The North East Division of AAA High School Boys Rugby consists of 4 teams. In order of seeding they are 1-Harrison Trimble High School. 2-Miramichi Valley High School. 3-Riverview High School. 4-Bernice MacNaughton High School.

Tuesday will see HTHS host BMHS and RHS travel north to play MVHS.

BMHS are feeling great about themselves.   The program is in 1st first year of re-birth, in no small measure due to Robbie Baxter. His team has performed better in each outing and the proverbial light bulb went on recently. They are ready and up for the challenge. They had a very successful game versus the strong MVHS team and BMHS feel they will be stronger again on Tuesday. Coach Baxter had this to say “I think now with a few games under our belts and given the weekend to rest up and take care of our bumps and bruises MacNaughton could be the dark horse of the play-offs come Tuesday. It should be a good game and I’m looking forward to seeing what my boys can do”

On the opposite side of the field for this kick off will be HTHS. They are undefeated, well tested, relatively experienced and under the leadership of veteran coach, Jones.  This is lining up to look like a “David vs Goliath” battle. The HTHS Trojans sit atop the NE division with a perfect 3-0 record going into the play-offs.

As an interesting side note, Coach Jones previously was the head coach of BMHS, during a time in which Baxter was a player for the school. But you don’t have to take my word for it(Look closely at the next picture, front and centre is Baxter with Jones on the right flank). Kickoff is slated for 4:15 pm at the CN 4plex.  Coach Jones is looking forward to the battle on Tuesday and had this to say about his last match; “Last week we had a tough game against Miramichi. We tackled hard and withstood the enormous pressure that there big forwards threw at us”

BMHS and HTHS are quite similar in size and speed. “We have a few bigger guys in our pack, so it’s no surprise that we will probably pound it up the middle and make them tackle us” said Coach Jones(which makes us think they might look to go wide a ton for a change 😉

Riverview High are looking to go into Miramichi and level their record against MVHS. RHS previously lost to MVHS but recently got an exhibition game win over Belleisle.  The RHS confidence should be high.  Couple that with the enthusiasm of the coaching staff and they have all the ingredients they need to upset MVHS on Tuesday evening.

Further down the road it is noteworthy that the NE Boys division will host the AAA provincial Championship game this year.  We are supportive and hopeful to have 1, or even 2, of these teams participating in that fixture.

Good Luck to all the teams.  We hope you are healthy and play your best Rugby.