Men’s Division 2 – March 2026 Recap

This isn’t basketball, but it sure seems like March Madness out there. With the return of spring and the rising temperatures, we welcome back the return of club rugby to many regions across the country. Not only have the teams started playing again, but we have landed smack dab in the middle of playoff season, and it’s spicy.

If you’re new here – all of the information for this article comes from team-entered data on Rugby Xplorer. You know the rules – the more accurate your team admin is about entering data, the more accurate I can be in these articles. Any other commentary is added for fun from someone who has zero stake in the outcome of these games. 

Also worth a note – with Super Regionals at the end of April/start of May, this is our last “monthly” recap for the 2025-26 XV season. We’ll preview all four Super Regionals as well as the National Championship tournament, and in there we will cover the last bits of how local competitions wrapped up. But don’t worry about that just yet, we’ve got all of March to cover! Let’s dive in and see how the Men’s D2 Competition fared this past month.

The Southside Irish kicked off their preparations for the playoff run this past weekend when they traveled to the Chicago Lions to play in the Chicago Cup. It was a strong showing from the Lions (who have qualified for Nationals in D1), who walked away from the match with a 71-12 victory. Now we’re not sure if the Lions side that took the pitch was purely D2 or a mix of the D1 players who are preparing for their own playoff run, but either way it’s good to get a hit out for these Midwest teams coming out of a long winter. It doesn’t look like Fort Wayne has yet to start their run up to playoffs, but the Northern Super Regionals aren’t until the first weekend of May, so they’ve got some time. 

Mid-America opened their doors for the Spring season back on March 21st with the Omaha GOATs (4-3) traveling to the Kansas City Royal Ramblers (1-5) and Wichita (2-4) and the St. Louis Bombers (3-3) hosting league matches the following weekend. There’s still a number of matches left in April, and it’s really anyone’s game right now. 

Kansas City RFC (5-0) is our only undefeated team left in the league after their 59-0 rout of Wichita last weekend. They’ve got maximum bonus points and an overall PD of +337, putting them in an excellent place to finish top of the table in Mid-America. 

The Omaha GOATS are currently in second place with a 52-17 win over the Royal Ramblers on the 21st. Now, Omaha has the most games played of any team in Mid-America, with only one left to go against Kansas City on April 11th. The last match they played against KC was in October, and that one ended 38-31 in favor of Kansas City. Unless Kansas City loses next weekend as well as against Omaha, they’ve likely wrapped up the top spot. 

The St. Louis Bombers started their spring campaign off well with a 67-21 win over the Royal Ramblers last weekend. The Bombers have two games left to play, but are currently duking it out with the GOATS for second place in the standings. The two have already played each other twice; Omaha winning the first 54-8 and St. Louis winning the second, 36-29. If they should tie on standings, Omaha will win the head to head comparison thanks to PD. 

Coming up this weekend: the Bombers host Wichita while the Royal Ramblers host Kansas City. Games go until April 18th, and with the Super Regionals on the first weekend of May, it looks like either the top team will automatically advance or the top two will play one final championship match on April 25th to decide who advances. 

The Rocky Mountain Champions, the Gentlemen of Aspen, have already booked their ticket to the Northern Super Regional and have begun spring training in Colorado. They will play both the Denver Waterdogs and the Denver Barbarians in April before heading to Chicago at the start of May. There they will face the Southside Irish and Fort Wayne as well as the TBD Mid-America champion in an effort to make it back to the National Championship Tournament, aiming for their first title since 2009. 

Portland won the NERFU title back in November, but started their spring campaign just last weekend when they traveled to Boston, who finished 3-3 in the fall. It was a good opening match from both sides, but Boston pulled away with the win 22-12. Portland have three more matches coming up in April, all sure to be excellent preparation so they hit the ground running in May at the Super Regionals. 

We had three final matches take place this past month before seeing who would advance to the Empire conference championships. While the top two seeds were already confirmed thanks to the results back in the fall, their final ranking was still undetermined until the spring matches were completed. 

Buffalo (7-1) ended up taking the top spot thanks to their 44-19 defeat of NYAC (3-5) this past weekend. It was always between Buffalo and New York Rugby Club (6-2) at the top of the table; Buffalo had a few extra bonus points and a larger differential, but a loss to NYAC last weekend could have given NYRC the opening to snatch first. However, the opposite happened. Old Blue (5-4) surprised everyone when they upset NYRC 33-31 last weekend. The game was as close as they come, with New York scoring at the death to bring it within two points. But NYRC missed the conversion kick that would have tied it, and Old Blue took the win. A bit of a late surge from Old Blue, who also won their match back on the 21st over NYAC 55-7. 

