The 2024 Atlantic Super Regional’s (ASR) semifinal match ups will be held on Saturday, April 20th at various sites from New Hampshire to Virginia as part of USA Club Rugby’s XV’s national championship playoffs.
This year’s competition will feature a slightly different format than the first two Atlantic Super Regional tournaments as the semifinal matches will be hosted by teams representing the New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU) and Capital Rugby Union (CRU). NERFU teams will host Empire Geographic Union (EGU) qualifiers while CRU teams will host semifinals against visiting Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Union (EPRU) teams.
Semifinal winners will advance to the Atlantic Super Regional championships on Saturday, May 4th, at Alapocas Run State Park in Wilmington, Delaware hosted by the EPRU.
In total, five of the seven 2023 ASR champion teams will attempt to defend their titles starting on Saturday. Sixteen of the twenty-seven entered teams have experience in either one or both of the first two ASR’s (2022 and 2023) while five of the entered teams will compete for the third consecutive time.
The twenty-seven Atlantic Super Regional qualified teams hail from nine states across the mid-Atlantic region of the northeastern United States. Pennsylvania leads the region with six entered teams followed by Massachusetts and Maryland (5), New York (4), Virginia (3), and Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Rhode Island with one entered team each.
In the men’s Division 1 field, northeast perennial powers Schuylkill River and Northern Virginia (NOVA) face off for the Mid Atlantic Conference (MAC) title on Saturday in Philadelphia at noon EST. Schuylkill River previously defeated NOVA on March 23rd, 19-5.
The Schuylkill River/NOVA winner will claim the MAC title and advance to the Atlantic Regional final against NERFU’s Mystic River with advancement to the 2024 national championships in Austin, Texas on the line.
The women’s Division 1 field features four teams all with past ASR experience. Two-time defending Atlantic Super Regional champion Northern Virginia (NOVA) will look to three-peat and advance to the national championships in search of a fourth straight title match appearance. NOVA earned XV’s national championships in 2021 and 2022 and played to a runner-up finish in St. Louis in 2023.
NOVA hosts fellow three-time ASR qualifier Providence on Saturday. Providence were ASR Division 2 champions in 2022 on the way to winning the national title in Atlanta. In 2023, the club made the jump to Division 1 and competed at the ASR in Richmond representing the EGU.
In the other Division 1 semifinal, 2022 ASR qualifier Philadelphia visits Boston Women’s Rugby Club who competed in the 2023 tournament going 1-1 on the weekend.
The men’s Division 2 field features the defending Atlantic champion Boston Irish Wolfhounds out of NERFU who played the eventual national champion Denver Barbarians to a close three-point loss in the national semifinals in June 2023. The Irish Wolfhounds will host first time ASR qualifier Old Gaelic representing the EPRU on Saturday in Canton, MA. Old Gaelic took down defending EPRU champion Philadelphia-Whitemarsh, 15-13, in the conference final on April 13th.
Meanwhile in Fredericksburg, Virginia, following an exciting finish in the Capital D2 championship win over Raleigh, Rappahannock Golden Boars return to the ASR after having qualified last in 2022 in Division 3. The Capital champions will host the Empire’s New York Rugby Club (NYRC) who took down the three-time defending EGU champion Buffalo on the road in the fall to qualify for the Atlantic Super Regional for the first time.
The Atlantic Region’s powerful women’s Division 2 pool features three teams who have all qualified for the Super Regional in all three years of the tournament and a first-time qualifying team. Defending ASR champion and national runner-up Severn River will host a familiar foe in New Haven on Saturday in Severna Park, Maryland for their third straight Super Regional showdown. The Honey Badgers have been victorious in each of those past two meetings against the side from Connecticut.
The second semifinal features three-time Regional qualifier and 2023 runner-up Phoenixville White Horse taking on the new NERFU champion Albany Knickerbockers in Canton, MA.
The men’s Division 3 semifinals feature the Atlantic’s defending champion, two more teams with plenty of ASR experience, and a side from New York whose Division 1 counterpart appeared in the national championships in 2023.
CRU’s North Bay impressed on the way to the D3 title in Richmond in 2023 and ultimately fell by a single point in the national semifinal in St. Louis in one of the best matches of the tournament. North Bay will host the EGU’s Division 3 champion New York Old Blue on Saturday in Newark, Delaware.
Nearly 400 miles north of Newark, two-time ASR qualifier Charles River hosts now three-time qualifier Lehigh Valley Hooligans in North Hampton, New Hampshire. The Rats last qualified for ASR in 2022 where they were victorious over Lehigh Valley in the semifinal. The Hooligans have qualified for each of the first three Atlantic Regionals as the EPRU representative team.
The women’s field features a pair of teams returning with ASR experience – the defending champion and runner-up – as well as a pair of first time qualifiers.
Now two-time NERFU champion and 2023 Super Regional champion South Shore will look to defend their title when they host North Bay WRFC who captured the EPRU D3 title in their first season as a XV’s squad on April 13th.
Saturday will surely be a rugby day in Frederick, Maryland as Frederick Women’s RFC will host the 2023 Regional runner-up Union County Lady Mudturtles for a semifinal match at 11am EST.
Finally, the men’s Division 4 Atlantic Regional will feature three first time qualifying squads and one returning team from the 2023 tournament.
EPRU’s Happy Valley Barbarians are the only team in this year’s tournament with ASR experience coming off an exciting match but razor thin loss to South Buffalo in Richmond last spring. The Barbarians will travel to North Hampton, NH to meet first time qualifier Seacoast Rugby Club with a chance to advance to the ASR championship on the line.
Back in central Maryland, first time ASR teams will meet as the Frederick men will host Rockaway RFC out of the EGU for a regional semifinal at 1pm EST following their women counterpart’s semifinal against the Lady Mudturtles.
Atlantic Super Regional semifinal winners will automatically qualify for the 2024 ASR championship matches hosted by the Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Union.
Atlantic Super Regional championship Saturday is May 4th, 2024, at Alapocus Run State Park, Wilmington, Delaware, 19803.
Men’s and women’s Division 1 and Division 2 and men’s Division 3 Atlantic Super Regional champions will qualify for the 2024 USA Club Rugby National Championships to be held May 17-19 at Round Rock Multipurpose Complex outside of Austin, Texas.
