super Regional. Detroit defeated the Blaze 36-21 in the final, securing the top seed in Super Regional seeding – but these two could very well meet again if they both win their opening match. Not much will happen until then – for more information on how this competition ended, you can always check out the November Recap!

Mid-America has almost finished with their fall season, there was one match postponed between the St. Louis Hornets (3-0) and the Mercenaries (0-3). If that plays out in the Hornets’ favor, they’ll jump to the top of the table over Sunday Morning RFC (3-1). We’re unsure if there are more games scheduled for the spring before playoffs are confirmed, but the Hornets and Sunday Morning are definitely in the best positions to advance. 

Over in the West, we finished the season on time and everyone has a full slate of games played. Springfield (3-1) and the Kansas City Blues (3-1) finished with the same record, but Springfield had a few more bonus points to keep them at first on the table. The Blues are actually ineligible for the playoffs, so that leaves the third and fourth-place teams Kansas City (2-2) and Northland (2-2) to duke it out for that second spot. 

Still no spring matches updated for this league yet in Rugby Xplorer, but the Mid-America Facebook confirms that the top two teams from each subdivision will advance to local playoffs.

We’re creeping closer to the return of the Rocky Mountain Men’s D3 competition; set to kickoff on March 21st. The top four teams will advance to semifinals with the winners playing the league final on April 11th. 

Currently, the Colorado Springs Grizzlies (5-1) are on top of the table with 26 points and a PD of +117. Their only loss of the season was the final weekend when they traveled to the Denver Highlanders (4-2). The Grizzlies have two matches left, both home games, against the Littleton Scots (4-2) and the Northern Colorado Flamingos (2-4). Even if they lose both of those matches, they will still qualify for playoffs since the fifth-place team has seven matches played and can’t possibly jump over the Grizzlies. 

The Denver Highlanders are in second place with 23 points, but aren’t yet safe for the postseason. If they lose both matches without bonus points AND Boulder (3-3-1) gets a winning bonus point AND the Queen City Rams (3-3-1) beat the Denver Harlequins (0-6), they will fall to fifth. However, if they win their spring opening match against the Scots (who they beat 48-33 last fall), they will be safe regardless of what happens the next weekend. 

The Littleton Scots have two matches left to play and are currently tied on table points (22) with the Queen City Rams. Littleton still has to play the top two teams in the conference; if they lose both of those matches AND Boulder wins with a bonus point AND Queen City gets a bonus point (or wins or ties the Harlequins), they will be out of the running. 

Queen City are safe if Boulder and Northern Colorado both lose in March. If Boulder wins without a bonus point, they’ll be tied on table points. And since they tied 24-24 in their regular season match, it’ll likely go to overall PD, which right now is in the favor of the Rams. 

Northern Colorado could mathematically still sneak into playoffs as high as the third seed if they win both games with bonus points AND Littleton, Boulder, and Queen City lose their games. Now that sounds crazy, but remember that the Flamingos defeated the Highlanders 49-32 back on October 25th. This could be one heck of a late season surge by Northern Colorado, and it might just pay off. 

The Denver Harlequins are our final team in this league, the only ones who are already eliminated from the playoff run. They’ve got two last chances to eke out their first win this season, the first on March 21st when they travel to the Flamingos, and the second when they host the Queen City Rams. As mentioned above, every other team has to give it all they’ve got in order to make the final four, so I don’t anticipate either of those matches being an easy ride for the Harlequins.

Every game in March will have severe consequences, and they should all be instant thrillers.

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

Heading over to the Empire competition, we’ve got four conferences that have all finished regular season play. Quarterfinals are on the calendar for March 28; all teams have been reseeded into #1 – #8 overall, then assigned quarterfinals in a 1v8, 2v7, etc fashion. This does mean we’ll see some local derbys play out for a third time this season, always spicy. 

