Rugby Arizona administers an average of 8 Youth Division and 8 High School Division clubs. This fluctuates as new clubs come and go. There is a core of stable clubs that forms the foundation of the competition and these are the:
Youth Club details: https://www.rugbyarizona.com/youth
High School Club details: https://www.rugbyarizona.com/boys
The competition focuses on the U19 Teams comprising Juniors and Seniors. Most of the High School aged core clubs foster younger newer players and so, where possible, the U16 Teams comprising Freshmen and Sophomores will play each other right after (or sometimes before) the U19 Team game. Teams are awarded 4 points for a win and 2 points for a draw and 1 bonus point if they score 4 or more tries and another bonus point if they lose by 7 or less . Usually each team plays each other at least once in the round robin part of the season. At the end of the regular season, the top four teams in the competition advance to the playoffs. The top ranked team plays the 4th ranked team in the first semifinal while the 2nd and 3rd ranked teams play in the second semifinal. The winner of each semifinal advances to the state championship final.
Some years there are new teams that want to join the AZ High School competition. A new team is given provisional registration and so games against them are not formal competition games. Games against these newer teams are often negotiated between coaches and become a perfect opportunity to play new players so we tend to play our less experienced players. If the new club is still functioning the following year and can field a team roster that next year, they are approved as full registration with Rugby Arizona.
It is important for new players to realize that the older more experienced players are going to be selected to play for the main U19 competition games. We endeavor to find as many games as possible for newer U16 players and the Rugby Arizona facilitates the needs of the large numbers of new players each season by running a scrimmage at the beginning of each season. It is not uncommon for new players to get quite a bit of game time early in the season and for these opportunities to dry up as we get closer to the state play offs. This is because, unless other teams furnish U16 teams for us to play, we are mostly playing U19 games. Likewise if we travel to out-of-state playoffs or competitions, the quality of rugby played in other states is usually higher than in AZ so we mostly play our top U19 players in these games and competitions. In our experience only a handful of new players each season have the skills and fitness sufficient to be selected for the U19/Varsity team. In the case of bigger Freshmen and Sophomores, we sometimes will play them in the U19 division.