It appears the top two teams will advance to the Empire finals, with Buffalo facing New York Rugby Club for the spot in the Super Regional. The two have already gone head to head twice this season, splitting the results. New York took the first win 38-35, while Buffalo claimed the second 43-17. As Buffalo are the hosts for the Super Regional this year, you can bet they will give it all it takes to be able to represent Empire on home turf.

We are finally just weeks away from the Capital Men’s D2 semifinals, held on April 11th. The Raleigh Vipers (4-2) will host fourth-place James River (1-5) while the Riverlands Golden Boars (4-2) host the third-place Norfolk Blues (3-3). 

The last match Raleigh played against James River was a solid win in favor of the Vipers, 80-24. Their first match, however, was Raleigh’s closest win of the season, the full time score only 17-12. James River prevented the Vipers from getting the bonus point in that one, while collecting one of their own. With this game coming after another long break, James River could have the upper hand once again. While we think Raleigh should finish on top for this one, you never know until you know. 

The Riverlands Golden Boars will host the Norfolk Blues in the other semifinal. The Riverlands split their games with the Blues in the regular season, losing the first 52-35 and winning the second 41-24. 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 on April 18th will advance to the Atlantic Super Regional to take on Portland (NERFU champion), North Bay (EPRU champion) and the yet to be determined Empire champion.

Eastern Pennsylvania kicked spring rugby off two weeks ago with conference semifinals before culminating in the conference final this past weekend. 

In the first semifinal, #1 North Bay (8-0) hosted #4 Old Gaelic (4-3-1). The two played once already this season, back in October. That time, North Bay won on the road over Old Gaelic, final score 64-21. This time, North Bay had the home field advantage. It was a clinical execution from the defending EPRU D2 Champions, scoring 10 tries to Old Gaelic’s one. Cam Crosler and Mitch Vannoy both scored twice, while Sean Hartig kicked the extras on the day. The final score was 66-7 in favor of North Bay. The second semifinal between #2 Philadelphia Whitemarsh (6-2) and the #3 Lancaster Roses (5-3) was much closer. Those two also went head to head earlier in the season, way back in September. Philadelphia won that one comfortably, final score 71-26. This time, Whitemarsh started the match off easily with three tries in the opening twenty minutes, but then the scoring slowed as the Roses fought back. By the time the second half rolled around, Whitemarsh opted to kick at goal to inch the lead ahead bit by bit as Lancaster started to lessen the gap. Despite the strong efforts put in, Philadelphia secured their second win over Lancaster and the spot in the conference final, final score 37-29. 

In a rematch of last year’s semifinal, it was North Bay hosting Philadelphia Whitemarsh for the EPRU final. Last year North Bay barely snuck by Whitemarsh, final score 18-14. They played again this year, back on opening weekend. That match was also a win to North Bay, final score 54-12. I wish I could say that the third time they met it was closer, but it seems to be trending in the opposite direction. North Bay dominated the match, scoring nine tries in 80 minutes to hoist the EPRU Cup with a final score of 65-18. While we’d all love a bit more drama and excitement in a cup final, this does bode well for North Bay entering the Super Regional. Last year North Bay finished 3rd in the Atlantic, defeating the Riverlands Golden Boars after falling to the Boston Irish Wolfhounds in the semifinals. This year, they could have the energy to go all the way. The EPRU has never had a Men’s D2 National Championship team, could North Bay be the first?

Northern California finished their regular season this past weekend with Silicon Valley (5-1) finishing top of the table after a strong showing against D1 Life West on the 22nd. Silicon Valley went 4-0 in D2 league play while also notching a win over D1 Olympic Club back in January. Their 65-12 win over second-place East Palo Alto (3-4) showed they are a force to be reckoned with, and definitely have their sights on another Super Regional playoff spot. 

East Palo Alto won their final match of the season 21-17 over San Jose (2-5), pushing them up in the standings while dropping San Jose down. The two were tied on table points heading into the match, and with playoffs on the line, this match was crucial to win. EPA took the lead early, but San Jose scored just before the half to make it 14-7 heading into the break. San Jose scored again just after the restart to tie it up before adding a penalty goal at 58 minutes to take the lead. It looked like San Jose would bring home the win until the final minutes of the match when Kaulana Fong dove over for EPA, taking the lead back 19-17 (21-17 with the conversion). Fong added the extra two points with the conversion kick which forced San Jose to play for a try, but there wasn’t enough time to make it happen. EPA took the win with a final score of 21-17. 