Taking our top spot, #1 Syracuse (8-0) will host the #8 Morris Lions (5-3). Syracuse has absolutely demolished the competition this year, racking up a total PD of +325. They’re currently the reigning Empire champions as well, defeating Long Island last year to advance to the Atlantic Super Regional. Morris will have their hands full as they make the long trip north, but they are coming off a three match win streak, so they could keep that momentum going and pull off the upset.

#3 Greenwich (6-1-1) topped the table in the Connecticut league, despite a 26-26 tie against the #5 Fairfield Yankees (5-2-1), who finished second. As it happens, we get to see these two go at it for a third time this season! Their first head to head was back on September 27th, with the away team, Greenwich, pulling the upset in a tight 13-11 battle. Liam Doran kicked a final penalty goal at the end of the match to put Greenwich in front and snatch the win from the Yankees. As I mentioned before, the second match was a tie, right at the end of the season. Greenwich got their first loss of the season the weekend after that, so maybe the Yankees rattled them a bit. This match definitely has the potential to be our closest quarterfinal of the league.

#2 Union (7-0-1) also had a tie in the regular season, but they won’t be seeing Bayonne (4-3-1) in the playoffs. Instead, they will be taking on the #7 Rochester Aardvarks (5-3). Union has had a strong season, including the match where they put 100+ points on Hudson Valley (1-7). Rochester tied on record with Buffalo (5-3), but they got one more bonus point in the regular season to give them the bid to the postseason. Another example of why those bonus points matter!

Finally, we have #4 Long Island (6-2) hosting #5 Brooklyn (6-2). Now, I had some questions about this league, as Rockaway (7-1) technically finished with the best record, but had a forfeit earlier in the season. It appears the forfeit did disqualify Rockaway from the playoffs, which means that Long Island took the higher seed over Brooklyn thanks to (you guessed it) an additional bonus point on the table. These two have already played once this season, with Brooklyn taking the win 28-17. Braiden Luevano scored twice for Brooklyn in that one, while Michael Weinstein went four for four on conversion kicks. Both teams lost in the regular season to Rockaway, while Brooklyn’s other loss was back on September 20th against Suffolk (3-5). This match will also be a heated one, expect fans from both sides to be present and make it feel like a home game.

These matches happen at the end of next month, so hopefully still time for the snow to melt before the rugby kicks off.

We’ve got three of four conference championship matches set and one more waiting on one final match to be played on March 21st. In the South, Virginia (6-0) will be hosting Virginia Beach (5-1). They played once already, in October, and Virginia confidently won that one, 53-10. 

In the Central, Severn River (5-1) will host the Washington Renegades (4-2). These two already played twice this season, with Severn winning both matches. Severn’s only loss of the season actually comes from Loudoun (2-4) at the end of September. Washington, on the other hand, defeated Loudoun both times they played, so maybe they’ll have something special in the tank for the conference final.

In the Challenger Central, Rocky Gorge (5-0) will host the Potomac Exiles (4-1). The last time these two faced off was at the end of September, and it was a close one. Rocky Gorge ended up winning 24-21, thanks to a single penalty goal. Potomac have a good chance of pulling off the upset in this one.

Finally in the Challenger South, we need the Raleigh Vipers (2-1) to host James River (2-1) on March 21st to get final seeding. The winner will host and the loser will travel. The last time they played was when James River hosted, and home field advantage paid off, James River winning 29-10. 

The four champions will then play each other in the Capital semifinals on April 11th, followed by a single championship match on April 18th. That team will advance to the Atlantic Super Regional.

The EPRU wrapped up their regular season in November and we have the top six teams advancing to the playoffs. Teams ranked 3-6 will play each other to compete for a spot in the semifinals against the top two teams who receive byes for the first round. This means that Wilkes-Barre (5-1) will host the Montgomery Bucks (3-3) and Brandywine (4-2) will host Northeast Philadelphia (4-2). The winner of the Wilkes-Barre vs Bucks match will then play Lehigh Valley (5-1) while the winner of the other play-in must face Jersey Shore (6-0). 

