Men’s Division 3 – December 2025 Recap

It’s the holiday season, and that means there’s slightly less rugby to cover than usual. Most of the competitions in the northern half of the country are off for the winter; either waiting to decide champions in the spring or already having crowned their champions in the fall. The southern teams are a bit more active, we have some matches from December to recap, but only a few weekends. So in addition to our recaps this month, we’re going to dive into a bit of a preview of what the spring will hold as well as a look at the history books to see how it’s played out in the past. There’s still plenty of USA Club Rugby content to devour while you’re waiting for the rugby to return in 2026. 

As always – all of this information comes straight from team-entered data on Rugby Xplorer. If you see something that doesn’t seem right, please first check on there or with your local GU! The historical data comes from a couple other sources, there’s been a fair amount of movement in divisions and leagues that no longer exist, so I did my best. Obviously I can make mistakes; please don’t hesitate to reach out if you notice something off. 

Without further ado, let’s dive into the last USA Club Rugby recap of 2025; Men’s Division 3.

The Midwest narrowed the field down from 48 teams to one in November, with the Detroit Tradesmen taking the title over the Chicago Blaze 36-21. Remember, because of how big the Midwest is, and how many regions it covers, the top two teams advance to the Northern Super Regional. 

Last year, this was the Red River Ruffians and the South Pittsburgh Hooligans. The Hooligans won their first match of the Super Regional over the Royal Ramblers while the Ruffians lost 21-17 against the Denver Highlanders. The Highlanders would go on to defeat South Pittsburgh in the final, marking the end of the road for Men’s Midwest. The Ruffians did make the National semifinal in 2024, after defeating the Royal Ramblers and the Colorado Springs Grizzlies at regionals. Detroit also went that year, but got knocked out in the semifinals to the Grizzlies. 

Over the last ten years we have had three appearances in the D3 National Championship match by Midwest teams. The Grand Rapids Gazelles finished runners-up to the Austin Blacks in 2019, the Bremer County Bucks finished runners-up to the St. Louis Royals in 2017, and the Tri-City Barbarians finished runners-up to Wichita in 2015. The last Midwest D3 National Champion was back in 2011 when Metropolis Rugby took the title. There’s a fair number of national appearances before 2011, probably due to the Midwest having the majority of the D3 clubs at that time in USA Rugby history. Of teams that are still active (under the same name and in the same division), the Michiana Moose finished second in 2008. 

It’s always tough for the teams in the Northern region because their seasons wrap up in November, and they really don’t have any solid competition in the lead up to Nationals. Hopefully both the Tradesmen and the Blaze will find some good games in April once the snow melts in order to be firing on all cylinders come regionals.

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 (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.

The last two years the Royal Ramblers have represented Mid-America at the Northern Super Regional. Since they were promoted to D2 this year, the slot is open for a new team to test their abilities on the regional level. Springfield represented back in 2023, making it to the final where they fell to the Colorado Springs Grizzlies. 

The Mid-America region has not one but two Men’s D3 National Champions in the last ten years. The Wichita Barbarians won the title in 2015 and were promoted to D2 in the years that followed, and the St. Louis Royals won the title in 2017. The Royals later merged with the St. Louis Ramblers in 2019 and were promoted to D2 this year.

Teams looking to repeat in the footsteps of the Royals or the Barbarians will first have to win out the rest of the Mid-America playoffs. These will happen in the spring, exact dates TBD. Once they are in RX, we’ll be able to preview those matches and get excited for the upcoming season.

The Rocky Mountain division has closed its doors for the winter, but there is a lot to come in the spring. Currently the top four teams in this division are all within four table points of each other. The Colorado Springs Grizzlies (5-1) have a little bit of a lead on the next three teams with 26 total table points. They have received a bonus point in all six matches, and lead the league in points differential with a total PD of +117. That’s not that high when you compare it with some other numbers we see across the regions, but that just goes to show how competitive Rocky Mountain is. With 23 table points are the Denver Highlanders (4-2), last year’s Northern Super Regional champions. The Highlanders defeated the Grizzlies back on November 1st, but were gobsmacked by the Northern Colorado Flamingos (2-4) the weekend before. Proof to never let down your guard. Tied on 22 points apiece are the Littleton Scots (4-2) and the Queen City Rams (3-3-1). Queen City has the same record as Boulder (3-3-1) (and tied them in the fall) but has really racked up those bonus points to keep them neck and neck with the Scots. Below Boulder are the Flamingoes, who already proved you can’t count them out of anything. Every team, with the exception of Boulder and the Rams, has two matches left to play before the top four go into semifinals and the final. 