Santa Rosa (3-5) also finished their season with a big win, 31-22 over D1 Olympic Club last weekend. Entering the match they were trailing EPA by a table point, but as they got a bonus point in this win, they are tied in the standings. If it comes down to the head to head standings, Santa Rosa will win that one thanks to their 52-17 defeat of East Palo Alto back in February. Santa Rosa also impressed back on March 14th with a close match against Life West, final score of that one 26-14 in favor of the D1 side. 

We’re unsure of the playoff structure for NorCal, but I assume a maximum of four of the five sides will participate. This means that Sacramento (0-6) are likely done with their season this year, after forfeiting their final two March matches.

Up in the Pacific Northwest, the season closed with one clear league leader and a bunch of teams fighting it out in second through last place.

Eastside Tsunami (8-1) finished clearly on the top of the table with a total PD of +320 after scoring almost 500 points in the regular season. March brought the Tsunami three more wins, including a 50-13 defeat of the Valley Kangaroos (4-3-1), an 84-24 win over the Bend Roughriders (3-6), and their final match, 44-17 over the Chuckanut Bay Geoducks (3-5). Their only loss of the season was back in September last year. That was at the hands of Bend, who defeated Eastside by only eight points, final score 39-31. Now, Eastside are heading full speed into the playoffs, fighting for that spot at the Super Regionals. With Boise now in D1, the gates are wide open for a new PNW D2 rep. 

The Valley Kangaroos and the ORSU Jesters (4-3) have similar records, but the Kangaroos are ahead on the table thanks to a few extra bonus points and the 34-34 tie back on March 21st against the Tacoma Nomads (2-6-1). ORSU does have one more regular season match against the Chuckanut Bay Geoducks this upcoming weekend, and if they win that, they could hop over the Kangaroos. The Jesters have been on a bit of a win streak this month, defeating the Tacoma Nomads on the 14th 56-10 and the Bend Roughriders on the 21st, 37-28. With how tight it is at the bottom of the table, all of those games were must wins for both sides. 

The Chucakanut Bay Geoducks aren’t to be counted out either, they defeated the second-place Valley Kangaroos back on March 14th, 24-17. Consider that with their marked improvement against the Tsunami while comparing their February and March matches, the Geoducks could very well end with a win over ORSU.

We’re not sure of the playoff structure, but the Pacific Super Regionals are drawing close and only one team will go from the PNW. Right now, it looks like the Eastside Tsunami will take that spot, but anything is possible.

Southern California closed their doors on the regular season back on March 21st with the top four teams advancing to the conference semifinals on March 28th. 

Belmont Shore (9-0) finished in style with a 109-7 win over San Luis Obispo (7-2) after defeating Pasadena (1-8) and LARC (8-1) earlier in the month. This brings their season total PD to +658, an average of 73 points per match. I mean, they defeated the third-place team by over 100 points; that’s insane. In fact, their closest match of the year was on March 7th when they defeated second-place LARC 51-33. 

Los Angeles Rugby Club closed their season with a tight 34-31 defeat of the Grunions (4-4-1) on the 21st. They defeated San Fernando (4-4-1) on the 14th, after their only loss of the season to Belmont back on the 7th. This 8-1 record secured them second place in the standings and a home semifinal on the 28th, hosting the third-place team. 

Finishing third and traveling to LARC on the 28th was SLO, who went 1-1 in March. Their 50-19 win over Ventura County (4-5) on the 7th secured their position in the playoffs (barring a surprise win over Belmont), so perhaps the triple-digit loss at the end of the season isn’t that concerning for SLO’s postseason status. 

Facing Belmont in the semifinals would be Beach Cities (5-4) who finished fourth overall. It was a superb month for last year’s SoCal D3 Champions, who went three for three, defeating the Gurkhas (1-8), Grunions, and Pasadena (1-8). Beach Cities narrowly edged out the Grunions and San Fernando for the playoff berth, finishing one point above the Grunions, who they defeated only 43-31. In fact, had the Grunions and San Fernando not tied 45-45 back on March 7th, it would have likely been one of those teams advancing in place of Beach Cities. A very close race, all to have the honor of facing Belmont Shore in the semifinal, yikes. 

The bottom five teams were all eliminated from the playoffs but still wrapped up their seasons with varying degrees of success. Pasadena managed to snag their first win of the season back on March 7th, on the road over Kern County (1-8) 45-25. Ventura County finished with two wins last month, over Kern County and the Gurkhas. San Fernando also finished with a win over Kern County on the 21st. 

