Men’s Division 3 – January 2026 Recap

It may be a new calendar year, but we’re only halfway through the USA Club Rugby 25-26 season. However, January does mark the start of league play in most of our warmer-weather regions. They will dominate the lion’s share of this article as competitions in the North have either finished or remain on winter break until the spring. We’ll still be sure to note what happened in the fall or what lies ahead for playoffs in those competitions. 

All of the information gathered for these articles come from the team-entered data on Rugby Xplorer. This means that the more accurate your team is about entering data, the more detail I can go into in these recaps. The power is in your hands. Or your team’s admin’s hands… If there does happen to be a mistake – feel free to reach out; I’m always in the interest of providing the most accurate information. Any additional commentary is added just for fun; from someone who has zero stake in the outcomes of these matches. 

Now that we’ve covered that (or skipped over it because you’re a regular reader of the monthly recaps), it’s time for some rugby! Let’s kick it off with what’s happened in the Men’s Division 3 Competition.

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

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

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

The Rocky Mountain league 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. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

All the action starts on March 28th!

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

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

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

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

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

The EPRU wrapped up their regular season in November and we have the top six teams advancing to the playoffs. Teams ranked 3-6 will play 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. 

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

Over in the Pacific Super Region, Northern California has kicked off their season with all nine teams in the league playing at least two matches in January. 

We have two teams still undefeated and that is Marin (3-0) and Life West (2-0). Marin topped the league last year with one lone loss of the season against Reno. This year they started with a solid 47-7 win over San Francisco Golden Gate (1-2) followed by a gritty 33-15 win over the Olde Gaels (2-1). Marin scored three quick tries in the first 20 minutes, but then nothing until the end of the match. The Olde Gaels slowly chomped back at the difference, before drawing close with a 19-15 score around minute 60, but two late tries from Marin in the last five minutes kept them with the win. Holden Yungert kicked four for five on the day, helping keep Marin in the lead for the entire match. Marin’s final match of the month was another confident win, this one 71-21 over Berkeley (1-2). 

Life West are also still undefeated, they toppled Colusa (1-2) 47-22 before taking down Silicon Valley (1-1) 38-7. Colusa got a bonus point for over four tries in their match against Life West, as well as in their very close loss to Baracus (1-2) the week before. Then the tide began to turn for Colusa, who smashed Golden Gate 71-24 just last weekend. 

The Olde Gaels are third in the standings with two wins and that one loss to Marin. They defeated Reno (0-2) 48-38 on opening weekend and Baracus 38-28 last weekend. What’s interesting is that the Olde Gaels have a total PD of +2. This means that while they can win their matches, they let a lot of points in. That’s not an issue as long as you continue to win the games, but it is dangerous. 

Down in the middle to bottom of the table, we’ve got a few teams who are ‘win some, lose some’. Baracus beat Colusa, but lost to Golden Gate, who beat Baracus. That Golden Gate versus Baracus fixture was down to the wire. Thomas Prior slotted a penalty goal for Golden Gate in the 75th minute to break the tie and take the win, their first of the season. 

Reno is the only team still hunting for a win this season, but they’ve only played two matches. They’ve also scored 62 points across those two games, so I’m not really worried. It’ll work out for Reno.

Coming up in February we’ve got some great match-ups. Silicon Valley will host Colusa, Baracus and Berkeley will go head to head, and Marin will host Life West on February 14th to determine who keeps their spot on the top of the table. 

We’ve got all seven teams kicking off their season down in Southern California, though most everyone has only played two matches. Despite that, we’ve only got one undefeated team left. The Fullerton Dead Elephants (2-0) are back to win not only the best team name award, but hopefully the whole league. They blanked the WC Marines (1-1) 38-0 for their opening match of the season, and followed it up with a 43-27 away win against the LA Soul (1-1). Pretty solid start for last year’s second-place finishers. 

Riverside (1-0-1) is next on the table thanks to their 20-20 tie last weekend against Temecula (0-0-1). I guess technically I could call both of those sides undefeated as well since they haven’t yet suffered a defeat. But that’s splitting hairs. Riverside also got a pretty nice win over the San Diego Armada (0-2) on opening weekend, 48-7.