Wilkes-Barre and Montgomery haven’t yet faced off this year; with 11 teams in the conference, not everyone gets the opportunity to play each other in a given season. They both played Harrisburg (0-6), Montgomery winning by 10 and Wilkes-Barre by 73. They also both played Brandywine, Montgomery losing 52-24 while Wilkes-Barre won 36-35. So that’s an idea of how this match might play out. On the other side, Brandywine and Northeast Philadelphia have gone head to head already, Brandywine winning 38-21. 

The play-ins start on March 21st, with the winning teams advancing to the semifinals on March 28th. 

Heading over to the Pacific Super Region, we’ll start with Northern California. With nine teams, this is one of the larger divisions we see, and there’s still four weeks left of play, so there’s a lot that can shift around before playoffs are confirmed. 

Life West (5-0) are our only undefeated team left in the league, though it wasn’t easy this past month. On February 7th, Life West took down Reno (0-5) 59-26, business as usual, but then they traveled to Marin (3-2), who was also undefeated at the time. That was a barnburner of a match, with Marin scoring at the death in order to clinch two losing bonus points, but it wasn’t enough to take the win, final score 33-29 to Life West. Now, if that wasn’t stressful enough, Life West then hosted Baracus (2-3), who did pretty much the same thing. A 76th minute try from Baracus’ Steven Lucido brought the score a little too close for comfort in the final minutes, but Life West still managed to escape with the win 31-29. The stakes just get higher in March, as Life West’s next match is against the current second-place side, the Olde Gaels (5-1), on the 14th. We’re not sure how long Life West can hold steady under this pressure, but if they pull off yet another win, we know a real diamond is in the making.

The Olde Gaels also had their share of close matches this past month, with all three games decided by seven points or less (sounds like a lot of bonus points!). First up, they hosted San Francisco Golden Gate (1-4), who kept close the entire match, before finally scoring at the end to secure their double bonus point loss, 32-28. Then, the Gaels traveled to Colusa (2-4), where they ran up the score to 31-0 before Colusa made the comeback of the century to make it 31-29 with ten minutes left to play. The Gaels kicked a penalty goal in the last five minutes to relieve a bit of the pressure, but learned an important lesson on not taking a lead for granted. Finally, just last weekend, the Olde Gaels had to come from behind in order to take down Berkeley (2-4), who was leading 26-19 with 15 minutes left to play. It sure isn’t easy out there in NorCal, these games are giving me anxiety just writing about them. The Olde Gaels have two matches left, against Life West and Silicon Valley, ouch.

Silicon Valley (4-1) is third on the table, but still only has one loss on their record. They started the month with a solid 32-24 defeat of Colusa, before they were hotly tested against Marin on the 28th. Austin Arends scored the game winner for SV in that one, snatching the win 31-30 at the death. With three matches left to play in March, Silicon Valley could go either way. Defeating Marin is no easy task, but from the looks of some of these scores, I don’t think there’s an easy game in this conference. SV’s next match will be March 7th, when they travel to Baracus. 

Marin has fallen to fourth overall with a surprising record of 3-2. Again, both of their losses were tiny margins to the top teams, but a loss is still a loss. With three matches left on the schedule, we expect to see Marin make it to the playoffs. And if they do, everyone better watch out, because these guys are not to be taken lightly. 

Colusa, Baracus, and Berkeley all have two wins and are holding onto the fifth through seventh place spots in the table. As mentioned above, all three of these sides spent February really dishing it out to the top of the table teams. The last time we saw any of them go head to head was back on February 7th, when Baracus took down Berkeley 27-19. Colusa will host Berkeley on the 7th of March, if they can win that, they can cement themselves a little higher than the other two. 

San Francisco Golden Gate and Reno are our two bottom of the table teams, but they sure don’t play like it. Golden Gate came within five points of the Olde Gaels back on February 7th, and eight points of Berkeley on the 14th. They will finally go head to head on March 21st, with Golden Gate hosting. Both sides are likely out of playoff contention by this point, but can still definitely shake up the rest of the standings with some surprise upsets. 

