Men’s Division 2 – November 2025 Recap

With November coming to a close, we have a few different things happening across the USA Club Rugby landscape. Regions are either powering down for the winter, entering hibernation mode before reactivating when the snow goes away; starting their preseasons to celebrate the end of the 10-month summer (looking at you Texas); or most excitedly – crowning champions. The bulk of this recap will go to the latter, as playoff rugby is always page scrolling stuff. However, we will of course cover every region and division seeking USAR Club Nationals qualification in the spring.

All of the information and stats reported below are gathered from team-entered data on Rugby Xplorer. If something doesn’t seem right, please first check with Rugby Xplorer or your local GU before sounding the alarm and flooding my inbox. If it’s right in the system and wrong here, it could just be me. Unfortunately I too make mistakes. All other commentary is just for fun from someone who has no stake in the outcomes of these matches.

With that out of the way, let’s cover everything that happened in November in the Men’s Division 2 competition!

The last weekend of October saw us through four exciting quarterfinal match-ups in the Midwest Men’s D2 competition and set up two epic semifinals. 

First up Fort Wayne (6-0) hosted the Chicago Lions (5-1) after the Lions came from behind to snatch victory from the hands of Palmer College in the quarters. It was a dream year for the Lions, who finished 1-5 last year, missing the playoff boat by quite a lot. Fort Wayne pulled off their own underdog win against Palmer College in the 2024 quarters, and as hosts this year, smashed Des Moines en route to yet another Midwest semifinal. Perhaps Chicago were strained from having dual playoff away games on the same day, or maybe it was just the end of their run, but the match fell heavily to Fort Wayne. Trey Sherman scored twice in the opening 20 minutes before Toby Biddle and Jacob Minnick added their names to the scoresheet. Christian McPhetridge answered back with the Lions’ first score of the half, but Chicago trailed at the break a whopping 24-7. Any hope the Lions had of making a comeback was smashed when Fort Wayne sent Biddle over again, followed by Samuel Bruening. Darrell Williams would close out the match with a consolation try for Chicago, but the damage was done; Fort Wayne advanced to the Midwest Championship, 50-14. 

On the other side of the bracket the Southside Irish (6-0) hosted Wisconsin (6-0). Wisconsin fell to the Indianapolis Impalas last year in the semifinals, while the Southside Irish finished fourth in the D2 Central League at 3-3. Both undefeated sides cruised through their quarters, scoring over 89 combined points before arriving at this semifinal. On paper, the Irish had a bit of an edge. They got max bonus points in their six wins, with a total PD of 264; while Wisconsin missed out on one 4+ try bonus back in August hosting Palmer College, collecting a total PD of 160. However, both sides played Eastern Conference teams in the quarters, so there wasn’t even much to draw comparison to. Josh Dalton proved outstanding for the Irish, scoring 21 of the 36 points in the win. Wisconsin managed to get 15 points of their own on the scoreboard, but it wasn’t enough to stop Southside from qualifying for the Super Regional and the Midwest Championship match. 

The Southside Irish and Fort Wayne met on December 15th at the Chicago Blaze Rugby Complex. It was a tight first half, but the Irish put their foot down on the gas once the second half kicked off. An astonishing 33 points in just under 30 minutes pushed the Irish past Fort Wayne, as they held the lead at the final whistle and claimed the title of Midwest D2 Champions. Both the Irish and Fort Wayne will advance to the Northern Super Regional in May, after taking a well deserved break from a long, challenging season.

We have two matches to cover from November; both involving Wichita (2-3). The first saw Wichita hosting the Omaha GOATS (3-3) who have played the most matches of any Mid-America side. It was a solid battle between the two sides, with Wichita getting the bonus point in the end, and the win 28-20. As Omaha only scored three tries, they missed out on both losing bonus points, which would have propelled them into first place had they scored once more. The second match saw the Royal Ramblers (1-3) get their first win over the season over the GOATS 38-20. The Royal Ramblers scored three tries in the opening 20 minutes to set the pace of the game. Omaha then stepped up the defense and held the Royal Ramblers scoreless until halftime. Nathaniel Miller opened it back up for the Royal Ramblers, followed by teammate Joe Hunter a few minutes later. A strong performance from the former Mid-America men’s D3 champions, who had been coming close to this win all season. 

The season will open back up in March with the Royal Ramblers hosting the GOATS and the St. Louis Bombers (2-3) hosting Wichita (2-3). The latter two will be duking it out for third place in the standings. Top of the table Kansas City (4-0) will return to the pitch on March 28th when they travel to Kansas to play Wichita. 

We had one final match in the Rocky Mountains, and it was literally the final match; the one versus two seed, the Gentlemen of Aspen (5-1) hosting the Denver Water Dogs (4-2) for the Rocky Mountain title. 