As we mentioned, the Highlanders won last year, smashing through the regional playoffs to get a spot in the national semifinal. The year before, the Colorado Springs Grizzlies made it to the Super Regional, losing in the final to the Red River Ruffians. The year before that, the Grizzlies won the Rocky Mountain once more, this time advancing all the way to the National Championship match where they fell 18-14 to the Austin Blacks. The Blacks led the entire match, but the Grizzlies scored with two minutes left to play to bring it within one try. Outside of the Grizzlies recent success, we don’t have any D3 Men’s Champions coming out of the Rocky Mountain. As covered in our other recaps, there’s a fair amount of Rocky Mountain Champions overall, and this seems to be the one division that’s missing out. Feels like the first one could be right around the corner.

Games start back up in March. I’m not going to go through every iteration of who could qualify for the top four, but I’m pretty sure no one is safe yet. That means every match is a do or die scenario for these teams in the Rockies. 

New England finished off their fall season in November and named Providence their 2025 champions. Top of the table Providence defeated second-ranked Burlington in the NERFU final after ten weeks of regular season play. It was a close race to finish in the top two for a number of teams this season, and New England doesn’t have semifinals. The Albany Knickerbockers just missed out after tying Providence on table points, but unfortunately they lost the head to head 29-28 back in September. This is the second time in three years that Providence has represented NERFU in the playoffs. Back in 2023, Providence defeated New Haven in the NERFU final but lost to North Bay in the Atlantic semi.

The Boston Irish Wolfhounds topped the league last year, defeating the Knicks in the final. There were semis last year, which saw Providence and the Boston Maccabi get a chance, but they weren’t able to pull off an upset. The Wolfhounds defeated the Wilkes-Barre Breakers in the Atlantic Super Regional semifinals before facing Rocky Gorge in the final. The Wolfhounds led for most of the first half, but Rocky Gorge pulled back and snatched the win 27-22. 

In 2024, Charles River managed to sneak by the Wolfhounds 24-22 to qualify for the regionals, then went 2-0 in the Atlantic Super Regional to make the trip to the national final four. They fell 33-31 against Colusa in the semifinals, who ended up losing to the Austin Blacks in the National Championship. 

The last Men’s D3 National Champion out of NERFU was the Fairfield Yankees back in 2016. Before that, the Boston Irish Wolfhounds defeated Mission Rugby to take the title in 2007, a rematch of the 2006 final where Mission took down the Wolfhounds. In order to break the ten-year dry spell of making an appearance in Men’s D3 National Championship matches, Providence will have to make it through the Atlantic Super Regional where they will face the champions from Empire, Capital, and the EPRU. That journey will continue in the spring, stay tuned.

Heading over to the Empire competition, we’ve got four conferences that have all finished regular season play. If this plays out like it did last year, the top team from each conference will advance to a semifinal, followed by the conference final. If that’s the case then Syracuse (8-0) will represent Upstate, Greenwich (6-1-1) will rep Connecticut, Long Island (6-2) will rep Metro, and the Union County Mudturtles (7-0-1) will round us out repping New Jersey.

Last year, Syracuse took the conference championship after defeating Long Island in the final. Greenwich would return (they lost to Long Island in the semifinal), and Montclair has since moved up to D2 so Union steps in. Syracuse ended up losing 21-19 against Rocky Gorge in the Atlantic semifinal, but managed to end their weekend with a win when they defeated the Wilkes-Barre Breakers in the consolation match. 

If we go back to 2024 we had some different teams in the mix; Old Blue won the conference championship to advance to Atlantic regionals, defeating NYAC in the semis and Greenwich in the final. 

The Mudturtles are the most recent Empire team to reach a National Championship match, having made it to the 2022 final where they fell to the Palm Beach Panthers. Before the Mudturtles, Long Island finished second to the Austin Blacks at the 2018 championship, and before that, New York Old Blue defeated the Life West Gladiators to claim the 2014 title. Syracuse has also been in a National Championship match, all the way back in 2011 when they took on Metropolis.