Down in Southern California we’ve only got two weeks left of regular season play before the playoffs. 

The Fullerton Dead Elephants (4-0) are still undefeated, though Temecula (2-1-1) gave them a run for their money back on February 7th. It was a back and forth affair, with both teams opting for shots at goal at times in order to inch ahead. The final score was Fullerton 20 – Temecula 17, giving Temecula a losing bonus point and preventing the Dead Elephants from getting any. Fullerton came back stronger the next weekend as they defeated Riverside (3-1-1) 46-31 on the road. Riverside had tied Temecula back in January, and since they scored over four tries in this loss to the Dead Elephants, they get a bonus point that keeps them pretty close on the table. 

Both Riverside and Temecula added two additional wins to their record in February, one of Riverside’s coming from a forfeit win over the West Coast Marines (1-4). As of now, Riverside has one more match played, but that’s really all that separates these second and third place teams. They won’t play each other again in the regular season, so we’ll have to see if they face off in the playoffs.

The LA Soul and LA Rebellion are both currently 2-2, with the Soul having two extra bonus points that puts them higher in the current standings. The LA Soul smashed the WC Marines back on the 7th, 78-0, before losing a close one to Temecula on the 21st. The Rebellion went the opposite way, they lost big at the start of the month, but pulled it back together to take down the San Diego Armada (0-4) 32-22 last weekend. Both have two matches left; the Soul hosts Riverside before traveling to San Diego, and the Rebellion still has to face the top of the table, with a double whammy of Temecula and the Dead Elephants waiting for them. 

The West Coast Marines are in a bit of trouble at the bottom of the table, they forfeited to Riverside this past month, after going down 61-5 to Temecula. They still have their one win from back in January over San Diego, who are still on the hunt for their first victory of the season. The Marines only have one match left, hosting Temecula while the Armada have two to go, including an away match at the top of the table Fullerton next weekend.

We welcomed rugby back to the Pacific Northwest this past weekend as six teams sprung into action in the PNW D3 Men’s Championship. 

The Portland Pigs (7-0) started up right where they left off to add another victim to their undefeated streak. It was a clinical execution of the Yakima Griffins (0-6), with Will Mohan getting on the board an impressive five times for the Pigs in the 67-0 blanking. The Pigs’ next test will be on March 14th when they host the Clark County Chiefs (5-2).

The Chiefs are in a comfortable second place; they also added another victory to the win column this past weekend. Albeit, their match was a bit closer than Portland’s, with the Seattle Quake (1-5) scoring two tries in the 24-10 loss. As mentioned above, Clark County’s next match will be when they travel to Portland. They’ve already played the Pigs back in the fall, that one a 40-19 loss for Clark County; but they haven’t lost a match since, so maybe they’re heating up at the right time to pull off the upset.

Our last match of this past weekend saw the middle of the table duke it out to try to get in better standing before the playoffs. The Budd Bay Buffaloes (4-3) keep the third place spot, but the Snohomish Rhinos (3-4) are now a little too close for comfort. It was a thrilling match, with a halftime score of 19-17 to Budd Bay; but Snohomish really came alive in the second half. Two late tries from Victor Swanson, converted by Jonathan Summer, gave Snohomish the win and prevented the Buffaloes from getting a bonus point for coming within seven. Budd Bay is still higher on the table for now, but you can bet the Rhinos are eyeing up that third place spot. The hardest games of the upcoming month for the Rhinos and Budd Bay are near the end, the Buffaloes host the Pigs on March 21st, and the Rhinos host the Chiefs on March 28th. 

Both the Seattle Quake and the Yakima Griffins didn’t start the way they probably wanted to, but Seattle put up a solid fight against Clark County last weekend. The two will go head to head on March 7th; it’s Yakima’s best shot at their first win of the season, but it’s also the Quake’s best shot at getting some momentum heading into their match hosting the Budd Bay Buffaloes the following weekend. Likely the top four teams advance to the postseason, so both teams might already be out of contention; no idea, there’s no playoff structure listed. 