The two had already played twice during the regular season, Aspen winning the first 34-31, and Denver taking the second 55-52. Unfortunately for Denver, a loss to the Park City Haggis (3-3) on the road kept them in second place, forcing them to make the drive up to Aspen for the final. The Gents won the Rocky Mountain title last year, defeating the Haggis 26-22 in order to qualify for their place in the Northern Super Regional. Aspen made it as far as the Super Regional final, eventually falling to Kansas City 44-39, failing to claim a place at Nationals. 

The final was high-scoring, as many of the Rocky Mountain matches seem to be. Aspen had Christopher Campbell, who kicked five of six conversions and two penalty goals, as well as Etiene Piere who scored twice for the Gents. The Water Dogs put up a solid fight, but in the end it wasn’t enough. Final score 48-36 in favor of Aspen, who will take the winter off before regrouping ahead of Super Regionals. 

New England crowned its champion after the November semifinals and finals weekend. All seven men’s D2 teams took part in the postseason run, with three quarterfinals being played and the top team getting the bye into the semi. As expected, the sixth and seventh ranked teams fell to the higher seed, but there was one upset. Everyone loves an upset. Portland (2-4) managed to get the win over the Worcester Shamrocks (3-3), sending them into the semifinal against the number one seed, Mystic River (6-0). End of the road for Portland right? Wrong. It was a back and forth affair, pure chaos from minute one of the match. Portland took the lead two minutes in, but Mystic evened it out, then they pulled into the lead, then Portland did the same – even and pull ahead. At the half it was 26-17 Portland. Mystic fought back in the second half, and even tied the game with five minutes left to play. Portland found the energy for one more drive and sent Ross Maiden over the line to score the game winner, final 43-38 to Portland. 

With Mystic River out of the picture, the other semifinal suddenly had way more at stake. The reigning champions, the Boston Irish Wolfhounds (5-1) relished another fight against Portland in the championship match, especially after winning last year 23-17. Meanwhile Boston (3-3) would have loved another go against Portland; they already beat them once this season, why not again to claim the title? In the end the Wolfhounds sealed the deal pretty confidently, taking down Boston 44-17, setting up a rematch of last year’s final. The Wolfhounds relied on flyhalf James Moriarty for much of the match, electing for shots at goal whenever possible to put points on the board. Portland however, just went for the tries. In the end, the go big or go home method worked for Portland, taking the win 31-28 over the former champions. Turns out there’s a new boss in town. Portland will represent New England at the Atlantic Super Regional next year after the winter break.

We had two matches in November before the Empire conference shut the doors for the winter. Montclair (1-7) are the lone side who finished their entire season in the fall, and it ended on a high note. Game after game of single digit losses was brutal for Montclair, who made the jump to D2 this year. A solid side, their record doesn’t reflect the abilities of this team. However, on November 1st, they finally got their win. Old Blue (1-5) pushed to a 14-0 lead in the first half, and it looked like Montclair were doomed to finish their season winless, but Montclair stayed slow and steady, chipping away at the deficit little by little. In the second half, it was all Montclair. 44 unanswered points from the New Jersey side gave them their first win of the D2 season, at home to boot. 

The other four teams in the division each have at least one more match to go, but it’s certain that the top two teams aren’t going anywhere. Buffalo (6-1) are solidly in first with one match left to play against NYAC (3-3). The last time those two faced off it was 104-5 in Buffalo’s favor, so barring any wild changes over the winter, it will likely fall to Buffalo again. Even if Buffalo lose and second place NYRC (6-1) win, they will still finish in the top two. NYRC could theoretically jump into first in that scenario, but they cannot finish lower than second, thanks to their 38-14 win over NYAC this past month. Old Blue have two chances left to finish above Montclair on the table, a win in either match would secure that, or if they can get two bonus points in each loss, they won’t finish last. The final rounds of games will be played when the season resumes in March, followed by a playoff match to determine the Empire champion.

It was a big final weekend in November for the four teams in the Capital region. The Raleigh Vipers (4-2) secured a bonus point win over the Riverlands (4-2), bringing them to a tie on total table points. In the head to head, the Riverlands won the first match by 18 points but Raleigh won the second by 23. Literally five points were the difference between finishing first and second on the table. Justin Bourgeois was perfect from the tee in the five-try win, while the Golden Boars only managed to score twice, one of those a penalty try. Both teams will host semifinals, with the Riverlands hosting the third seed, and Raleigh hosting the fourth. 

Our third seed are the Norfolk Blues (3-3), who won their final game of the season 50-5. Alexander Wheatley and Adam Brubaker both scored twice for the Blues, while Casey Jones accounted for the lone try from James River (1-5). Norfolk will travel to the Riverlands, who they beat once in the regular season, 52-35 back in September. James River will make the trek to North Carolina to face the Raleigh Vipers, a team they came close to earlier this season, but haven’t beaten outright in years. These games will take place in April, with the final on April 18th.

