Sports
6 Victorious After Rugby Rumble in the Park
Six senior club rugby teams will go on to the national championships after winning both of their games this weekend in the Eastern Division finals held in Manassas Park.
Six senior club rugby teams left Signal Hill park victorious Sunday afternoon, after having won two games at the Eastern Division National Championships. The following teams will go play six other teams from the Western Division Championships that also took place this weekend in Chula Vista, Cali.:
Division I
Palmer College RFC
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41
Mystic River
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21
Norfolk
5
Boston Irish
11
Division II
Tampa Krewe
38
Chicago Blaze
6
New Orleans
61
Doylestown
17
Division III
Syracuse
13
Virginia
11
Metropolis Rugby Football Club
20
Olde Gaelic
16
Division I is considered the most competitive, Division III the least.
Almost 2,000 fans attended the playoffs over the weekend, which were held for the first time in Signal Hill Park. Approximately 1,500 fans attended Saturday, and about 500 more attended Sunday, Brotman-Winter-Fried Communications president Steve Winter said.
Winter’s company co-managed the event with USA Rugby, which runs most of the club, college and youth rugby leagues in the U.S.
Several who turned out to see the games were friends of the team or old players.
Kevin Carlton, from Annapolis, Md., came to watch his nephew, a trainer for the Metropolis Rugby Football Club.
“We’re in town for the dog show and to see our nephew,” Carlton said.
Jay Suez, a former player with New Orleans’s rugby club, came to watch his old team win 61-17.
“I think New Orleans wants it a bit more,” Suez said after his team ran the ball down the field for a try that scored them five points.
New Orleans was playing the Doylestown Dragons, which traded places for the lead Saturday with their opponents, the Village Lions and won at the end with a field goal.
“It was a slugfest and they barely came out on top,” Suez said.
Suez, originally from Washington, D.C., joined the New Orleans team in 2005 after he was stationed on a military base for three years following Hurricane Katrina. He played from 2005 to 2008.
Teams who lost their games yesterday also got to play in consolation matches Sunday morning, however, they had no opportunities to advance.