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). There’s 16 total teams in this D2/D3 hybrid division and the majority of them are D3. Now, a few of the top D3 sides do play crossover matches against the D2 sides, and I’m not entirely sure if those count in the final standings or not. So I’m just going to go with what Rugby Xplorer says and give you the standings/scores as reported. Let’s just dive in.

The Scottsdale Blues (5-0) are still undefeated and on top of the table in D3. It hasn’t come easily however, both of their matches in February were decided by ten points or less. On the 7th, the Blues hosted Phoenix Camelback (3-1-1), who made a late surge at the end of the match to come within four points. It ended as a 26-22 win for the Blues, who managed to get a bonus point for over four tries. Just a few weeks later Scottsdale traveled to Las Vegas for a D2/D3 doubleheader. Both the Blues D2 and D3 managed to come away with the win, with the D3 final score 28-18. Now, compare this to the start of Scottsdale’s season when they were dumping 60-100 points on teams. The competition is really heating up. Scottsdale’s next matches will be when they travel to the Brujos (4-0) on March 7th followed by a trip to the Tucson Magpies (1-4) on March 21st. 

The Brujos are also undefeated, with one less match played than the Blues. They did the majority of their damage this past month, racking up three wins on the road to push towards the top of the table. In fact, the Brujos haven’t yet had a home match this season; their first one will be next weekend when they host the also undefeated Scottsdale Blues. That’s going to be a big test for the Brujos, whose last game was a 36-28 defeat of El Paso (2-2) on the 21st. 

Next in the standings are Phoenix Camelback who barely dropped their opening February match to Scottsdale. They managed to bounce back and follow this up with a 55-21 defeat of the Tucson Magpies, which keeps them in third overall. Their 27-27 draw against Phoenix from January holds them back a little bit, but they still are trending upward. Their next match will be away at the Albuquerque Aardvarks (0-6) before they go cross-division to take on D2 Las Vegas and the D2 Scottsdale Blues.

The Santa Fe Santos (3-1) also only have one loss, though with less games played they are hiding out in fourth overall. Their last match was a 36-35 thriller over the Aardvarks, with Erik Sigmon scoring in the final minutes to seal the deal for the Santos. Combine this with their four-point loss earlier in the month to the top of the table Brujos, and Santa Fe is not to be counted out. Their next match is scheduled to be against the Las Vegas Wolfhounds, but as the Wolfhounds (1-4) have forfeited a number of games, we’re not sure that will go off. On March 21st they will travel to El Paso, who are nipping at their heels in the standings.

Below Santa Fe we have the Landsharks (3-2) who are on a three match win streak this month. At the end of January they went toe to toe with the D2 Las Vegas Irish, scoring an impressive 31 points, but just missing the second losing bonus point. Outside of that, their only other loss was a forfeit loss against the Scottsdale Blues at the start of the season, so they could absolutely pull off some upsets in this league. On the 14th they took down the Magpies 33-31 after dumping 93 points on Phoenix Storm the weekend before. Their next match will be March 21st in Phoenix. 

Below them are El Paso (2-2). El Paso only had one match this past month, a 36-28 loss to the Brujos. They did get a bonus point thanks to scoring five tries, which ties them on table points with the Landsharks. El Paso’s two wins were pretty big ones over the Aardvarks, which keep them with a positive point differential of +46.

Phoenix (0-3-1) haven’t got a win per se, but they do have a tie and a couple of losing bonus points which keep them one point above the Tucson Magpies (1-4) in the standings. Phoenix will host the Aardvarks on March 14th before hosting the Landsharks on March 21st. The Magpies next match is this upcoming weekend when they travel to El Paso. 

