This coming weekend (Saturday, November 10th) the USA Rugby national tournaments will begin, and the New England Collegiate Cup will be held at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island.  NEWCRC is well represented in each competition;

Men's National Championship
Vermont has secured the 6th overall seed, and a bye into the Round of 16.  They will face the winner of the Bloomsburg vs. Virginia play-in game set for this weekend.

Sacred Heart is NEWCRC's 2nd seed, and will travel to William Paterson University for a play-in game this weekend (November 11th).

Winners of the men's play-in games, and teams on bye will travel to Greenville, NC next weekend (November 17-18) for the Rounds of 16 and 8, held Saturday & Sunday, respectively.

Women's National Championship
Coast Guard has secured a 2nd seed, and hosts Syracuse this coming weekend (November 10th/11th).

Maine (8th seed) will host SUNY Cortland in a match of conference runner-ups (November 10th/11th).

Vermont (14th seed) was set to travel to Bryant to face the Rugby Northeast conference champions, but unfortunately has forfeited due to travel restrictions.

Winners of the women's games will travel to Vassar College next weekend (November 17-18) for the Rounds of 16 and 8, held Saturday & Sunday, respectively.


New England Collegiate Cup
Cross-conference bowl games, hosted at Fort Adams State Park, Newport Rhode Island - November 10th.

10:00am Kickoffs
Tufts Women vs. Bentley University.
WPI Women vs. UMass Dartmouth

12:00pm Kickoffs
Smith Women vs. Endicott
Westfield State Men vs. Wentworth

2pm Kickoffs
UNH Women vs. URI
Boston University Men vs. Plymouth State

Congratulations to our men's and women's clubs who have reached the post-season!  While not official yet, we are expecting 2 men's bids, and 3 women's bids into USA Rugby's D2 National Tournaments. 

NEWCRC will also be sending multiple men's and women's clubs to play in the New England Collegiate Cup, on Saturday November 10th, at Fort Adams State Park, Newport Rhode Island.

​Tier 1
Our Tier 1 playoffs began last weekend, with the results listed below;

Men
#1 - UVM (68) over #4 - New Blue (15)
#2 - Sacred Heart (17) over #3 - Coast Guard (10)

Women
#1 - Coast Guard (n/a) over #4 - UNH (forfeit)
#3 - Maine (80) over #2 - UVM (10)

This coming weekend features our league championship match-ups;

Men's Championship
#1 - UVM vs. #2 - Sacred Heart
Saturday, October 27th - 1pm Kickoff
Burlington, VT

Women's Championship
#1 - Coast Guard vs. #3 - Maine
Saturday, October 27th - 9am Kickoff
New London, CT

Women's Consolation Final
#2 - UVM vs. #4 - UNH
Saturday, October 27th - 10:30am Kickoff
Burlington, VT


​Tier 2
Our Tier 2 season ended this past weekend, with the tier champions listed below;

Men's Champion
Boston University (5-0, 23 Conference Points)

Women's Champion
Smith College (4-1, 22 Conference Points)


New England Collegiate Cup
The NECC features 6 matches, pitting NEWCRC clubs against teams of equal standing from Rugby Northeast Conference (RNE) and Colonial Coast Rugby Conference (CCRC).  Opponents and kickoff times TBD.

The following NEWCRC clubs have been awarded games in the Cup;

Men
Boston University (Tier 2, Champion)
Westfield State (Tier 2, Runner-up)

Women
Team TBD (Tier 1, fourth place)
​Smith College (Tier 2, Champion)
Tufts University (Tier 2, Runner-up)
WPI (Tier 2, third place)

Welcome to the 2018 Fall Season!  There are several important changes this year, so please take a moment to review this post.

Schedules have been emailed to all clubs, and posted under the Competitions tab above.  If there are any scheduling issues, PLEASE email the competition director ASAP (Competition@NEWCRC.org).

New this year;
We have added 8 new clubs!

• Men:  UVM, Sacred Heart, Southern CT, and Boston University.
• Women:  Maine, Wesleyan, Holy Cross, and Connecticut College.
• We also lost New Haven from our Women’s Tier 1.

We have created a new Men’s Tier 2

• This new men’s tier will include 5 current NEWCRC clubs (WPI, Western CT, Westfield, Central CT, Springfield), as well as newcomer Boston University. Tier 2 will be ineligible for USAR National Playoffs, however the top finisher(s) will be eligible for a cross-conference bowl game versus another local conference.
• The 3 remaining current NEWCRC men’s clubs will absorb the 3 newcomers (UVM, Sacred Heart, Southern CT) to create our Men’s Tier 1 competition.

Our Men’s and Women’s Tier 1 competitions will conclude with a 4-team NEWCRC playoff.

• Due to our relatively short regular season (5 games), additional competition was necessary to meet the minimum match requirements for USAR automatic playoff berths.
• The playoff winner will receive NEWCRC’s top seed in the USAR playoffs.  Any additional USAR bids awarded to NEWCRC will be filled by our clubs in order of finish in the NEWCRC playoff.

Cross Conference Bowl competition is in the works.

• Due to the success of last year’s Bowl matches, we’re currently working on coordinating more Bowl games for 2018.
• 1-2 of the top finishers in each of our men’s & women’s Tier 1 and Tier 2 will compete against an equally ranked opponent from another conference.
• Details to be announced as they are finalized.

Challenge Matches are now required for the lowest seeds in their respective tiers.

• The 5th and 6th place finishers at the end of the regular season are now expected to host one of the top 2 clubs from the lower tier, as long as the lower tier wishes to “play up”.
• A loss by the higher tier does not necessarily result in demotion the following season or promotion of the lower tier club, however all Challenge Match results will be taken into account during the competition evaluation and AGM discussion & vote.  A higher tier club declining to play in a challenge match will be viewed poorly in demotion discussions.

Introducing our new Women’s Tier 3 (Developmental) format!

• We are now scheduling 3 clubs at each of the host locations every week.  This will allow developmental clubs to combine with each other to compete in full 7’s, 10’s, or 15’s rugby matches, and hopefully reduce or eliminate all cancellations in Tier 3 caused in the past by low numbers.
• This is an ambitious program intended to get everyone as much playing time as possible – that’s the best way to foster growth and advancement of programs in our developmental tier, and hopefully increase the rate of promotion in the future!
• Full description HERE.