Despite a snow-filled February, the Mystics have been working hard to prepare for their pursuit of two national championships this spring. This Saturday sees the Mystics D1 and D2 squads in their first action of the spring at the 4 Leafs Tournament on Randall’s Island in New York, where both teams are hoping to work out any early season kinks.
The D1 squad needs to get moving fast, as their second pre-season match sees them travelling to Life University in Georgia next weekend. Life won the D1 national championships after a convincing run in which they won every playoff match by more than 15 points. Given that they’ve been able to train outside and the Mystics are going on the road, the Mystics are going to have their work cut out for them. It will still be a great opportunity for the Mystics to work out what level we need to be at if we want to be serious about a run at the championship.
Weather permitting, the D2 squad kick off at Pine Banks against Freedom RFC, a relatively new club based out of Portsmouth, NH. Their match is almost certainly going to be colder than the D1 match in Georgia, but it’s still critical that the boys brush off the cobwebs as quickly as possible.
Both teams then have a weekend off before we have a full derby against the Wolfhounds in Canton on April 11th to kick off the D1 spring league. The Old Boys are also scheduled to get a match in, so it should be a full day of rugby.
The spring home opener is on April 18th, and is unfortunately the only home double header scheduled for the spring. The D2 team will be playing Worcester in the NERFU D2 semi-finals before the D1 squad hosts Amoskeag later in the day.
The D1 squad then host White Plains on April 25th while the D2 squad is hoping to play in the NERFU D2 Final, which will be against the winner of New Haven and Saratoga Springs.
The D2 boys will be participating in the NERFU Cup in Newport, RI over the weekend of May 2nd and 3rd, and the D1 team will be closing out their league season at Portland on May 2nd.
Both teams then have a break before the D1 squad also moves into playoff mode. May 16th will see the NERFU D1 Championship hosted at Pine Banks and the D2 NERFU/Empire crossover match in Saratoga Springs to see which D2 team makes it into the national Elite 8. Here’s hoping we still have two squads in the hunt come the end of May!