Rounding out the bottom of the table and still looking for their first wins are the Albuquerque Aardvarks, the Phoenix Storm, and the Las Vegas Wolfhounds. Okay I have to correct myself, technically the Wolfhounds have a win, but it was a forfeit win from the Tucson Magpies. Then on top of that they’ve forfeited two other matches, so I just figured they are having a bit of a rebuilding year. This league will be active until the end of March before playoffs in April. Only one winner gets to advance to the Pacific Super Regional in April, and it could be anyone. 

Heading to the Gulf Coast region, we will start with the True South Men’s D3 competition. There’s two leagues in this competition, the North and the South. Let’s start with the North!

Huntsville, Chattanooga, and the Memphis Blues are all 4-1, having lost to each other back at the start of the season. Huntsville lost to Chattanooga who lost to Memphis who lost to Huntsville. Since then, they’ve all been adding wins to their record and rising to the top of the table together. Huntsville has the most bonus points and the largest differential (+191); they also recorded the two biggest wins this past month, 78-19 over the Knoxville Possums (1-2) and 81-0 over Atlanta Old White (0-5). Chattanooga and Memphis also added two wins to their records in February; Memphis took down the Montogomery Yellowhammers (1-2) and the Clarksville Headhunters (0-2) while Chattanooga blasted by Atlanta Old White before cutting it close against the Knoxville Possums. Both teams scored five tries apiece in that battle, but Chattanooga converted two more conversions, giving them the victory 33-29. Not much is going to change before the regular season ends as all three teams have different opponents in March. 

This does mean that Knoxville and Montgomery are likely out of playoff contention despite only playing three games each. The Yellowhammers have two games in March while Knoxville has one, not enough to close the gap with the top three sides. The Clarksville Headhunters are on the bottom of the table, but have two final chances in March to get their first win of the season.

Over in the Southern league we only have record from two matches this past month. New Orleans (4-0) took down the Panama City Hurricanes (2-3) 26-0 on February 7th and the Pensacola Aviators (3-1) blanked the Crescent City Blues (3-1) 84-0 on the 28th. There have been a number of forfeits in this league, which seem to complicate the standings, but it appears New Orleans is the team to beat. The Crescent City Blues and Pensacola Aviators are both well within arm’s length, but there’s only one match left on the schedule for March and that’s between New Orleans and Crescent City on March 7th. 

We’re not sure what the playoffs look like for this league, but New Orleans, Memphis, Huntsville, and Chattanooga are the clear frontrunners heading into the tail end of the season.

Time to check in on the four leagues of Texas Men’s D3. Only the champion from each league will advance to the Red River Championship, so quite a few teams have been knocked out of contention already.

First up the D1-c. This league houses all of our multi-sided clubs and consists of seven teams from the three major metro areas of the state. Currently the Austin Blacks (4-0) are top of the table and undefeated with a total PD of +327. This past month they added two wins to their record and allowed zero points scored against them, resulting in a record of 162-0 from February. Yikes. HURT (4-2) are next on the table, but since they’ve played all of their games, there’s no way of them qualifying for playoffs. Despite a stellar start to the season, HURT ended with two losses in February, one to the Blacks and another to the Dallas RFC (2-2). The Dallas Harlequins (2-1) still have three matches left to play; if they can defeat Austin on the 14th and win the rest of their games, they’ll take the spot in the league semifinals. As their only loss of the season was by four points to HURT, it’s certainly not out of the question. The Dallas RFC are also out of the question, despite an impressive 29-15 defeat of HURT last weekend. That 100+ point beating by the Blacks on February 14th pretty much sealed the deal on the rest of their season. They will travel to the Austin Huns (1-2) on March 7th before hosting San Antonio (1-4) to finish their season off. San Antonio only has one match left to play, but they got their first win of the year back on February 21st against HARC (0-3). San Antonio lost a nailbiter of a match to the Austin Huns back on the 14th, final score 15-14 to Austin. However, they still sit above them in the table thanks to two more matches played overall. Both the Huns and HARC only have three of their six games played. Though without bonus points already, there’s no way to make a full table jump this late in the season. So the long and the short of it is, the Austin Blacks are most likely to make the cut, but the Dallas Harlequins still have a chance. We can’t wait to watch them square off on March 14th.

