The Rugby Radar

The USA Women's Falcons beat Life University 40-5 at Lupo Family Field on Monday, August 3. The next evening, high school sevens opened on a field in Roswell. Both of those are Georgia rugby. Lead Story below.

Exiles start high school girls on Thursday, August 6: fifty dollars for the whole 2026-27 season, and you can join any time. Rebels opened fall sevens on Tuesday, August 4. Both take absolute beginners. Youth & High School below.

The Bucks are taking a squad to Brisbane for the 2026 Bingham Cup. Tell us your dates and your travel fund and we will put both in front of the whole state. Men's Rugby below.

Forty to five is the number. The number leaves out the part where Life spent the second half in the visitors' 22, short three of their own players, days into camp. Women's Rugby below.

Four Georgia programs have posted fall fixtures. Georgia opens at home in Athens on Saturday, August 22, Georgia College on Saturday, September 5, Life U men host Mary Washington on Saturday, October 3. College Corner below.

Sunday touch in the Atlanta metro, Thursday nights in Savannah, and a social in Macon on Saturday, August 8. No experience, no kit, and the club says no RSVP. Touch & Social below.

📡 From the Radar

The Statewide Calendar Is Live

Every date in this issue, and every one we are tracking beyond it, lives on the full statewide calendar, with a subscribable feed so the fixtures land in your own calendar app. And if your club is missing or wrong in Find-a-Club, submit the fix and we will verify and correct it.

Front Page

THE SAVANNAH SHAMROCKS ARE RUNNING THE EASIEST MONTH IN GEORGIA RUGBY

If you have been meaning to try this game and keep not doing it, go to Savannah in August.

The Savannah Shamrocks, founded in 1976, have built the most beginner-friendly month anyone in this state is running. Their first men's rookie day landed on Saturday, August 1, 2026 at Daffin Park, and the club's own recap is the best argument for the whole idea: guys who used to play in high school, old rocks coming back to shake the dirt off their boots, and a new women's player who turned up and joined in anyway.

The women's rookie program continues at Daffin Park from 10:30 am to noon on Saturday, August 15 and Sunday, August 23, 2026, ages 18 and up, all fitness levels. Learn the basics in a fun, beginner-friendly environment, as the club puts it, no experience needed, just bring your energy.

Then there is Saturday, August 8, 2026 at Forsyth Park, which is three doors into the sport stacked on one morning: a women's intro rookie camp from 10:00 to 11:00 am, a youth clinic for ages 5 to 14 at the same hour, and co-ed club touch at 11:00 am. The club also posted a new player questionnaire for anyone who would rather fill in a form than walk up cold.

Asked in their own comments whether newcomers needed to RSVP, the club replied: nope, just show up ready for a good time. Four ways in, one city, one month. If your club is running something like this, send it to us and we will put it in front of the whole state.

Buried in a week of practice graphics and registration links: a Georgia club is flying to Australia.

The Atlanta Bucks are taking a squad to Brisbane for the 2026 Bingham Cup, the international tournament for inclusive rugby clubs, and have started running player interviews in the build-up. Their words, and you can hear the grin in them: check out part one of interviews from your Atlanta Bucks as they gear up to head out to the Outback.

Getting a squad from Atlanta to Queensland is a serious lift for a community club, and it is the kind of thing this state should know about while it is happening rather than after. Bucks, send us your dates and your travel fund and we will put both in front of every reader we have. Anyone else in Georgia who has made a trip like this and has advice to pass on, we will carry that too.

Fifteens Came Back. It Immediately Got Rained Out.

Somewhere between the last sevens tournament and the first cold morning, the fifteens season quietly turned back on. Three Georgia clubs flipped inside the same week.

The Atlanta Renegades announced it loudest. Fifteens season is here, they posted, match schedule coming soon, first session Tuesday, August 4, 2026 at Peachtree Middle School, Tuesdays and Thursdays through fall and into spring. Then the rain came and the club put up a one-line story cancelling it. First night back, washed out. Everyone who has ever played this game in August nodded.

The Athens Eagles started fifteens training on Sunday, August 2, 2026 at Southeast Clarke Park and reported that practices started with a bang, with an open invitation to anyone, men or women, who wants to try the game. The Gwinnett Lions opened 2026-27 registration for senior men and senior women at Tribble Mills Park in Lawrenceville, first two practices free, first match in September, the men's side moving to Division 3. They also mentioned, almost in passing, that they are working on a youth side.

Training nights differ between the Gwinnett men's and women's sides, so message the club for the slot that fits you. We are confirming the current times with them and will carry them on the calendar once we have them.

The Maddogs Moved the Address, Not the Pitch

The Augusta Maddogs opened their 2026-27 season with a practice graphic and, buried in the FAQ underneath it, the most relatable club admin note of the year. Is this a new pitch? Just an updated address. GPS stopped liking 100 Wood Street.

