(Rugby Action Photo)
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Austin, TX, will be a hive of activity this weekend as teams from around the country descend on it for the Round of 16/quarterfinals.
There are four pools of four teams and every team will start the weekend with hopes of claiming a national championship, although just four will leave with those hopes still intact.
Reigning national champs Hayward can expect a rough opening game in Pool C when they face off against host club Austin in a replay of last year’s championship decider. The Blacks will be looking to avenge that defeat, while the Griffins have been patchy all season and could struggle in the Texas heat.
The other Pool C matchup pits Pearl City against Mystic River in what looks to be a fairly even contest. The Mystics ripped through the New England competition, while City was one of the form teams in the Midwest. If Mystic River is on its game and can stay disciplined it has a shot at winning, but Pearl City will take a full squad to Austin, something it didn’t do in its regional playoffs, and will be extremely hard to toss.
Pool A, which is arguably the toughest of the lot, will see a red hot Olympic Club locking horns with a resurgent Aspen, and while the Gents are back, they will likely run into a buzzsaw from San Francisco. The O-Club is loaded with talent and is one of the early favorites to win the whole enchilada.
The Maryland Exiles and Palmer College will meet in the other pool game and while the Exiles are by far and away the pick of the Mid-Atlantic this season, one can never write off Palmer. Indeed, some pundits have Palmer as a sleeper capable of causing a few upsets.
In Pool B, which is arguably the easiest of all, Park City Haggis will play South Side Irish of Chicago in a game that, on paper at least, appears to be Haggis’ to lose. The Irish did well in the Midwest league in the fall, but were shellacked in their regional playoffs and could find the going tough.
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The Glendale Raptors will square off against Long Island in the other pool match. Aside from a desire to make an appearance in the semifinals at home in Colorado at the end of the month, Glendale will be looking to make a statement that it is truly the best in the west.
Long Island may be sailing into choppy waters, especially after being handled in their regional playoffs.
Pool D will see another one of the early favorites Las Vegas go in against White Plains in a matchup that by rights the Blackjacks should win. Vegas has dropped only one game all season, and that was in the first round of its regional playoffs. On the flipside, White Plains has done very well to get this far, although this could be the end of the road.
In the other pool game, Los Angeles will tackle Life University in one more match that has entertaining football written all over it. The southern Cal club has made an excellent fist of things since being promoted to First grade this season and should give the Running Eagles all they can handle. Life, however, is one of the form teams going in and should be hard to beat in the early rounds.
As we said at the outset, these are the money rounds. It’s all or nothing and every one of the 16 teams in Austin will be striving to play on.
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