Over in the North league, we still have a few more games to play, which is surprising given the number of games played already. I guess we can be sure that the champion from this league is battle-tested entering the playoffs. The Arkansas Gryphons (6-1) added two wins to their record this past month, including a massive 45-0 blanking of the second place OKC Legion (6-1-1) last weekend. They also got a tight win over DARC (2-4-1) back on February 7th, final score of that one 36-32. The game was won at the death by the Gryphons, with Joshua Oriez diving over on the final play to put Arkansas in the lead, with Caleb Bolthouse adding the extras. The Gryphons will play Alliance (2-4) and home and away fixtures against Tulsa (1-4) to close out their regular season. OKC Legion secured a tight win over Tulsa back at the start of the month; with one more match played than the Gryphons, they are sitting in second place overall. There’s not much they directly can do to disrupt the Gryphons, but winning their final two matches against DARC and Little Rock (2-5) would help them if the Gryphons were to lose their next three. With two wins each, DARC, Little Rock, and Alliance are all very likely, if not certainly, out of playoff contention. I mean, IF they won all their games and IF the Gryphons and OKC both went belly up, I can’t do the math but it seems unlikely. Little Rock can still celebrate their solid win over DARC back on the 28th, and bottom of the table Tulsa can certainly celebrate their first win of the season over DARC on the 21st. All these teams have matches left to play, and I’m not going to say for certain they are done at the end of March, but it’s likely.

Okay, heading into the Central league. This one is the easiest to cover, primarily because there’s only one D3 team here. The rest of the clubs play D4, but geographically this makes the most sense to keep the leagues like this. So – congratulations to Corpus Christi (5-0) who will advance as the Central D3 Champion. Corpus defeated Fort Hood Old Skool back on the 21st by a score of 28-24, and they have one match left to play in March down in McAllen. From there, they will advance to the next round of playoffs, taking on one of the other league champions.

Finally we have our South league. This one is always tight, and right now it is the Bay Area Rugby Club [BARC] (6-1) who top the table. BARC only had one match this month, a 61-5 defeat of Shreveport (4-2). They only have one left to play, hosting the Houston Arrows (5-2) on March 14th. The Arrows are in second, and need to win that one against BARC to have a chance of taking back the top seed. The only other game that happened in the South league this past month was Shreveport getting a massive win over Galveston (1-5) 79-22. Unfortunately since the Arrows and BARC go head to head for their last match, there’s no chance of Shreveport topping both of them to make the trip to the playoffs, so their season will end on March 21st when they travel to Galveston. 

Heading down to the Sunshine state, we have a couple games to cover but also a lot of forfeits from this past month. So just to get that out of the way, it looks like Fort Lauderdale, the Claymores, and Daytona Beach all forfeited a couple of matches, but Fort Lauderdale (2-1) and Daytona Beach (0-4) have also played a couple games this month, so I’m not sure what the status is there. Let’s just break it down by league.

First up, the North. This league is tight at the top of the table, with Jacksonville (3-1), FSU (2-1), and Gainesville (2-2) all winning some and losing some. Jacksonville suffered their first defeat of the year in a cross-conference match against the Hammerheads. They also got a big win over Daytona Beach two weekends later. So they’re still on top of the table for now. FSU also lost their first match of the season on February 14th, a barnburner 50-46 against Sarasota (2-1). Gainesville won one and lost one, falling on the 14th to Brevard (3-1) but defeating the Claymores on the 21st, 66-8. Jacksonville will play FSU next weekend, then host Gainesville the weekend after, which will give us a much better idea of who reigns in this league.