LA Soul and the Marines are both win one lose one, and they both lost against the Dead Elephants, so all is even there. The Soul smacked the LA Rebellion (0-1) 71-5 back on January 17th, while the Marines notched their first win of the season over the Armada on the 24th. 

Who’s left? Temecula, who has only tied one match so far. Not much to go on there. The LA Rebellion, who only played once against the third-place team. And the San Diego Armada, who haven’t started off that great, but it’s only two losses, plenty of time to build back up. 

The Dead Elephants will host Temecula at the start of next month, the Armada plays the Rebellion on February 21st, and the Marines will host the LA Soul on February 7th. Expect some table shifts in this league.

Over in the Pacific Northwest, the season almost completely wrapped up in the fall with the exception of one final match between the Yakima Griffins (0-5) and the Seattle Quake (1-4). That one’s scheduled for March 8th. It’s Yakima’s best chance to get a win out of the season, and they are hosting. We’re still unsure if the PNW will only take the top two teams to playoffs or host semifinals and take the top four. If two advance, it’ll be the Portland Pigs (6-0) and the Clark County Chiefs (4-2). If there are semifinals, then the Budd Bay Buffaloes (4-2) and the Snohomish Rhinos (2-4) will also make the cut. Currently the Rhinos have more bonus points than the Quake, so even with a win over Yakima in March, the Quake are done for the season. 

Last year the PNW D3 played a solid number of games through February and March, culminating in an April final. If more games appear on the schedule, we’ll be here to fill you in. You’ll know when we know.

There’s still no updates out of the Men’s D2/D3 competitions in the Southwest. With powerhouses like Las Vegas and Scottsdale, we know that something is happening, but it’s not yet available in RugbyXplorer. 

We only had three games take place in January, two massive scorelines and one very close one. First up the Montgomery Yellowhammers (1-1) pulled off a down to the wire win over Atlanta Old White (0-3) 38-36. Old White were close to getting their first win of the season, but the Yellowhammers held strong until the final whistle. Atlanta did get two bonus points in the loss, so that’s gotta count for something. 

The Crescent City Blues (3-0) finally took to the pitch after a number of forfeits and notched their first real win of the season over the Panama City Hurricanes (1-2). It was Panama City’s first match of the season as well, this league has more forfeits than any club rugger likes to see. 

Finally, New Orleans Rugby (2-0) made it two for two as they added a big win over the Wiregrass Flyers (1-2) to their scoresheet. Mike Bankston scored five tries for New Orleans in that one. 

We’ve got a number of games on the schedule for February, it’s just about seeing how many of them actually happen. The Yellowhammers are slated to play Knoxville (1-0) and Memphis (2-1) on back to back weekends, while Huntsville (2-1) returns against the Possums on the 21st. 

D3 kicked off in Texas back in the fall, but the D1-c subdivision kicked off this month. Remember, this is the subdivision that has multi-sided clubs with sides that play in D3. The rest of the divisions (South, Central, and North) are D3-only clubs.

Currently Houston United Rugby Team [HURT] (3-0) and the Austin Blacks (2-0) are undefeated in D1-c. HURT may be higher on the table, but they have one more match played and a lot less of a PD. The Black’s overall PD is +165 after two games. They toppled San Antonio (0-2) 94-13 and the Austin Huns (0-1) 84-0. HURT, on the other hand, only defeated the Dallas Harlequins (1-1) 28-24. Their other two wins were also close, 29-15 over San Antonio and 38-15 over HARC (0-1). The Dallas Quins looked very impressive in their 62-7 win over the Dallas RFC (0-1) as well. A whole weekend of matches were snowed out in Texas, so the games from January 24th will have to be rescheduled. Coming up in this subdivision, HARC will host the Dallas RFC and HURT will host the Austin Blacks on February 21st. 

Up in the North subdivision, the Arkansas Gryphons (2-1) got a big win over Little Rock (1-4) 55-0 and OKC (5-0-1) kept up their winning streak with a 20-12 defeat of Alliance (2-3). Nikolai Hoffard scored in the last five minutes of the match for OKC, denying Alliance the losing bonus point which would have tied them on the table with second-place DARC (2-1-1). DARC will host the Gryphons on February 7th while Little Rock hosts Alliance. Tulsa gets back in on the action the same day when they travel to OKC.

