First 5

Change is in the Air.

Even from last month when we gave a preliminary look, the landscape has changed for the schools and clubs on the East Coast. In the Carolinas, Hough and Raleigh Cobras have come out of the gates strong, posting solid results at NC-Ruggerfest where they didn't cross paths and at Rugby Showcase South in Guilford this past weekend where, as part of the NCYRU matches, they did. Both get a mention here in the top 5 because from what we could see, they are well-balanced and ready for a strong run in 2025. Cobras took down a couple of strong EGRL teams in West Carroll (MD) and Downingtown (PA) after conceding to Hough early in day 1. While first event losses are not enough for us to discount what either West Carroll or Downingtown are capable of, it was a glimpse into a power shift in NC where the Charlotte Cardinals, after a notable coaching change which saw the highly successful Team-Tice pairing step down, are working to regroup and reorganize. They have plenty of talent to work with and we expect strong rugby soon enough.

The battle for PA is ON...

We mentioned the rivalry between presumptive PA favorites in the last note. In a first look, both Downingtown and Doylestown made strong statements. Doylestown ran the table on Knightmares in a preseason match and Downingtown looked strong over both Charlotte and West Carroll at RSS.

Taking everything listed into account and with no results from Aspetuck Valley (CT) yet, the Ad-minions have the EC Top 5 as: Hough, Cobras, Aspetuck, Downingtown, Doylestown

Next 5

Rugby Showcase South Gives Clues

West Carroll, North Bay (with Outcasts) and Morris all went South to Guilford  to test themselves against the field which included member-teams from the EGRL Southern Division. West Carroll may have had the hardest road facing Cobras, Downingtown and Cardinals, in that order. They came away with a win in their final match after fighting every step in the previous 2. North Bay faced off with Wando (SC) and Clayton + Raleigh "Turtlehawks" where they got 2 wins, the same two teams Morris faced and also got the better of. Rounding out the RSS schedule, a 17-all result in the Cardinals v. Turtlehawks match which found Cardinals battling back was notable. Adding in one result from Ruggerfest which caught our eye (Moon Area, PA barely falling to Hough by only 2), the ad-minions are ranking the next 5 as follows:

West Carroll, Morris, North Bay+VOC, Cardinals, Clayton+RRH with Moon Area in the "looking forward to seeing more" category, which moves them into the next grouping.

11-20

Teams To Watch

It's very early days for 2025 from a Rugby perspective and we expect some shakeups over the next few weeks as states with strong SRO competition get underway. Although this list remains impossible to rank at this point (so we will leave it that way until we know more), the teams we are watching include: Orchard Park, Corning and Play Rugby (all from NY), Wando Wahinies (SC), Greenwich HS (CT) and Belmont HS (MA). We also won't count out programs with dedicated coaches like Knightmares (PA) as well as Simsbury and Southington of Connecticut.

Tourney Teams

We'd be remiss not to mention the strong showing Valkyries of Atlanta put on at Ruggerfest. While it's far to complex for the simple mind of a minion to rank tourney or touring teams, they certainly deserve a hat-tip for getting the W's there.

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Who'd We Miss?

Send us your picks or tell us about teams on the EC we might have missed.