Heading down to the South league, Palm Beach (4-0) are currently undefeated, adding one win to their record this past weekend. This was a 56-36 defeat of the Hammerheads (2-2), who are currently sitting in fourth. Outside of this match-up it’s actually been a decent month for the Hammerheads, who defeated Lakeland (0-4) 41-10 back on February 7th and Jacksonville 47-31 on the 14th. Brevard and Sarasota are also doing well in this league, they both notched wins in February, including a 96-0 rout of Lakeland by Brevard on the 21st. Brevard will host the Hammerheads on March 7th, while Sarasota hosts Lakeland on the 14th.

Finally in the Combo league, we only had one match actually take place in February, and as we mentioned above, a couple of forfeits. The one played game was between the Tampa Krewe (0-3) and the Ft Lauderdale Knights (2-1). The Knights got the better of the Krewe in this one, with Agustin Mujica scoring three tries and Facundo Woginger going five for six on conversion kicks. Orlando (1-1) will host the Pelicans (3-1) next weekend before the Krewe and the Knights play again on the 14th. 

Down in Georgia, we have two leagues, Eastern and Western.

Over in the East, we were excited to see the top two teams go head to head on February 14th, and it turns out they are closer than expected. That’s right, the Savannah Shamrocks (3-0-1) and the Charleston Outlaws (3-0-1) tied 27-27. However, the Outlaws just eke out the Shamrocks in the table thanks to additional bonus points collected in their February 21st and 28th victories over Macon Love (0-5) and Hilton Head (3-1). The Augusta Maddogs (1-3) got their first victory of the season on February 28th, a 28-0 victory over Macon Love. 

Over in the Western league, the Gainesville Spartans (5-0) remain undefeated after two big wins this month. First they took down the Columbus Cruisers (0-2) 49-7 on February 7th. Joseph McLane was perfect off the tee for the Spartans, kicking seven conversions. Gainesville followed this up with a 36-21 defeat of the Atlanta Renegades (4-1) on March 1st (not technically February, but it’s a short month..). The Renegades had been undefeated up to this point, but still hold on to second place in the standings. High Country (3-1) is close on their tail, having gotten another win over the Cruisers on the 21st.

No additional matches are in the calendar yet, so we don’t know what playoffs look like. The Gulf Coast Men’s D3 divisions aren’t guaranteed a slot in the regionals just for becoming league champion, so the winner of Georgia might have to play through an additional round in order to make the trip to Texas, we’ll find out in March.

Our last division to check in on are the D3 teams in the Carolinas. We’ve got two leagues and only two weeks left of regular season play, so we have a pretty good idea of who is in a position to advance to the postseason. On top of the East league we have Cape Fear (7-3) and the Southern Pine Big Cones (7-2). Southern Pines has one less game played, but a higher point differential than Cape Fear. The Big Cones had a slip-up on February 14th when they dropped a game 27-22 to Tobacco Road (3-5). However, they recovered well two weeks later, defeating the same team 27-14. Cape Fear, on the other hand, won their match over Tobacco Road 26-22. Southern Pines has one match left in March, hosting the Onslow Misfits (5-3); if they win that, they can top the table. The Fayetteville Dragons (5-4) also have one match left to play in March, hosting Tobacco Road on the 14th. If they win and Onslow lose, they’ll finish in third. If they both lose or both win, and the Dragons get an extra bonus point, they’ll also jump to third thanks to the head to head records between the two sides.

Over in the West league, Charlotte (7-0-1) keeps hold of their lead over the Columbia Rhinos (6-1-1) with two wins this past month; 75-5 over the Greenville Griffins (4-4) and 74-5 over the Asheville Iguanas (4-3). Neither the Griffins or the Iguanas are able to catch up to the top two, so it’ll definitely be Charlotte and the Rhinos advancing if the league goes straight to semifinals. The Rhinos also clocked similar wins this month, 71-0 over the Charlotte Barbarians (2-6) and 47-7 over the Griffins. The Griffins and the Iguanas both recorded wins over Myrtle Beach Man O’ War (0-9), as did the Barbarians. Asheville and Greenville still both have to play each other on the 14th, that could determine whoever finishes in third, and if this competition has play-ins or quarterfinals, that could be a must-win match for both of them.