So out of the four teams most likely to advance to the Atlantic Super Regional, all but Greenwich have been in a Men’s D3 National Championship match. Those are some pretty intense conference semifinals. The action returns in the spring, when hopefully we’ll have the final playoff information for you. 

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. Though with a total point differential of +344 this season, Virginia has comfortably won all of their games. 

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.

Last year, Rocky Gorge put on a show and dominated Virginia Beach in the final, winning 117-0. They carried this energy all the way through the Super Regional, taking down Syracuse and the Boston Irish Wolfhounds to advance to the National Final Four. There they ran into the Columbia Rhinos, who were stopping at nothing to win that Championship. The two years before, it was North Bay who defeated Newport News in order to qualify for regionals. Capital is one of the few regions that has never had a team appear in the Men’s D3 National Championship match. Rocky Gorge got close last year, but someone will need to carry the torch further this year. Both our undefeated teams, Rocky Gorge and Virginia, look keen, but don’t count out the teams who take an early season loss. Last year’s National Champions, the Rhinos, lost early in their regular season, and look how they ended up. 

The action all starts back up in March, and we still have two games of the regular season left to play before the playoff action starts!

Our last competition in the Atlantic region are the teams in the EPRU. 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 for a spot in the semifinals against the top two teams who receive byes. 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 that match 38-21. 

Last year, Wilkes-Barre defeated Northeast Philadelphia in the EPRU final, advancing to the Atlantic Super Regional. Not a particularly fruitful trip for the Breakers, who fell in the semi to the Boston Irish Wolfhounds and in the Sunday consolation match to Syracuse. The year before, Lehigh Valley took the crown over Wilkes-Barre, but suffered a similar fate outside of the EPRU. Don’t think it’s all doom and gloom for the EPRU; that’s just the last two years. The EPRU has had one team make it all the way to the National Championship match, and that was back in 2012 when Philadelphia Whitemarsh played against New Orleans for the D3 title. 

So what’s going to happen this year? There’s a few teams putting their hands up to be a new face at regionals, but they’ve got to watch out for Lehigh Valley and Wilkes-Barre, both of whom have old scores they want to settle. Playoff games start in March, so get ready.

Heading over to the West Coast, we’ve got a number of leagues that haven’t yet kicked off their season. We’ll start with Northern California, who have their games scheduled to begin on January 10th. 

There’s nine total teams in this league, led by last year’s champions Marin. Marin and Baracus finished with the same record last year (9-1), but Marin won the head to head 50-31 in order to advance to the regionals. No league playoffs here, a tough blow for Baracus who were so close. Marin took down Beach Cities in the Pacific Super Regional semifinal, 55-21, but then ran into Scottsdale, who ran over them in the final. I mean, Scottsdale went on to finish second nationally, so who’s to say Marin couldn’t have finished third if they were in a different region?

Back in 2024, Colusa County won the NorCal Men’s D3 comp, and they made it all the way to the National Championship game. They did get a pretty big hiding from the Austin Blacks in that final, but they still got a medal. Before that we have the Life West Gladiators who finished second in 2014, but if we go back far enough, you’ll see that NorCal does have their own D3 National Champions! The Reno Zephyrs won not one, but two titles back in the early 2000’s; 2008 and 2003. Chico also nabbed a title of their own in 2002. Reno finished third in the league last year, and were the only team to defeat Marin out of NorCal. Could Reno be making a comeback in search for their third National title? Only time will tell. The season kicks off in just a few weeks, and there’s going to be plenty of rugby for everyone. 

We are still missing two league schedules in RX, the first being Southern California. But we’ll give you the best information we can with what we have! According to RX, Ventura County played Temecula in a preseason match; no scores reported for that one, but social media seems to confirm it happened. According to sources (Temecula’s Facebook page – thanks guys!) we’ve got games kicking off on January 17th. Last year’s SoCal D3 Champions, Beach Cities, are moving up to D2, leaving the second-place Fullerton Dead Elephants to lead the league. They will be joined by Temecula, LA Soul, Riverside, the San Diego Armada, the LA Rebellion, and the WC Marines. Beaumont is also out for this year, but will hopefully join back when their number increase.  Again – without a schedule in RX, I can’t be held responsible for mistakes, so don’t come at me. 

