Pacific Super Regional 2026 Preview

It’s officially playoff season; the Geographic Unions have wrapped up their league finals and crowned champions who are advancing to the Super Regionals. There are four Super Regional tournaments across the country, representing the four main regions: Northern, Atlantic, Gulf Coast, and Pacific. Pacific and Gulf Coast kick-off the final weekend of April, while Northern and Atlantic take place the first weekend of May. The four regions have slightly different matches; some host Women’s D3 and Men’s D4 (non-National Championship seeking leagues), others have semifinals for Men’s and Women’s D1, while others only have a single championship. Either way, all four are epic tournaments showcasing the best rugby that the USA Club scene has to offer. And I’m going to cover it all.

In this article we’re going to preview the matches taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Pacific Super Regional. The Pacific Super Regional is the only three-day tournament of all four Super Regionals, and the only one to have semifinals for the Men’s D1 and Women’s D1 competitions. A notoriously tough competition, the Pacific Super Regional produced three of five National Champions last year, including both D1 Champions. Let’s see what the competition has in store for us this year!

Four matches will take place on Friday evening, both of the Men’s and Women’s D1 semifinals.

Kicking things off with our first Women’s D1 semifinal, we have the SoCal runners-up, the San Diego Surfers, taking on the uncontested Pacific Northwest Champions, the Seattle Orcas. San Diego finished second in Southern California after an undefeated regular season, losing to the Santa Monica Dolphins in the conference final. The Surfers have been around a while, and have seen their fair share of playoff rugby. As former participants in the Women’s Premier League, San Diego last won the D1 title in 2023, defeating NOVA 45-22. The Surfers narrowly lost in the Pacific semifinal last year, 29-26 against the eventual National Champions, the Utah Vipers. With Utah seeking to qualify through the Northern Super Regional this year, the gates have been blown wide open for the Surfers to make their move. 

Taking on the Surfers are the Seattle Orcas, representing the Pacific Northwest. Now, Seattle automatically qualified for the Super Regional as they are the only Women’s D1 side in the region. However, this doesn’t mean they just walked their way into a playoff game. Seattle fields both a hybrid D1-D2 side in the Pacific Northwest and a premier side in the BC Premiership in Canada. They’ve won two National titles in 2015 and 2016, and played in the Pacific Super Regional final last year. So even though we don’t have records of their results this year against other D1 sides, we can guarantee that Seattle are coming to play.

The other Women’s D1 semifinal pits the SoCal Champions against the NorCal Champions; the Santa Monica Dolphins facing off against the Berkeley All-Blues. Santa Monica could be considered the underdogs in this competition, but they did defeat the San Diego Surfers to take the SoCal title just a few weeks ago. Nia Toliver has certainly been making an impact for the Dolphins, scoring three tries in the Championship match to help spur Santa Monica to victory. This isn’t the Dolphin’s first trip to the Super Regionals; they attended last year as a late call up to replace Life West. This year they get a first round invitation, and are prepared for the challenge. 

And it will certainly be a challenge, as they are facing off against the most decorated Women’s D1 club in USA Club rugby history. 12-time Women’s D1 National Champions, the Berkeley All Blues, won the NorCal D1 Championship and earned their spot in the Pacific Super Regional amongst the other heavy hitters. Berkeley attended the Pacific Super Regional last year as a D2 side, playing against the Portland Pigs in the semis. This year, Berkeley played in a hybrid D1/D2 competition against Life West and the Sacramento Amazons in NorCal with the top team advancing to the D1 postseason pathway and the runner-up advancing to the D2 postseason pathway. After two incredibly close regular season matches, Berkeley and Life West faced off one final time on April 4th to determine who would advance to what pathway. The All Blues won that one convincingly, by a score of 32-12, to take the D1 title. Now the All Blues and Santa Monica will go head to head, both vying for a spot in the D1 Super Regional final for the first time.