Our last four regular season matches were played at the start of November and spring playoffs have been confirmed for March. North Bay (7-0) finished their season undefeated with a strong 98-10 win over Doylestown (1-6). This locked up the top spot and home field advantage heading into the semis. Philadelphia Whitemarsh (5-2) and the Lancaster Roses (5-2) tied on total points and record, so we had to go back to the head to head result in September to determine the final seeding. Whitemarsh won that one 71-26. They were actually lucky to have won that head to head because they dropped their last game of the season 46-10 against Old Gaelic (4-2-1). Had they lost to Lancaster back in September, they’d be sitting at third. The Roses won their last match of the season 36-33 over South Jersey (1-7), securing third overall. Old Gaelic finished in fourth thanks to that win over Whitemarsh. Had they lost, they could have fallen victim to Media (3-3-1) jumping them in the standings after their final win over Monmouth (1-6). Now, North Bay will host Old Gaelic while Philadelphia Whitemarsh will host the Lancaster Roses on March 21st. The winners will go head to head the next weekend, determining a conference champion on March 28th. 

There are five Division 2 teams in Northern California this year; they will be playing a regular season hybrid competition with two men’s D1 sides before splitting at the postseason. Silicon Valley topped the league last year, going 8-1. They will be joined by familiar foes in San Jose, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, and East Palo Alto. EPA took on Life West in a friendly, and Santa Rosa will do the same in December. More teams will kick into action come January, so watch this space. 

Up in the Pacific Northwest, the Eastside Tsunami (5-1) notched two more wins in November to stay secure on the top of the table. Adding that to their win over D1 Seattle, it’s been a solid season for the Tsunami. The first weekend of November they hosted the Chuckanut Bay Geoducks (1-2), putting up a solid 73 points to the Geoducks’ 12. Then they traveled to Tacoma to take on the Nomads (2-5), putting up another 72 points to the Nomads’ 20. Their only loss of the season comes from the Bend Roughriders (2-3) back in September. Surprisingly, Bend forfeited their game this month against the Nomads, keeping them in fourth place overall in the standings. The Valley Kangaroos (3-1) are in second place with two less matches played than Eastside, and three less than third-place Tacoma. Their last match was a 22-point loss when they hosted Eastside in October. There’s only two matches left on the posted schedule for the spring, but I think there will be a few more moves in the table before a champion is decided.

Southern California is scheduled to kickoff their season in January. The Oceanside Chiefs have been promoted to Division 1 after leading the division last year, defeating San Luis Obispo 42-15 in the SoCal final. SLO will have to face some tough competition this year, with fellow semifinalists Belmont Shore and Ventura County both eyeing up that top spot. Games kickoff in January, so hang tight until then!

The Southwest region played a D2/D3 hybrid last year, but it looks like they are splitting the divisions this year. Last year’s champions Las Vegas will clash against the Tempe Old Devils and the Red Mountain Warthogs, as well as newly promoted Scottsdale Blues. The Blues were National runners-up in D3 last year and defeated the Warthogs and Old Devils in regular season play, so we aren’t that surprised to see the promotion. Matches will start in January, so nothing to cover until then!

Atlanta Old White (2-0) have joined the True South competition this season, taking on Nashville (1-1), the Birmingham Vulcans (0-2), and New Orleans. It was a solid start for Old White, who notched both of their wins this past month. First they took on Nashville, who had started their season with a win over Birmingham back in October. Former MLR standout Ross Deacon scored twice for Old White in that win, final score 29-7. They followed this up with a massive 48-0 defeat of the Vulcans on November 15th. New Orleans have yet to start their season, their first game will be in January against Atlanta Old White; talk about a trial by fire. New Orleans were a solid 4-1 last year, only dropping one match to Nashville. New Orleans will then have a busy few weeks as they play the Vulcans and Old White once more in the following weeks. All that will go down next year, kicking off in January!

We’ve had one formal preseason friendly, and a number of scattered games with questionable score reports. San Antonio look fierce this year, they took down the Austin Huns 66-10 at the end of November. The Dallas RFC will host the Huns and Grand Prairie in December, before the Huns host San Antonio once more. The regular season will kick off on January 10th with Fort Worth hosting Grand Prairie, HURT hosting San Antonio, and the Woodlands hosting Dallas. 

We’ve got six teams in this hybrid division this year, down from nine last year. Jacksonville, Palm Beach, and the Southwest Florida Hammerheads have moved down to Division 3, while the Miami Tridents remain as the sole D1 side. Our draft schedule has last year’s champions, the Fort Lauderdale Knights taking on the D1 Miami Tridents for the opening weekend as well as the Pelicans hosting Boca Raton and Tampa hosting Orlando. This will all start January 17th, so get ready.