The 2018 rugby season officially begins on September 8th for the Milwaukee Barbarians.
Week one will see the Division 1 side travel to Minneapolis to play Metropolis RFC. The home-opener will be a double-header on September 15 against Palmer (Divsion 1) and Fox Cities (Divsion 3) at our new home pitch at Brown Deer Park.
The full 15-match, regular-season schedule for the rugby club (see below) includes two addition double-headers in Brown Deer Park and concludes on November 10.
Playoffs and national club championships
The post-season for USA Rugby's Midwest Competitive Region should be complete by the end of November. Exact dates and locations will be posted as they become available.
To the best of our knowledge, the National Club Championships are still scheduled for Spring 2019 following the winter break.
Changes to playoffs eligibility
In recent years, multi-team clubs that lack divisional continuity (i.e. lacking teams in adjacent divisions) were only allowed to send the highest division to the post-season.
For the Milwaukee Barbarians, this has meant that our Division 3 side was not eligible for playoffs. We are thrilled to report that this has changed for the upcoming season and we are excited for all our athletes to have the opportunity to compete for a championship.
Conference changes means new opponents, less travel
Another change this season is the makeup of the conference structure in the Midwest.
Division 1 sees the addition of two new teams (Detroit Tradesmen and St. Louis Bombers). With a total of 10 teams, the division has returned to an East and West conference. The Barbarians will compete in the West along with the Blues (Kansas City, MO), Metropolis (Minneapolis, MN), Palmer Dragons (Davenport, IA), and the Bombers.
The Division 1 regular season will be 8-matches consisting of a home and away match for each team in the conference and include two bye weekends. This is a welcome change from the 14-match 2017-2018 campaign that had no breaks whatsoever. The reduced travel burden also means that the Division 1 side will be taking a coach bus to most matches.
Division 3 has had a conference system for some time and the Barbarians compete in the Wisconsin conference. Newcomers Oshkosh RFC have been promoted from Division 4 bringing the total number of teams to eight. The Barbarians will play each team once in a 7-match Fall schedule.
Fall 2018 match schedule
Our full match schedule for the 2018 Fall season is shown below. Please RSVP to the matches on Facebook to be notified of any changes to kick-off times or cancellations due to poor weather.
RSVP to receive kickoff-time updates
- 9/8 — Division 1 @ Metropolis
- 9/15 — HOME DOUBLE HEADER
- 9/22 — HOME DOUBLE HEADER
- 9/29
- 10/6 — Division 3 @ Wisconsin RC
- 10/13 — HOME DOUBLE HEADER
- 10/20
- 10/27
- 11/10 — St. Louis @ Divison 1