Moving on to our second set of games on Friday, we have the Men’s D1 semifinals. The Pacific Super Regional is the only SR that hosts Men’s D1 semifinals, a testament to how strong the Men’s D1 competition is on the west coast. Surprisingly, there’s only been one Pacific Men’s D1 National Champion in the past 10 years, and that is the defending title holder, Belmont Shore. Belmont has made their fair share of finals, including in 2024 and 2018, but took home the hardware last year for the first time since 2012. Belmont are back to defend their National title, qualifying for Super Regionals as the runners-up of SoCal. Belmont and Old Mission Beach Athletic Club have been battling it out in Southern California all season and now have taken their rivalry to the next level, the Super Regionals. After a regular season tie, then a one-point victory for Belmont, OMBAC pulled out the win when it mattered most, in the SoCal Championship, defeating Belmont 23-17. Unfortunately for OMBAC, they still didn’t get rid of Belmont, as the top two SoCal sides advanced to the Super Regionals. Will we see these two face off again? Highly likely. However both teams would be foolish to think they shouldn’t take Friday’s match seriously; the West Coast is full of National contenders, and every one of them will be vying for that slot in the Final Four. 

Taking on Belmont Shore are the NorCal champions, Life West. Life West sliced through the competition in Northern California, racking up a +270 PD over six matches against both D1 and D2 opponents. Their only match against fellow D1 contender Olympic Club fell heavily to the Gladiators with a final score of 82-11. Life West made it to the Pacific final last year, defeating OMBAC 38-36 in the semifinals before falling 33-12 against Belmont in the final. The year before, Belmont also stopped Life West’s postseason with a 41-31 win over the Gladiators in the semifinals. Will Belmont prevent Life West from advancing for the third year in a row? Or will this be the year that the North bests the South for best in California? Only time will tell, and we’ll find out Friday night.

Our second Men’s D1 semifinal pits the SoCal Champions, OMBAC, against the Pacific Northwest Champions, Seattle. OMBAC have won their fair share of National Titles, mostly back in the 80s and 90s, but they haven’t lost a beat since then. As mentioned above, OMBAC and Belmont Shore have been duking it out in SoCal, both vying for the top seed and the  “easier” match on Friday (which is a joke because there are no easy games on Friday). This time, OMBAC took the crown with their 23-17 win over Belmont in the SoCal final. Belmont led for most of the match, but OMBAC turned up the heat in the middle of the second half, scoring two converted tries to pull back into the lead. The teams traded penalty goals as the game ticked to its final minutes, and in the end, OMBAC were on top. This match against Seattle is a rematch of the 2024 Pacific semifinal, which saw OMBAC topping the Orcas 45-40 in order to advance to the final. Last year, the teams were on opposite sides of the bracket, losing against Life West and Belmont in the semis. 

Seattle found their way to the Super Regionals thanks to four regular season wins over recently-promoted Boise United in the Pacific Northwest. Only one of these matches was really a blowout, the first one, back in September. The other three were tight contests, with Seattle winning by a total differential of 66-42. Seattle are no strangers to regional playoffs, having represented the Pacific Northwest for a while now. Last year Seattle fell to Belmont Shore 43-36 in the semis, and the year before by five points to OMBAC. Back in 2023, Seattle advanced to the National Final Four where they lost a heartbreaker to the Austin Blacks in the semifinal, coming back from a massive halftime deficit to tie it up, just for Austin to score in the final seconds and secure the win. With the impressive contests that Boise has given them this year, I’m sure Seattle are ready to take back the Pacific title from the Californians and make another run at a National title. 

Moving onto our Saturday semifinals, we kick off with the Men’s D3 competition. Our first match has the SoCal Champion, South Los Angeles Soul, taking on the NorCal Champion, Life West. The LA Soul are our Cinderella story this year, having finished third overall in SoCal, required to travel for both their semifinal and final match-ups. In the SoCal semifinals, the Soul defeated Temecula 31-27, with Kristoff Usher scoring the game winner with only five minutes left to play. Then they faced the undefeated Fullerton Dead Elephants in the league final. It was a low-scoring match, especially for West Coast standards, with the first points being scored through a penalty goal over 30 minutes in. The Soul only lost the lead once, at the end of the first half, but pulled it back and kept in front for the rest of the match. The final score was in favor of LA, 15-7, the bid to the Super Regionals was theirs. The Soul are definitely a wildcard in this postseason run, we don’t really know how SoCal stacks up against the rest of the competition, as last year’s champion was promoted to D2, and we don’t know what the Soul are planning next, but I’m sure it’s something amazing, as they really have nothing to lose. 

