The final tickets to Houston will be punched this weekend, with the semifinals for DI and DI-AA kicking off in Reading, Pennsylvania. Defending champions St. Bonaventure and Virginia Tech look to go back-to-back in their respective divisions. 

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Division I

The title defense for reigning champion St. Bonaventure (6-2) is still alive, but the Bonnies will be playing the role of underdog in their semifinal showdown with top-ranked Brown (10-0). In the quarterfinals, the Bears emerged with a convincing 27-7 defeat of Wheeling, while the Bonnies were fortunate to escape Big Ten Champion Indiana, 29-24. 

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Facing off in the other semifinal are a pair of recent Division II national champions in Queens (7-2) and Thomas More (6-0) in their programs’ first-ever meeting. The Royals claimed the last DII title before COVID in 2019, and Thomas More won the first thereafter in 2021. Queens advances to the final four with a 33-14 defeat of Liberty runner-up American International College, and Thomas More does so with a comfortable 70-21 win over play-in winner Fairfield. 

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Despite Brown and St. Bonaventure representing two of the country’s toughest conferences with overlapping geographies, they haven’t played each other in recent memory, and they share no common opponents this fall. The last time they had a shared opponent was the 2021 playoffs, where Penn State bounced Brown by a single point in the opening round and St. Bonaventure beat Penn State by one point in the title game.

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In their quarterfinal win over Indiana, St. Bonaventure built a 22-7 lead before staving off a late Hoosier comeback attempt. No. 8 Reed Hammond, listed usually as a hooker or center, and wing Matthew Joss earned men of the match honors. Scrumhalf Matheo Lorenzato does well finding and creating space in attack, flanker Mark Blum is relentless in the breakdown, and wing Lorenzo Villani has a full tool kit. 

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Brown is led by a pair of All American forwards in junior lock Ollie Corbett and senior prop Daniel Archer, both of whom could make a claim for best player in the nation. When junior flyhalf Raphael Lannsoneur uses his deft boot to pin the opposition deep in their own end or put the Bears on the front foot, as he often does, it’s Archer and Corbett shepherding the forwards to get it over the line. 

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Thomas More entered the playoffs in a unique position, without arguably its two best players. No. 8 Tomas Casares and flyhalf Matias Caramuti started the season with the Saints, but left in mid-October for their respective Major League Rugby clubs. The Saints are faring well in their absence, with Lolo Lelli scoring four tries from Casares’ vacated spot at the back of the scrum in the quarterfinal. Look for sophomore Rafael O’Gorman to pick up some of Caramuti’s slack in the backline, too, and for Tsheppo Moselane’s out-and-out pace on the wing. 

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Scoring in buckets for Queens this year has been prop and back rower Prince Louis Bush, usually off the bench. Starting prop Marshall Frank has proven a potent scoring threat as well. But the Queens attack stops, starts and runs through All American scrumhalf Hilton Olivier. 

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Division I-AA

The field for this division grew significantly in 2022, both in size and quality, with the addition of the MAC and Southeastern conferences. Louisville, champions of the MAC, represent the new blood as one of four remaining teams in the hunt for the national title. The Cardinals are joined by defending champion Virginia Tech, Binghamton from the Liberty, the division’s largest conference, and Mid-Atlantic champion St. Joe’s. 

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Virginia Tech’s path to a title defense has been unusually winding, as the Hokies went 3-7 through the regular season and found themselves down 22-7 against Southeastern conference champion Tennessee across enemy lines in Knoxville. The latter was the result of both a hat trick of tries from captain and No. 8 Hunter Danesi and the former; Virginia Tech being the only DI-AA team in the toughest DI conference in the country, the Rugby East. The Hokies beat their only DI-AA opponent this fall, a playoff team in James Madison, but went 0-7 in conference play. The fortitude built over the course of a long, tough season aided in the comeback against the Vols. 

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Awaiting Virginia Tech in the semifinals are the Hawks of St. Joe’s, who beat UMass 15-3 in the quarterfinals. It’s the second final four run-in-a-row for St. Joe’s, who in drawing Virginia Tech, get a glimpse of what could have been from 2021. The Hawks fell 30-19 to West Chester in last year’s semifinal, and Virginia Tech bested West Chester 34-22 in the national championship game.

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The Hawks enter the weekend with a record of 8-1-1, their lone blemishes being a non-conference loss to DI Fordham and a tie against West Chester. They’re led in tries and in most ways by star prop Conor Hohman, though freshman backs Aidan McMullan and Matthew Kelly have added more than their fair share of scores. 

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In the other semifinal, top-ranked Louisville plays the part of favorite, but don’t tell that to Binghamton hard-charging flanker Will Ahern, or his pair of speedy try scorers, wing Alex Stabiner and fullback Eli Cunniffe. The Bearcats can pile on the points, as they did in their 54-21 quarterfinal win over James Madison. They eclipsed 50 once more during the regular season, and twice scored triple digits in conference play.

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Undefeated Louisville can score, too, averaging 42 points in their 10 wins this fall. The Cardinals twice felled perennial powerhouse Bowling Green, once in the regular season and once in the MAC final, before eliminating Southeastern runner-up South Carolina, 27-5, in the quarters. Fullback Ryan Cammarata does a lot of Louisville’s damage with his boot in attack, but the Cardinals are well resourced around the park, with outstanding forwards like flankers Parker Anderson and Brendan Mortonstrauss.

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Championship Schedule