On Saturday, May 3rd, Tigers Rugby Football Club faced 12th ranked Ft. Collins Youth Rugby in the Colorado Youth Rugby’s State Championship Tournament at Dick’s Sporting Goods Complex.

The Tigers took an early lead on a try by Tony Costello of Pomona High School. The drop kick goal by Charles Martinez made the score 7 to 0.  Fort Collins answered with a penalty goal to put the halftime tally at 7-3.

A spirited and motivated Ft. Collins team, that has only beaten the Tigers once in their history, controlled the second half with a kicking game that confused the Tigers backfield in the swirling wind.  Late in the second half, Fort Collins’ kicking game intensely pressured the injured Tigers fullback to muff the ball at the right goal post. A resultant try, touched down by the well-covered attack of the Fort Collins wing, put the Tigers’ division rival ahead for good. By upsetting the 5th ranked North Division champions and their supporters, Ft. Collins advanced to the Championship bracket. Final score: Fort Collins 10, Tigers Rugby 7.

With the loss, Tigers Rugby failed to qualify for the championship bracket for the fifth year in a row and moved to the Plate Division. Tigers Rugby had an excellent opportunity to return to the finals and avenge their loss to Chaparral last year. Their opponent, the Glendale Raptor’s U-19 team, was just as inspired to play, hoping to avenge the early season loss to the …

The 2006 State Champion, SWARM (Southwest Area Rugby Men),  represented by Columbine, Chatfielld and Mullen HS students, hosted Tigers Rugby Football Club (represented by Holy Family, Pomona, Centaurus and Faith Christian Academy students) on April 28. Playing for a place in Colorado Youth Rugby top five rankings, Tigers Rugby pulled off a 10-5 upset with a great defensive effort and controlling, strategic attack.

Captain Quincy Anderson put the Tigers ahead 3-0 witha 25 meter penalty goal. SWARM fired back, intercepting a center pass and ran it in from 8 meters out to take a 5-3 lead.  Before the end of the half,  Center Joe Mack took it from straight upfield and Tigers Rugby Football Club put themselves in prime position for the “Kong” penalty play.   Markus Harvey ran the tap and go for a try and Quincy Anderson converted the points after kickfor a 10-5 halftime lead.  

The second half was at times undisciplined, but the defensive net that the Tigers cast was sufficient to snuff out the SWARM advances. Though there were a number of opportunities created by Tigers Rugby deep in SWARM territory, the second half was a scoreless affair as SWARM held up the Tigers in goal or stopped their poorly supported (close-in) penalty takes to keep it a nail -biter to the bitter end.Tigers also took the B-side match by a score of 15-5 on tries by Holy Family’s Joe Mack, …

Tigers Rugby Football Club drew a bye in league play for week seven. On Monday, April 21, Tigers U-16 players teamed again with Cherry Creek Rugby to win three straight matches at the Freshmen/Sophomore Festival #4 on Boulder’s pristine Pleasant View Park Rugby Stadium. Tigers/Cherry Creek won in three shutouts over SWARM 45-0; Regis Jesuit 12-0; and PAC (Platte Canyon & Conifer HS) by a score of 25-0. The highlight of the rugby spectacle was perhaps a 22 meter drop kick by Joseph Gonzales (Centaurus HS), in the middle of a 50 meter break away, for a 3 point drop goal.

After a great practice on Wednesday, most of the team was committed to prom or college trips on Saturday. Tigers Rugby hosted the 2nd Annual Broomfield Rugby Festival at Championship Field in Broomfield County Commons Park. The sparse crowd watched a high scoring affair between the evenly match freshmen and sophomores sides representing 10 schools from 3 Colorado Youth Rugby clubs. The Purple and White teams tied 75- 75 after three periods and a drop kicking tie breaker failed to produce a winner. Tigers Rugby will play the final league match on Monday against SWARM at Mossbrucker Park in Littleton. Kickoff is at 5:00 PM. There will be a B side match immediately following the A-side match.  The Colorado Youth Rugby State Championship Tournament begins on Saturday, May 3rd at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

For more information about youth rugby in Colorado, …