Heading into the semifinals, #1 Belmont Shore hosted #4 Beach Cities while #2 LARC hosted #3 SLO. Belmont were clinical in their defeat of Beach Cities, racking up 13 tries in the 89-0 execution. Belmont kicked 12 for 13 conversions on the day, most of which were taken by Emilio Carmona, with the final one from Dylan Carrion. On the other side of the bracket, it was much closer. Los Angeles went for points early, kicking a penalty goal in the opening minutes of the match before scoring their first try just moments later through Daniel O’Brien, converted by Jared Reich. They repeated the process before the half, racking up 20 points to SLO’s zero before the break. However SLO stormed onto the scene in the second half, scoring twice before LARC added another. SLO added two late tries in the last minutes of the game to bring the score within a converted try, but it was too little too late, LARC advancing to the SoCal final with the 32-26 win.

Next up, Belmont Shore takes on Los Angeles to determine who advances to the Pacific Super Regional. As we’ve covered above, they’ve played already this season; that one a 51-33 win to Belmont. LARC will certainly bring all they’ve got to this SoCal final, but Belmont will be tough to beat.

The Southwest Men’s D3 conference wrapped up their regular season play in March after four action-packed weekends of matches. 

The Scottsdale Blues (7-1) finished on top of the table after three big wins this month, with two coming a bit too close for comfort. The first win was a comfortable 51-14 defeat of the Tempe Old Devils (1-7), who finished on the bottom of the conference table this year. The second was a gritty cross-conference match against D3 Phoenix Camelback. Now, I’m no expert in how the cross-conference matches work in this league or what the rosters look like for those games, but that is a spicy scoreline. The Blues kept the energy rolling for their final match of the season hosting the Red Mountain Warthogs (6-2), who are second in the standings. The Blues had to turn to goal-kicking in that one, the two penalty goals being the only difference in the 32-26 final score. This marks six wins in a row for Scottsdale, who will head into the playoffs on the front foot. 

The Red Mountain Warthogs started their month out with a 48-16 win over the Tempe Old Devils continuing their undefeated streak, but the final two weeks of regular season play let them down. First, they lost 42-27 in their road trip to Las Vegas, followed by that loss to Scottsdale on the 28th. These losses dropped them down to second overall, but they’re still the only team to have defeated the Blues this season, so let’s not judge them on the performance of two matches; they’ll still be firing on all cylinders come playoffs. 

The Las Vegas Irish (4-3-1) finished third on the table after a big draw against D3 Phoenix Camelback on March 14th. As we noted above, Scottsdale barely got by Camelback, and now the Irish tied them 45-45? We’ll cover Phoenix Camelback in the D3 recap, but there is certainly something there. The Irish were able to close their season out with a big win over the Red Mountain Warthogs. It wasn’t enough to move them up in the standings, but if all four teams qualify for playoffs, Las Vegas will be facing the Warthogs again. 

Tempe didn’t close out March exactly the way they wanted to; along with the two losses to the D2 sides, they also lost to the D3 Landsharks. It was a high-scoring match, so their attack was pretty good, but defense needed some work. The final score of that was 53-36 in favor of the Landsharks. If all four teams advance to playoffs, Tempe will face Scottsdale; those two have already played twice, a combined score of 99-27 in favor of Scottsdale.

There were four league games left in the True South in March, but only one ended up being played; back on the 7th when Nashville (4-2) hosted Atlanta Old White (6-0). The other three ended as forfeits from New Orleans (2-4) and the Birmingham Vulcans (0-6). Nashville lost their first league match to Old White back in November, final score 29-7. This time, they had home field advantage on their side. The defending National D2 Champions proved again too hard to handle for Nashville, as Atlanta took the win 25-10. Fortunately for Nashville, their story isn’t over yet. Atlanta will advance to the Gulf Coast Super Regional as a fill-in for the old Carolinas seed (where they were the only team last year) while Nashville and Birmingham battle it out for True South’s seed. This means that Nashville or Birmingham could meet Old White once more this season, fighting for a spot to Nationals. 

Texas wrapped up their D2 season this month with the top four teams advancing to the conference semifinals, which were played on March 28th. 

Houston United Rugby Team (7-1) finished top of the table despite suffering their first loss of the season back on March 7th at the hands of the Grand Prairie Mavericks (4-3). It was a close, low-scoring match, with Grand Prairie scoring the match winner through Motekiai Maile in the 65th minute. The rest was just defense and holding on until the final whistle to take the win. HURT closed out the month with a 62-19 win over The Woodlands (2-4-1) on the 21st to lock up first place and home field advantage for the semifinal.

The Austin Blacks (7-1) took second place with the same record but one less bonus point than HURT. They racked up three wins in March, including a 28-12 defeat of Grand Prairie on the 14th, right after the Maverick’s win over HURT. These three wins were enough to secure Austin home field advantage in their semifinal last weekend. 

