Skip to main content

D1A Rankings

D1A Rugby Rankings: October 16th






First off, apologies for coming late to the party. I know we are already deep into the fall season but here's my take on the top 25 D1A teams across the country. I hope to provide more of a statistically backed ranking, providing win-loss records, and point totals. 

Naturally, the defending champs retain their #1 ranking. They've launched a sizeable fall campaign, notching eight wins and zero losses. Two of those wins came against Life and St. Bonaventure, the number one ranked NCR team according to Goff. The rest of the Midshipmen's schedule should be smooth sailing, but with a rivalry game with Army on the horizon, you just never know.

Of course, the inactivity of teams like Cal, Central Washington, and St. Mary's makes it tricky to get a true grip on the top teams. But based on performance last season, Cal and St. Mary's still deserve top spots in my mind.  

Lindenwood is having a strong fall season at 7-0 and 48 points a game. The Lions have two tough opponents left on their schedule in BYU and Davenport. Their match in November against BYU is shaping up to be the most interesting game of the fall season. 

Some notable statistics from the fall season thus far; Arkansas leads D1A with 71.3 points per game. They could steal a playoff spot this year after missing the playoffs last year. True to form, BYU leads the top 25 in points allowed. The Cougar's stout defense only allows 3.3 points per game. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Arkansas State Downs Lindenwood in Defensive Battle

First Half Arkansas State and Lindenwood met in a windy and chaotic matchup on Saturday. Lindenwood loves to put the ball to boot and keep the pressure on their opposition. They stayed true to form and there was a good amount of kicking to start off the match. Both teams conceded possession on a few early handling errors. Anyone who's been under a high ball on a windy day knows just how difficult it can be to field those kicks.  The Red Wolves struck first after earning a lineout just outside their attacking 22. Ark State ran a forward pod in the midfield off the flyhalf. Ark State continued with another phase to the same side, attacking the edge with their backs. The Lions failed to fold properly, leaving Ark State with a 5 on 3. The ball went high to the center who corralled it and popped it to the hard charging fullback, James Beauclerk. Beauclerk sliced through a disjointed Lindenwood defense and won the race to the corner.  Arkansas State led 5-0 after missing the convers...
Post a Comment
Read more

BYU Catches the Bears Hibernating In 53-26 Win

Check out my video recap: This weekend college rugby fans had the privilege of witnessing two old rivals and rugby powerhouses, BYU and Cal, go head to head in Berkley. Every year this is one of the most exciting matches. The last meeting between these two teams was the D1A Semifinal. In that match exploded in the second half to put an end to BYU's playoff run. There's no doubt that match was still in the minds of the BYU players as they were clearly out for revenge.  Coming into this matchup, undefeated Cal sat at #4 in the rankings and BYU at #5. BYU's only loss of the season so far coming in the fall to Lindenwood. The college rugby world anticipated this to be a tight matchup between these two physical teams. And that was what college rugby fans got for the first 35 minutes of the match.  The first 35 minutes were back and forth. Cal struck first with a try in the fourth minute. Will Shankland made a Cougar miss with a nice step inside and dove over the line. Cal looked...
Post a Comment
Read more

All Smiles from The Cougars: BYU beats CSU 90-21

In what looked to be an exciting matchup, the Cougars dominated from start to finish. CSU captain, Mason Kreiter, had mentioned physicality as a key to the game for his squad. He was spot on as it was a key to the game, but in this matchup, it was the key to their demise. The Cougars monopolized the contact area in every phase of the game. In this 90-point track meet, Cole Semu and Tielu Sagala both scored a mind-numbing four tries. Sagala earned himself the first-ever "Try Times Player of the Game" award with his ridiculously hard running. Just as I predicted, missed tackles absolutely killed the Rams. Sure their alignment was bad defensively at times, but so many line breaks were generated from missed tackles. I was also disappointed with the absence of Sam Masterson, CSU's most dynamic back. Without the boot of Masterson, the Rams struggled to take advantage of BYU's penalty count and lack of back-three experience.  BYU's attack looked incredibly sharp for most...
Post a Comment
Read more