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It is finals time at all levels of the rugby tree in the United States, be it club, college or high school. It’s been a landmark 12 months, with unprecedented participation across all levels and movement aplenty at all levels.
In the rugby Super League, they have just witnessed one of their highest quality seasons in many years, with the expansion team, the Utah Warriors, proving to be a worthy entrant, just missing the finals series.
San Francisco Golden Gate of the West Conference, appears to be on a collision course with Life University in the East. Both have had dominant seasons, with both progressing through their respective regular season, undefeated.
The RSL board has hinted at future expansion, aiming to restore the championship to past subscription levels.
This appears to be a three to four-year plan.
It is likely, they will first look to even the numbers by bringing in a sixth Western team, more than likely in the form of the Glendale Raptors.
In college rugby, the first season of the college Premier Division is approaching its crescendo.
The season started off rather lopsided, with the usual suspects in BYU and Cal blowing away their opposition; however, as the season has progressed, it has become evident that the teams are putting in the time and effort with the overall standard rising steadily throughout.
Both, BYU and Cal look likely once again, but for the first time in a long time, there are competitors emerging that may not challenge this season but in the preceding.
Add to this, the establishment of the Atlantic Coast Rugby League (University of Maryland being the inaugural champions) for 2011 and new conferences such as the South-East and South-West, the re-structure is changing the landscape at a rapid rate.
The standards are increasing and the right structures are now being set in stone.
High school rugby is the boom area.
With an ever-increasing profile, the game is beginning to draw in athletes from football and track and field into its ranks.
Not only is this a campus-based phenomenon, but in the local media as well.
Rugby Washington has done a fantastic job, getting local coverage of their High School Championship via a weekly High Schools sports program called ‘Varsity News’.
The competitions are too numerous to recap and many are still wrapping up but rugby is in a very good place, moving into an exciting future.
Finally, as the spring season draws to a close, a congratulations to the much maligned USARFU.
Through their hard-graft, rugby is in a far healthier position than this time last season and will hopefully continue to move forward next season.
They have recently launched another initiative to complement its rookie-rugby program.
Branded ‘Rugby in a Box’ this provides inexpensive kits ($300 per unit) to PE departments.
This user-friendly unit has the potential to reach more kids than ever before and is being directly marketed to schools en masse.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.