New York, New York – Surprisingly, the USA Rugby Women’s rugby divisions were left unchanged. As a result, outside of promotion and relegation from the Women’s Premier League, everything else is straight forward. Let’s look at the season ahead.
Premier League – This is where the best teams in the country reside. The players that will make up the Eagles will come from these sides. With all of that said, one would think that the competition is tight. It truly isn’t as tight as it should be. Here are the projected standings for the season.
RED
1 Berkeley All Blues
2 Twin City Amazons
3 Atlanta Harlequins
4 San Diego Surfers
BLUE
1 Beantown
2 Glendale Raptors
3 New York
4 DC Furies
The top 4 teams that will make playoffs are a class apart from the bottom four. Back-to-back champions Berkley and Twin City (Minnesota) are pretty far ahead in the Red Conference. Atlanta will give the top two a scare in each of their games but they are not there yet, since this is their first season. San Diego hung onto dear life last season and just may do so again this season. In the Blue Conference, Glendale went to the championship game in their first season so a sophomore slump is very possible. Beantown are perennially in the top 4. New York was as reliable as Beantown but with so much coaching turnover and leadership forced upon veteran players as a result, they have been unable to maintain their high standard. They will not drop and will do better than last season but rebuilding is a process. The DC furies are the smart money to get relegated, they have used up all their 9 lives.
Division 1 – With women’s rugby more so then men, pedigree counts for a lot. It is a long build to become on of the top programs in the country. However, once you get there it takes a while before a team crumbles and has to rebuild. Here are the projected standings for the season:
1 ORSU
2 Detroit
3 NOVA
4 Chicago North Shore
5 Philadelphia
6 Chicago
7 Keystone
8 Seattle Breakers
ORSU was a premier league side. They have been one of the top 3 or 4 clubs in Division 1 since being relegated. They came up just short in the final last season against Atlanta. It just makes sense that they will bounce back from that loss and climb the final hurdle as they get back into the Premier League.
Division 2 – This division is as murky as the third division in men’s rugby. It is full of sides playing for fun, that are just a little bit more organized than their competitors. It is usually that slight difference that carries these sides far into the playoffs. It will be one of the following teams:
1 Severn River
2 Norfolk, Va.
3 Pittsburgh
4 Fort Miami
5 Atomic Sisters
6 Las Vegas
7 Portland
8 Raleigh
Severn River came up short last season and will go over the top this season. It will be all of the same suspects from last year – except for the Raleigh. As mentioned earlier, it takes a while to build a program and they have been building toward national relevance. They had an off year last year after winning D2 in 2011, they are still re-building but expect them to make the elite 8…. Pittsburgh is a side that could repeat as champions, but as it’s such a mighty task, it seems unlikely.
As was stated with the Men’s predictions,the game is played on the field and not on paper. By the time winter rolls around we will know the new champions of each division and the validity of these predictions will come under scrutiny.
That’s it for now, feel free to comment below, look for and “Like” our Facebook Rugby Wrap Up Page and follow us on Twitter @: RugbyWrapUp, Junoir Blaber, DJ Eberle, Nick Hall, James Harrington, Cody Kuxmann and Declan Yeats, respectively. And until the next time… stay low and keep pumping those legs.