Down in the South, Shreveport (3-1) defeated the Houston Arrows (3-2) 34-5 on January 10th. Bay Area Rugby Club [BARC] (5-1) barely edged by Galveston (1-4) 19-17. Shayaan Abbas scored late in the match for Galveston to give them a chance at taking the lead, but they never got that next score they needed to win the match. They did get a bonus point in the loss however, helpful for the end of the season crunch time. The Arrows turned around from their early loss to defeat Galveston on the 24th while BARC got a second win over Cy-Fair (0-4) just last weekend. Coming up in this division we have BARC hosting Shreveport and Galveston hosting Cy-Fair, both on February 7th.

Finally we have our Central subdivision. Remember, there’s only one D3 side in this mix and that is the Corpus Christi Crabs (4-0) who are unsurprisingly undefeated. They put 65 points on Alamo City when they faced off on the 17th, adding another win to the record. Corpus will host Fort Hood Old Skool on February 21st, their only match this month. 

Florida kicked off their 14-team D3 competition in January, and so far we have almost everyone that played a match. The only team yet to take the pitch are the Fort Lauderdale Knights who were supposed to host the Pelicans (1-0) last weekend. With most teams only having played one match, there’s a lot of undefeated sides left in the competition. 

Palm Beach (2-0) has won both their games, including a very spicy 25-24 defeat of Brevard Old Red Eye (1-1) who won the league last year. They also confidently blanked Lakeland (0-1) 64-0 on opening weekend, so I’d say they’re off to a good start. 

FSU (2-0) also won their opening two games, the first was a 36-25 defeat of Gainesville (1-1), the second a 17-14 defeat of the Claymores (0-1). 

Jacksonville, the Pelicans, and Orlando are all 1-0. Jacksonville and the Pelicans both recorded pretty big differential wins, but Orlando really had to fight for their 38-25 defeat of the Tampa Krewe (0-2) on January 17th. Grant Seymour scored two tries and kicked two conversions for Orlando in that one. 

Sarasota is currently 1-1, they defeated the Hammerheads (0-1) in their season opener. Brevard and Gainesville are also sitting around that area on the table. The Claymores, Lakeland, Hammerheads, Tampa Krewe, and Daytona Beach (0-2) are all still waiting for their first wins of the season; but as we said, it’s early. 

What’s coming up in February? A whole heck of a lot. There’s three matches this weekend and five the following weekend, so plenty of rugby to go around. Keep an eye out for the Knights’ first match against Orlando, and Brevard against Gainesville on Valentine’s Day. 

Heading back down to Georgia and I’ve got some bad news. There is not a lot of complete information in RugbyXplorer about the Georgia Men’s D3 league. The only result I have is that the Charleston Outlaws defeated the Augusta Maddogs 54-0 on January 17th. And that’s not even right because I cross-referenced Facebook. I love you Georgia, but I can’t recap your league play without more information. 

Our final league that we are going to cover is the Carolinas Men’s D3 competition. I only have one recorded score from January, but it looked like there were supposed to be four games last weekend, so I’m not sure what’s going on there. If those get updated in the next week, I’ll update this section!

The one match I do have a score from is when Cape Fear (4-3) hosted the Fayetteville Dragons (3-4) on January 24th. Both teams entered the match with identical records, so this one mattered for table ranking. Cape Fear managed to get a winning bonus point on top of the 24-5 defeat of the Dragons, propelling them above the Onslow Misfits (4-2) into second place in the East. This puts them behind the Southern Pine Big Cones (6-0) who remain undefeated heading into February. 

There were no more updates from games in the West division, so the table remains unchanged there. Charlotte (5-0-1) has one more win over the Columbia Rhinos (4-1-1), who they tied back in November. The Greenville Griffins (3-2) and the Asheville Iguanas (3-2) are one point away from each other in the standings, with Greenville just nosing out ahead. Myrtle Beach Man O’ War (0-6) is still looking for their first win of the season; they have played every game scheduled so they are still doing better than Raeford who has unfortunately forfeited the rest of their season. 

Like I mentioned earlier, there was a number of big games that haven’t been updated from last weekend, primarily the Griffins and Iguanas match and Tobacco Road (2-3) hosting Onslow, so we’re still waiting for that. In February we’ve got Onslow hosting Cape Fear, Charlotte taking on Greenville, and the Charlotte Barbarians (1-5) taking on Myrtle Beach.