Can you believe we’ve already made it to February? Me either. Two more weekends down and every division is cooking (except Women’s D1, but more detail on that below). In most divisions clear leaders are beginning to emerge – but the season is far from over. Check out what happened over the last two weekends and what’s upcoming!
Men's Premiership
We’ve finally got all five teams in action, and the competition is fierce. January 28th saw both Austin and Dallas regions go head to head for Derby Day. The Austin Blacks opened their season with a statement win over the Austin Huns, 61-7. The Huns actually opened the scoring try in the 10th minute, but that’s all the Blacks would let them have as seven of their own players ran in scores; showing a true team effort. Meanwhile in Dallas, the Dallas RFC shut out the Dallas Harlequins 27-0 to get their first BP win of the season. On February 3rd, Houston Sabercats 2 hosted the Austin Huns in a slippery, muddy showdown – with the Cats emerging victorious 35-17. Currently the Sabercats 2 are sitting on top, with Dallas 1-1 and the Austin Blacks 1-0 close behind.
Fortunately for us rugby fans, these three teams will battle it out over the next two weekends; Dallas hosting Austin on the 10th and the Cats on the 17th. The Dallas Harlequins will travel to the Austin Blacks on the 17th, while the Austin Huns have the next two weekends off to regroup and refocus.
Women's D1
The Women’s Division 1 is on a winter hiatus until the Valkyries host the sHARCs on March 9th. Both teams will be playing matches outside of Texas in order to hit the number of matches required to be eligible for USAR postseason, and we will cover them as they happen, kicking off February 24th.
Men's D2
This division absolutely took OFF over the past two weekends and there is a lot to cover. Let’s start with the table toppers – HURT banked another two BP wins, hosting Dallas RFC and DARC. This makes them 4-0 with a massive 153 point differential. Nipping at HURT’s heels are the Austin Blacks, also 4-0 but with only a 146 point differential; how tragic. Despite the one try difference between these two teams, it’s clear that they are both very very good, unfortunately we’ll have to wait until March 2nd to see them go head to head.
San Antonio and Fort Worth also chalked up wins over the last two weekends, bringing them into the strong middle of the pack. With matching 2-1 records, these teams are on parallel journeys vying for one of the top spots, both with the potential to take out a top dog.
DARC and Dallas RFC split the difference, adding both a W and an L to their record. Dallas is still third on the table with an impressive 3-1 record, and their loss was to the top team HURT – so don’t take this as a sign of weakness, there’s still a lot more to play for.
Looking at the weekends ahead we’ve got a few juicy games on deck. The Dallas RFC host the Austin Blacks on the 10th, sure to be a spicy one. HARC hosts DARC on the 17th, (battle of the ARCs?) Both teams are struggling near the bottom of the table so they will be hungry for a win. The Huns host HURT, San Antonio hosts Grand Prairie, and Fort Worth hosts The Woodlands on the 17th as well, plenty of rugby for everyone!
Women's D2
The Women’s Division 2 is in full swing with four matches played over the last two weekends involving all but one of the clubs in the conference. The Dallas Harlequins had a stunner at Lake Highlands as they blanked the Dallas RFC 56-0, enough to remain on top of the table. The Ohmann-Wilson 9/10 combination seems particularly successful for the Quins, as Madison left with a hat-trick and Whitney a try of her own. The sHARCs came away with their own away win at the San Antonio Riveters on the 27th, but followed up with a tough loss to Little Rock at home on February 3rd. Dallas RFC bounced back from their loss on the 27th with a tight win over BARC at home 15-0.
A number of great games on the radar, first up the undefeated teams go head to head on the 17th in Little Rock as the Quins head north. The current 3rd and 4th place teams also square off in Round Rock with the Rage taking on the sHARCs. Dallas will hoof it down to San Antonio to try to improve to 2-3 while the Riveters search for their first win of the season.
Men's D3
January 27th was derby day in the D1-C as the Austin Huns traveled to the Austin Blacks and the Dallas Harlequins crossed town to the Dallas RFC. The 3-peat National Champs secured a BP win over the Huns, while the Quins did what their D1 couldn’t and came home with a win over Dallas. The two Austin teams are on top of the table thanks to the Hun’s BP win from early January and the Black’s undefeated record, followed by the Quins, and finally Dallas at 0-2. February 10th we will see the fourth take on the first as Dallas hosts the Blacks and the 17th the Blacks host the Quins.
Only one game to check in on from the D3 Central region as Fort Hood Old Skool hosted Alamo City on the 27th. A pair of tries from number 8 Marcus Allen and the keen boot of scrumhalf Tyler Bertles led Old Skool to a 36-19 victory over Alamo City, vaulting them into second place on the table. The top of the table clashes this weekend in Killeen as San Antonio travels to Fort Hood, while Alamo City hosts McAllen. The highly anticipated San Antonio derby rematch happens on the 17th with San Antonio hosting and Fort Hood travels to Corpus Christi.
Up north Little Rock were able to make it 2-0 as they narrowly escaped the pressure Alliance put on them with a 15-13 victory on the 27th. OKC Tribe started their season off on the right foot as they toppled the OKC Crusaders 24-7 in the battle of OKC. They will travel to Little Rock on the 10th, after which only one team will remain undefeated. The Crusaders will head to Alliance the same day, both fighting for their first win.
Lastly we check in on the south region, where the Houston Arrows reign supreme after their 21-0 win over Bay Area on February 3rd. The Arrows trusted fullback Norman Dillon and his sharp boot to send over three penalty goals and convert one try, accounting for 11 of the 21 points. The January 27th Arrows vs Galveston match was unfortunately postponed, leaving us only the single match to update standings in the division. On deck for February 17th we have Galveston traveling to BARC while the Arrows head north to Shreveport.
Men's D4
Let’s start up north in the DFW area. I recall saying Collin County RFC was the team to watch, and boy did they prove me right. An impressive 74-0 rout of Dallas at Lake Highlands secured their place at the top of the division this past weekend. The next few weekends allow us to see who is jockeying for the next positions on the table as Fort Worth hosts Las Colinas on the 10th and Dallas hosts Denton on the 17th.
Down south HURT hosted HARC for a rematch of the November 18th fixture. HURT came away with the win, but HARC were able to halve the score difference from their first meeting, a win in its own right. Currently there are no more fixtures listed for the D4 South, although stay tuned as more can be added any day!
Note to reader: All data is gathered from team-entered match reports on RugbyXplorer, all information is up to date at time of posting. If you notice any inconsistencies or errors, please check with your team admin and if issues persist let me know at kat@texasrugbyunion.com.
All other commentary is unbiased and for fun.