Beach Cities finished top of the table last year with a 7-1 record. They defeated LA Soul 20-18 in the conference semifinals, then took down the Dead Elephants in the final 34-15. Their trip to the Super Regional was rudely cut short by Marin, who defeated them in the opening round, 55-21. Beach Cities also made the trip in 2024, however that run also ended in the semifinals, this time to Santa Fe. Twice crowned the SoCal D3 Champ forced the move to D2, leaving space for a guaranteed new representative this year. 

The last ten years, SoCal has been pretty quiet as far as Men’s D3 National Championships go, but if we look before that, there’s Southern California representation everywhere. In 2013, the Oceanside Chiefs took the title over Old Blue. OMBAC won the title in 2010 over the St. Louis Royals. Beaumont also reached the championship match in 2009, falling to the Northern State Wolves 67-22. So, plenty of SoCal success, it’s just been a bit. 

Formal schedule or not in RX, we know that these games are going to kickoff this month, and as soon as that schedule is posted – we’ll be able to update you more on what to look forward to this season.

Up in the Pacific Northwest, every team has played six games with the exception of the Seattle Quake (1-4) and the Yakima Griffins (0-5). Yakima are still looking for their first win of the season, and the Quake are probably their best bet. Seattle got the best of them back in September when they first met, but Yakima has impressed since. In October, the Griffins lost to the Snohomish Rhinos (2-4) by one point and the Clark County Chiefs (4-2) by two. They are definitely building to something.

The Portland Pigs (6-0) are the last undefeated team left standing; they’ve gotten all six bonus point wins with an overall PD of +153. They also topped the league last year, defeating the Snohomish Rhinos, who defeated the Budd Bay Buffaloes in the semifinal. The Pigs went to the Pacific Super Regional, but ran into the Scottsdale Blues on day one, which wasn’t great for the Pigs. In 2024, the Clark County Chiefs represented the PNW at regionals, but fell to Colusa in round one. As both Scottsdale and Colusa went on to be the National runners-up, it’s not the worst loss to suffer, but it sure feels unfair. 

Surprisingly, the Pacific Northwest is one of the only divisions to not have a team in any of the Men’s D3 National championship matches. I think it’s about time for them to have their chance in the arena. 

I think there are a few more matches yet to come from the PNW, but nothing is confirmed in RX. Right now it looks like the Pigs might make the return trip to the Super Regional, unless the Chiefs or the Buffaloes (4-2) are prepared to make a stand. 

The second division that has yet to upload a schedule in RX are the D3 teams in the Southwest. Last year this division played a D2/D3 hybrid with the Scottsdale Blues advancing to the Pacific Super Regional. Scottsdale defeated the Portland Pigs in the semifinal before smoking Marin in the final 67-7. They advanced to the National Championship tournament where they defeated the Denver Highlanders in the semi before advancing to the National Championship. The Blues ended up falling to the Columbia Rhinos, but still the first appearance for a Southwest D3 Men’s team in a National Championship match! 

In 2024, the Santa Fe Santos defeated Beach Cities in the Super Regional before falling in a shootout of a final. Santa Fe was leading at the end of the match, but Colusa managed to score at full time to pull into the lead, final score 57-53. In 2023, a similar fate befell the Tucson Magpies who actually won the Super Regional and made an appearance in the national semifinal. The Magpies were leading the Austin Blacks as the minutes ticked down, but Austin managed to score once more before the final whistle sounded, crushing the hopes of the Magpies. 

Given these last few years, the Southwest is definitely on the rise. No word yet if Scottsdale will remain in D3 or move up to D2, but we will find out soon when the official schedule is posted in RX!

they’ve added a D3 program, so you’ll still see their name around. The Las Vegas Irish, last year’s D2 champs, have done the same thing. So the bracket looks pretty similar to last year, but don’t let scores surprise you when they start rolling in.

We have one match to cover from December and then we’ll get into the historical stuff! New Orleans (1-0) opened their season with a win over the Pensacola Aviators (0-1) on December 6th; the first game of the South Conference. New Orleans kept it pretty consistent, scoring 19 points in the first half and following it up with another 15 in the second half. Pensacola scored four of their own tries, enough to get a bonus losing point, but remained out of reach of the seven to get another. 

