On May 22 at Van Horn Park in Springfield, the Titan Rugby team bested three established club teams to clinch the Plate Division of the inaugural Massachusetts Youth Rugby Organization (MYRO) championship tournament. Only days before on May 18, they had defeated Kimball Union Academy, the only other New England prep school playing rugby, in a come-from-behind 11-8 win.

The Titans' first match of the day was against local rivals Springfield Rifles RFC U-19, a side the Titans beat at Hugh Harrell field in April in a closely contested match. This time, the Titans jumped to a quick 12 point lead on two tries by winger Maoi Marcelino -- the first on a weak side run and the second on a long kick by flyhalf Scott Watson that Marcelino jumped over his Springfield counterpart to catch and run in from a couple yards in front of the Springfield goal-line. Springfield closed the match to 12-7 at the half, scoring a try after a series of pick and drives off of their powerful rucking game. Marcelino scored again three minutes into the second half to put the Titans ahead 17-7 and complete the hat trick. Springfield answered almost immediately with an 80-yard run and score by their substitute winger. The match ended 17-14.

The Titans next drew a tough Middlesex RFC team that had beaten the WMA squad earlier at the Amoskeag Tourney. This time the Titans got an early lead on a try scored by Kanta Sugai as the Titan backline got the best of Middlesex. Sugai converted. Middlesex answered on a try scored by their pack on a series of pick and drives off of rucks to make the score 7-5 Titans at the half. The Titans came out in the second half scoring first to make it 14-5 but struggled to hold the lead right down the final whistle. Middlesex actually made it into goal but the would-be "scorer" spiked the ball in the end zone in his exuberance, which in rugby is not a try.

In the final match for the trophy, WMA faced a big, physical Worcester RFC side for the third time this season: Worcester had spanked WMA in its first ever game 38-17, but WMA had gotten payback in a rematch at Amoskeag, winning in a penalty kick duel after the teams were tied 12-12 at the conclusion of the match. This time WMA got the better, winning 5-0, but the match was a battle. Worcester, with its big forward pack, dominated in the rucks and line-outs, which meant that there were not many opportunities for WMA's backs to run with the ball. The first half was nearly all Worcester, but hard tackling by seniors Colin Scott, Josh King, Mickey McCarthy, freshie Jack Viens, and sophomore Max Rankin kept the Titans in the match, which remained scoreless at halftime. In the second half, the Titans began to assert themselves. Jimmy Bernardo made three long runs -- unfortunately none for scores. Once, Sugai caught up in support but was stopped 10 meters out from goal; another time Watson made it into goal, but the touch judge ruled that he had stepped out of bounds. Finally, in a Worcester scrum on their own 22-meter line, hooker Jon Lee managed to steal the hook and WMA seized the opportunity. Jeremy Gilfor passed to Watson, who skipped to Sugai, who went in for the try but missed the conversion. Worcester came back in the final minutes and it took a couple of game saving tackles, including one by Buun Tengamnuay on a Worcester player at least a 100 pounds heavier to seal the historic victory.

In its first season of rugby, WMA clinched the first-ever MYRO State Championship. The Titans finished the season with a 5-1 tournament record and a 9-3 overall record. The three teams the Titans played in the tournament, Worcester, Middlesex, and Springfield, play at the under-19 level of an established men's rugby club. Middlesex and Worcester play most of their matches in the top division of high school-age rugby in New England.

MYRO was formed this spring. Prior to this year, the organization that operated all rugby in New England (men's and women's club, college, and high school) was New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU). USA Rugby -- the national body -- determined that its highest priority is to develop youth rugby, particularly high school rugby, and that the best way to do that was to create state-based organizations like MYRO, as opposed to regional unions like NERFU. This is nation-wide effort is ongoing.

Coach Tim Harrington explained, "There are about 40 high-school-age teams in Massachusetts. Most of the teams in MYRO are associated with Boston-area public high schools, including Lincoln-Sudbury, Belmont, North Quincy, Marshfield, Scituate, Needham, Newton, and Cambridge Rindge & Latin. There is only one other prep school team in New England, Kimball Union Academy, and we beat them on the road last Wednesday 11-8. We expect this rivalry will become the Harvard-Yale game of prep school rugby. According to the KUA coaches, prior to last week's match, the last time two prep rugby teams faced each other was 1907.