Taking on the dark horse, are the Northern California champions, Life West. Unlike LA, Life West were definitely expected to be here; they finished undefeated in the regular season and topped Marin 39-18 in the NorCal final on April 11th to claim their spot. It’s worth noting that Baracus gave Life West a run for their money in the semifinal, a last minute try bringing Baracus within three points of topping the champs. Life West managed to hold on for the win, and raise the stakes the next weekend against Marin, but they have been tested. Last year the NorCal representative Marin made it to the Sunday final against Scottsdale, falling a surprising 67-7 to the eventual National runners-up. Life West Men’s D3 will be one of three Life West teams at the Super Regionals this weekend, as the Men’s D1 and Women’s D2 will also be playing. If all three manage to qualify for Nationals, it will be a USA Club Rugby first.

Our second Men’s D3 semifinal has the Pacific Northwest Champions, the Portland Pigs, taking on the Southwest Champions, the New Mexico Brujos. The Portland Pigs are old dogs when it comes to playoff rugby, having made the trip to Las Vegas last year. Their playoff run was abruptly cut short by Scottsdale who steamrolled all of the Men’s D3 competition last year, but this year Scottsdale are out of Men’s D3, and it’s time for a new representative. Portland defeated the Clark County Chiefs 47-29 in the PNW Championship after finishing their regular season 9-1. Clark County got the best of the Pigs back on March 14th, sneaking a 33-31 win over the defending champions. But when it really mattered, the Pigs stayed strong. With Scottsdale out of the picture, the Pigs could take it all the way to the final match, but there’s a lot of new faces in this Pacific Men’s D3 comp, and we don’t know what they have in store. 

Speaking of new faces, the New Mexico Brujos have earned their spot in the Pacific Super Regional after a dream run through the Southwest league playoffs. The run almost ended early for the Brujos, who soared out to an early lead in their semifinal against the Sante Fe Santos. The Santos scored two late tries with the clock ticking down, but unable to convert either, the Brujos eked out a win 24-23. New Mexico advanced to the SW final where they faced Phoenix Camelback, who had taken down the reigning champions, the Scottsdale Blues, the day before. Another nailbiter of a match, which had New Mexico relying on the boot of Marcellus Powdrell to inch their score up little by little. In the end, it was a try from Frank Svet in the final play that sealed the deal for the Brujos, final score 32-28. The Brujos are another dark horse in this mix of teams; they looked pretty good all season, but they turned the heat up the past few weeks. They’ll have the weather advantage over Portland that’s for sure, but can they keep their foot on the gas pedal for the entire match? We’ll find out Saturday. 

Moving to the Men’s D2 Competition, we’ve got the SoCal champs, Belmont Shore, squaring off against the PNW champs, Eastside Tsunami. Belmont Shore tore through the SoCal competition, racking up a PD of +658 over nine league matches. That’s an average PD of 73 points PER MATCH. The playoffs might have provided a little resistance, but not much; Belmont took down Beach Cities in the semifinal 89-0 and defeated Los Angeles 58-25 in the final. You might assume with these scorelines that Belmont should be promoted to D1, but they’ve already got a D1 side who are also really good, so where’s D2 to go? You also have to consider that perhaps it’s just the local competition, maybe Belmont just haven’t been tested yet. Either way, they are sure to be tested this weekend, as they are facing off against one of the most formidable teams to come out of the PNW, Eastside Tsunami. 

Eastside not only finished 9-1 in the regular season this year, they also racked up a win over D1 Seattle back in October. The D2 Championship saw them defeat the Valley Kangaroos by a score of 40-16, never really losing hope that the title would be theirs. Eastside Tsunami have been shadowed by Boise United the last few years, always playing runner-up to the Idaho powerhouse. With Boise’s promotion to D1 this season, the Tsunami were allowed to shine, and have finally locked up their chance to compete at the Super Regionals. It’s going to be tough competition, as the other three D2 sides have their fair share of playoff experience, but Tsunami are tough, and they’re not going to let this chance slip through their fingers. 

The other Men’s D2 semifinal brings together two sides who were at the Super Regionals last year, kind of… Silicon Valley definitely made the trip as the NorCal champion, advancing to the final against Boise United. Scottsdale sent their D3 side last year, who advanced all the way to the National Championship match, eventually falling to the Columbia Rhinos. Silicon Valley successfully defended their NorCal D2 title, going 5-1 in the regular season, including a win over D1 Olympic Club. Last year Silicon Valley defeated the Oceanside Chiefs (who are now D1) in the Pacific semifinals 62-38 en route to the final. They dropped that one to Boise, who went on to become the National Runners-up, and also get promoted to D1. It now seems only a matter of time before Silicon Valley will join their fellow competition in D1, but before that happens, they’ll make a push for a D2 National title (let’s be clear I do not know if SV is getting moved to D1, I’m just saying it might happen). 