The North Conference has already had a few matches take place; Huntsville (2-1), Chattanooga (2-1), and the Memphis Blues (2-1) are already in a fight for first. Nooga topped Huntsville 33-32 back on opening weekend, Huntsville beat Memphis, and you guessed it – Memphis beat Chattanooga. The silent assassin of this group is the Knoxville Possums (1-0) who are fourth, but only played one match. So still technically undefeated. As they only played Atlanta Old White (0-1), we don’t yet know how they stack up against the rest of the field. 

Last year the Possums defeated Old White to advance to the playoffs after taking down New Orleans in the semifinal. The Possums never made it to the Super Regional though; they were taken down by the Columbia Rhinos in the 4th vs 5th play-in*. The year before the same thing happened, with New Orleans getting taken out before the regionals started. Back in 2023,  New Orleans made it through, but were taken out by Palm Beach in the semis. Tough luck.

Does True South even have any D3 National Champions? Of course! New Orleans won it back in 2012. If we turn the clock back even further, Battleship won the title in 2001. I’m pretty sure they would qualify as True South in today’s speech. I’m going to count it. It has been awhile that’s true, but remember that the Gulf Coast region has produced the last six Men’s D3 National Champions, so in this region, getting knocked out early doesn’t mean you’re the worst. 

Games will start on January 17th when the Crescent City Blues host Okaloosa and Atlanta Old White host the Montgomery Yellowhammers (0-1). Still plenty of rugby to come before playoffs hit!

Down in Texas we actually have a number of matches to cover from December before we can get into all the fun historical bits!

The North league had a fair number of matches in December; all teams have now played at least three games. The OKC Legion (4-0-1) is the team to beat, they topped the Arkansas Gryphons (2-1) 22-19 back on the 6th, but then tied DARC (2-1-1) 31-31 on the 20th. DARC also recorded a big win over Little Rock (1-4) on December 6th. Eight different players scored in the 48-10 win. Finally, Alliance (2-2) notched a 27-0 win over Tulsa (0-3). This keeps Alliance in third place, just behind DARC and just ahead of the Gryphons. Alliance will host OKC on January 10th, a win for Alliance wouldn’t rocket them to first, but it would throw a wrench in this conference. Tulsa will try for their first win of the season when they travel to the Gryphons on the 24th. 

We also had two matches in the South league to cover. Bay Area Rugby Club (3-1) scooted into first place with their 40-17 win over the Houston Arrows (2-1) on the 13th. The game was tied 0-0 for the first 20 minutes until BARC broke the seal. The Arrows answered immediately with one of their own, but Bay Area kicked a penalty goal to keep the lead. At halftime, Bay Area led 20-7, and they never let the Arrows catch up. Shreveport (2-1) also got a win over the new kids Cy-Fair (0-3) on the 20th, winning 47-24. Cy-Fair did get a bonus point in the loss for scoring four tries, but are still on the hunt for their first D3 victory. 

In the Central league there was only one match, a cross-conference battle between the D3 Corpus Christi Crabs (3-0) and D4 McAllen (1-1). The Crabs are the only D3 team in that conference, playing qualifying matches against former D3 competition due to geographical isolation. I mean, have you seen Texas? It’s pretty big. 

The D1-c league remains quiet for now, those matches will all kick off with the D2 and D1 schedule in January. 

So that’s what happened in December, but what do we have to look forward to come playoff time? Well, as mentioned in the above section, the Gulf Coast has produced the last six Men’s D3 National Champions. Texas has produced four of them, and they’re all the same team, the Austin Blacks. I feel like that kind of speaks for itself. I would also like to shout out the Euless Texans, who were National runners-up in 2016. They were the first Texas side to make the Men’s D3 National final, so they really kicked the whole trend off, if you think about it.

Plenty more rugby to come in January, the three active D3 leagues will continue moving through their season while the D1-c will kickoff on January 10th.

