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The top-seeded New York Athletic Club, which dealt the Chicago Lions a tough 8-5 loss in its last regular season game, returns to its home field at Travers Island to host wild card team, San Francisco Golden Gate.
SFGG, which battled its way back from a shaky start in 2008 to finish with 25 points in the Red Conference, should pose a strong test for the experienced NYAC team this weekend.
With a big win in the make-up round, last weekend, the Boston Irish Wolfhounds joined the Chicago Lions as they snuck into the remaining postseason spots out of the White Conference.
The Wolfhounds knocked off the St Louis Bombers 43-3 to earn the bonus point victory and secure the sixth playoff seed. This weekend the Wolfhounds meet some stiff competition when they travel to California to go head-to-head with Belmont Shore.
The defending champions Shore once again finished strongly in 2008, ranking atop the Red Conference standings with 26 points and nabbing the third overall spot in the playoffs.
The Lions just barely eked out a playoff berth, following a commanding 90-0 shutout of Washington, which brought them up to 21 points on the season. Although tied in the points tally with the Dallas Harlequins and OMBAC, the Lions pulled ahead of the pack to clinch the last wild card position, with a regular season defeat of Dallas and a higher try total than OMBAC.
Last year’s runners-up, the Lions head east as the underdogs to face No. 2 seed Boston, which made a dramatic turnaround from last season to finish 5-0-2 overall. Boston finished on top of the Blue Conference despite the impending threat from Charlotte heading into the final week of regular season play. Both teams finished at 27 points, but Boston came away with the higher seed due to a victory in head-to-head competition.
After finishing out of the playoffs last season, Denver has re-emerged in 2008, finishing strongly to take the fifth seed overall. This weekend, the team travels to North Carolina to play Charlotte, which came thundering back from a 0-7 record in 2007 to claim the fourth seed with 27 points. With a 21-19 victory over the Chicago Griffins last weekend, Charlotte just missed its chance to overtake Boston Rugby for the Blue Conference title.
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