Finishing in third overall are the men from San Antonio (5-2), who went two for two in March. They took down Fort Worth (0-7) on the 14th, final score 41-35. Discipline was an issue for San Antonio in that one, with Fort Worth kicking three penalty goals to get within a converted try of upsetting the 2024 TRU Champions; but San Antonio persisted. They followed this up with a comfortable road win over Dallas RFC (2-5) 49-22 to secure their playoff spot. 

The final team to sneak into the top four was Grand Prairie, who made a massive statement with their win over HURT on the 7th. Unfortunately the ball did not keep rolling, as the Mavericks dropped the next two matches against the Austin Blacks and the Austin Huns (2-4-1). Had they won both of them, they would have potentially finished top of the table and gotten home field advantage for the semifinal. However that didn’t happen, and now an away match at HURT stood in the way of them and the Red River Championship.

The Austin Huns, The Woodlands, Dallas RFC, and Fort Worth all wrapped up their seasons on the 21st of March with varying degrees of success. The Huns got an epic win over Grand Prairie on the road after taking an early lead with four tries in the first half, final score 25-24. The Dallas RFC got their second win of the season back on March 7th with a 26-22 defeat of the Huns at home. The goal kicking of Adam Colunga was the difference on the day, with Colunga slotting three of four conversions and adding a try to Dallas’ total. Fort Worth came close to their first win over San Antonio, but no dice. They did get two bonus points in the loss, for what that’s worth. The Woodlands saved the worst for last, facing both the Austin Blacks and HURT in March; a tough way to end the year. 

With all that said and done, the conference semifinals took place last weekend with #1 HURT hosting #4 Grand Prairie and the #2 Austin Blacks hosting #3 San Antonio. Both semis promised to be good games; Grand Prairie were responsible for HURT’s only loss of the season and San Antonio and Austin were old foes. It was back and forth in the first match; Grand Prairie started off the scoring in the seventh minute thanks to Lee Foliaki but HURT scored two quick ones to take the lead. The Mavericks evened the score for just a moment before HURT scored another two to head into the sheds at half with a 24-14 lead. The second half was a bit more back and forth, but HURT always stayed a few steps ahead of Grand Prairie, final score 52-29.

The second semifinal was much of the same back and forth action. The first 30 minutes was tightly contested, but a lapse in San Antonio’s defense just before halftime gave way to a barrage of scoring from the Austin Blacks which sent them into the halftime break with a massive differential. San Antonio regrouped and came out of the sheds with a newfound energy; three tries got the spread back within ten points and with 20 minutes left to play, it was still anyone’s game. As the minutes ticked down, Austin added a few more tries, enough to comfortably take the win, final score 65-36. 

Coming up in April, the Austin Blacks will take on HURT for the conference championship. As this match will be played in Durant, OK, there’s no home field advantage for either side. The last time these two played was on February 21st, and the spoils went to HURT with a final score of 38-13. However looking at recent scores (HURT losing to Grand Prairie and Austin beating Grand Prairie the next weekend), this game could easily go either way. The winner will advance to the Gulf Coast Super Regional, being held in Austin, TX on the last weekend of April.

Down in Florida, only the top two teams at the end of the regular season made it to the conference final, and it was close. 

The Fort Lauderdale Knights (8-1) clinched the top seed thanks to their strong start to the season. On the 14th they defeated the Tampa Krewe (4-4), which locked in their number one status. Now since they were guaranteed to finish top of the table, that might explain their loss the next weekend to Boca Raton (6-3). Fort Lauderdale had nothing to gain (besides glory) from a win over Boca, but Boca were playing for their chance in the FRU final. With 10 minutes remaining in the match, Michael Oliver scored the try that would tie it up for Boca, and the kick from Tristan Gray took the lead. The rest was just defense and hanging on until the final whistle, Boca on top.

The Tampa Krewe made a strong push at the end of the season to qualify for the final, starting with their March 7th win over Boca Raton. The Krewe always had the lead in the match, but the first half was close. After a halftime score of 22-12, Tampa added a few more tries before closing it out with a final score of 43-24. The Krewe had to win at least two of the next three matches in order to leapfrog Boca into second, but only managed to win the last one over Orlando (1-7). Both the Knights and the Pelicans (5-4) topped Tampa and ended the Krewe’s bid for playoffs. 

The Florida conference final will take place on April 11th with #1 Fort Lauderdale taking on #2 Boca Raton. The teams split the results in the regular season with Fort Lauderdale winning the first on January 24th, with 35-24, and the second with Boca winning 28-26. Whoever wins will advance to the Gulf Coast Super Regional to take on the champions from the True South and Red River, as well as the defending National Champions, Atlanta Old White.