It’s going to be a big season in the Florida Men’s D3 this year with 14 teams battling it out for one spot at the Gulf Coast Super Regional. And that’s not even guaranteed! Last year Brevard Old Red Eye defeated the Pelicans to advance to the Super Regional where they took down the Savannah Shamrocks in the first round. The D3 final ended up going to extra time, and the Columbia Rhinos managed to score first over Brevard, advancing to the National Championship. As we all know, they ended up winning that championship, meaning last year’s Florida champions, Brevard Old Red Eye, tied the National Champions in playoff rugby. Not a bad stat. Florida D3 are not without their own National Championship representatives. The Palm Beach Panthers took the title back in 2022 with a walloping of the Union County Mudturtles. So, Florida has a solid chance in advancing to that National Championship tournament, now it’s just down to which of the 14 teams will end on top of the table, and have the opportunity to play for greatness.

Regular season games run from January 17th to March 28th, before splintering off to postseason playoffs. With 14 total teams, we will likely see quarterfinals before semis and the final, we might even see some round of 16 play-ins happening before that. However, there’s a lot of rugby to get through before anyone can start thinking about the postseason.

Now rolling on over to Georgia. I will be upfront here, there’s a lot of gaps in this RX, so standings might not be fully updated. Currently it looks like the Atlanta Renegades (4-0) are ruling the Western Division, while Hilton Head (3-1) is up in the East. The Savannah Shamrocks (3-0) are tied with Hilton Head but have one less match played so far, so they have a smaller PD and are in second-place. In the West, the same is true of the Greenville Spartans (3-0), who are hiding out in third, but still undefeated. 

Georgia went full quarterfinals to semis to a final last year, so the top eight teams (top four from each conference) advanced to the postseason. With 13 teams involved again this year, we expect a similar schedule. The Savannah Shamrocks won the bid last year over the Charleston Outlaws in the league final, skirting the play-in match, and heading directly to the Gulf Coast semifinal. There, they fell to Brevard Old Red Eye 45-22. The two years before, the Charleston Outlaws made it out of Georgia and to the Gulf Coast, but both times they faced the Austin Blacks in the semifinal, and as we mentioned before, the Blacks won the National title both years. Georgia is still waiting on their first team to make it to a Men’s D3 National Championship match, but it’s a tough region.

There’s still a fair amount of games to take place, and with most teams qualifying for the Georgia playoffs, almost everyone has a chance to win the title. 

We’re about halfway through the competition in the Carolinas and it’s spicy, particularly in the West. The Southern Pines Big Cones (6-0) are dominating the Eastern Division having defeated every team that faces them. The Fayetteville Dragons (3-3) are second on the table, but have one more match played than either the Onslow Misfits (3-2) or Cape Fear (2-3). Onslow are technically tied on table points with the Dragons, putting them in a better spot to secure second place once they play one more match in the spring. 

Over in the Western division we have Charlotte (5-0-1) on top of the table with the Columbia Rhinos (4-1-1) close behind. It’s as close as it can get between the two of them; they tied 31-31 back when they played on November 8th. The Greenville Griffins (3-2) and Asheville Iguanas (3-2) are battling it out for third place. Greenville currently has one more bonus point, but they haven’t gone head to head yet. That will happen on January 31st, so keep an eye out. 

Last year the Columbia Rhinos and Cape Fear made it to the Carolinas final after defeating Tobacco Road and the Griffins respectively. The Rhinos smashed Cape Fear in the final and ended up going on a trip that took them all the way to the National Championship match, where they took home the Carolinas’ first D3 National title. The Rhinos also represented the Carolinas in 2024 where they fell to Brevard in the semifinals. Before that, the Carolinas champion failed to qualify for the Gulf Coast.* Pretty crazy for the Carolinas to go from not having a slot to having a National Champion in two years.

There’s still plenty of rugby to come in the spring before we have an idea of the playoff picture. Games kickoff on January 24th with Tobacco Road (1-3), Greenville, Cape Fear, Columbia, and Onslow hosting!

*With five GUs playing Men’s D3 in the Gulf Coast [Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, True South, and Texas], the fourth and fifth lowest-ranked champions must participate in a play-in match to determine who advances to the Gulf Coast Super Regional. 

I’ve decided to start keeping track of the updates/corrections made in the article as I get information from clubs and players. I read all the comments and take emails, so if I get something wrong, please let me know! I want to ensure the most accurate data is out there.

1/2 – SoCal – Beach Cities has moved up to D2