The Scottsdale Blues are also making their push for a D2 title, after a run all the way to the D3 National Championship match last year. The Blues actually still have a D3 side competing in the Southwest, and whether this D2 side is the same D3 guys from last year, or it’s all a bit mixed up, it doesn’t really matter because Scottsdale is here to play and has made quite the impression over the last few months. The Blues defeated the Red Mountain Warthogs in the Southwest Final, after winning their final regular season match against them 32-26, just a few weeks earlier. Scottsdale are following in the footsteps of Las Vegas, who won the league last year, advancing to the Super Regional where they fell in the semifinals 52-31 to Boise. This match could easily go either way, but it’s sure to be a barnburner.

Finally, we have our Women’s Division 2 semifinals, starting off with the SoCal champions, Los Angeles Rugby Club, taking on the Southwest Champions, Las Vegas. LARC have had a pretty perfect season thus far, finishing undefeated in regular season play, and confidently winning the championship match 54-17 over the Pasadena Royals. The Royals made the trip last year, filling in for the West Coast Marines, who won the league but had to pull out due to Marine duty (the only acceptable excuse). Pasadena also faced Las Vegas in the semifinal, falling 49-7. This time, the Irish won’t have as easy a match. LARC have been building to this all season, taking it two steps further than their league semifinal loss to Pasadena in 2025. They’ll have to come out guns blazing because they’ve got one of the most difficult competitors in the first round, the defending National Champions, the Las Vegas Irish. 

Ah, the Irish are back to defend their National title. We love a title defense. Las Vegas took the competition by storm last year, soaring through local, regional, and eventually national playoffs to shock everyone and take the crown. This year, there’s no surprises, Las Vegas is back and everyone knows what to expect. The Irish did finish with one loss in the regular season, but that was an early forfeit to Phoenix before the season really got off the ground. They proved it was a fluke when they defeated Phoenix 38-28 in the Southwest Championship match. As we mentioned, Las Vegas toppled Pasadena last year in the semis before defeating the Portland Pigs in the final 17-14. They went onto the Final Four where they defeated Tampa Krewe in the semifinal and eventually Phoenixville White Horse in the final. Their last three matches of the postseason were all won by seven points or less, proving that when the going gets tough, Las Vegas hangs in. As hosts of the Super Regional this year, expect the Irish to be bolstered by the home crowd, urging them to victory, and possibly another National title.

Our final match  of Saturday will feature two teams very familiar with playoff rugby, the Portland Pigs and Life West. Portland are our reigning Pacific Northwest Champions, successfully defending their title after another epic season. Portland only lost one match, against D1 Seattle, back in March, but soundly defeated the rest of the D2 competition. Their championship win over the Bend Lady Roughriders marked their sixth title in the PNW, and another opportunity to strut their stuff on the regional stage. Last year, they made it to the Pacific final, eventually falling by three points to Las Vegas, who went onto win the whole shebang. Three points away from a National Champion isn’t too bad, but Portland will want more. They are the furthest traveling Women’s D2 side to this Super Regional, but that won’t be an excuse. The Pigs are ready for anything, and will rely on their experience when it comes to winning games under pressure.

Taking on the Pigs are our final team in this preview, Life West. Yep, Life West’s third and final side at the Pacific Super Regional this year are competing in the Women’s D2 competition. Life West plays in the NorCal D1/D2 hybrid, and since they lost the head to head against the Berkeley All Blues for D1 playoff contention, they join the D2 pathway. Life West are no strangers to National Championships, having won the D2 title in 2016, the D1 title in 2017 and 2018, before moving into the Women’s Premier League. They’ve fallen off a little since that 3x streak, but they’ve been steadily building back into the limelight. They qualified for the playoffs last year in D1, but pulled out last minute, being replaced by the Santa Monica Dolphins. As both Portland and Life West play in hybrid D1/D2 leagues, there’s really no telling how this one will fall.