So: fall training is Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30 pm at Maddogs Pitch, 2055 Division Street, Augusta. Same grass, new coordinates. That is the one to put in your phone.

The Golf Tournament That Has Outlasted Most of the Fixtures

Club rugby runs on things that are not rugby, and the MacFitch is thirty-six years of proof. The thirty-sixth annual tournament goes off with a 2:00 pm shotgun start on Saturday, August 15, 2026 at Chastain Golf Course in Buckhead, hosted by Atlanta Old White.

Entry is $85 for dues-paying players and $145 for everyone else. There is no version of this weekend where the golf is the point.

The scoreline from Lupo Family Field on Monday, August 3, 2026 reads USA Women's Falcons 40, Life University 5. Scorelines are tidy. This one leaves things out.

It leaves out that Life were missing Bella Vogel, Lissa Salisbury and Nina Mason, all three of them across the field in Falcons jerseys that night, plus the injured AJ Haughey, plus prop Ariel Chalmers who went down during the match. It leaves out that the reigning national champions had been in camp for a matter of days.

And it leaves out the second half, when Life parked themselves in the Falcons' 22 long enough to force a yellow card, then took the penalty quickly through scrumhalf Hattie Greenwood for Olivia Frisby to finish in the corner. Falcons flanker Tessa Hann took three tries on the night and fullback Karina Gauto added one at the corner.

Georgia does not get many nights like this one. A national side, a home field in Marietta, and a host program good enough that three of its own players were on the visitors' team sheet. The Falcons play Brazil in Sao Paulo on Saturday, August 8 and Wednesday, August 12, 2026. Three players from a Marietta campus go with them.

Fifteens Is Reassembling Across the Metro

Women's fifteens is coming back across the metro, and there are already dates you can put in a phone.

Atlanta 2.0 Selects have five fall fixtures on the board, running from Saturday, August 29 through Saturday, December 12, three of them at home, with trips to Charlotte and Tampa either side. Practices are Mondays and Wednesdays from 7:00 to 9:00 pm at Larry Bell Park in Marietta. All five dates are on the Radar calendar now.

The Atlanta Harlequins held their preseason meeting on Sunday, August 2, 2026 at Manny's in Grant Park, walking new and returning players through the season plan. Their post was headlined now accepting new and used ruggers, which is the best recruitment line of the month. Their opener is already public through their opponent: Saturday, August 29 in Atlanta, and the rest of their card lands here as soon as it is set.

Elsewhere: High Country women return from summer break to Tuesday and Thursday training on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, and are running an open Rugby 101 session on Saturday, August 29. Georgia Tech women posted a five-match fall slate including a home fixture against Georgia on Saturday, October 24, 2026. And the Gwinnett Lions are registering a senior women's side for the season.

Fifty dollars covers a whole season of high school rugby in Alpharetta, and if you cannot make the first session, come to the fourth.

Exiles RFC open their high school girls program on Thursday, August 6, 2026 at 7:00 pm on the lower field at Innovation Academy, 125 Milton Avenue. Ages 14 to 18, students from any high school, no experience required, Tuesdays and Thursdays. That fifty dollars covers the entire 2026-27 season, fall sevens and spring fifteens both. The club named its staff two days out: Keliah Newman heads the forwards, Ash Nell takes the backs, Nadia Opperman manages the side. And they said the thing every nervous parent needs to hear, in their own post: August 6 is a first training session and not a registration deadline, and girls are welcome to join at any point in the season.

Rebels Rugby opened fall sevens on Tuesday, August 4, 2026 at Crabapple Field in Roswell Area Park, boys and girls together, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. The first two weeks are open practice and all are welcome to try rugby: touch only, nobody gets tackled, no experience needed. Players must be registered by Friday, August 21 to travel to the Irish Ruggerfest opener in Nashville on Saturday, September 12.

Two more metro clubs run high school rugby and are worth contacting if you are closer to them: Atlanta Youth Rugby and Forsyth County Falcons, both of whom take direct messages. We have asked each of them for fall dates and registration, and they go straight onto the calendar and into this section the moment we have them.

Georgia rugby runs on group texts and word of mouth more than it runs on websites, so if your club has a start date we have missed, send it to us and we will chase it down and publish it.

Twenty Seats, One Saturday, and a Deadline

Every kid who plays needs an adult who showed up first. That is the line on the graphic, and it is doing a lot of honest work.

A Level 1 coaching course runs on Saturday, August 29, 2026 from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm in Roswell, hosted by Rebels Rugby. One full day, twenty seats, age 17 and up, zero experience required. The qualification is recognised internationally. It is also, as far as the public course calendar shows, the only one confirmed in Georgia.

The fee is $125 and it is reimbursed once you certify and take up an active coaching role, which means the real cost of finding out whether you like coaching is a Saturday. Registration closes on Saturday, August 22, 2026, a week before the course, and twenty seats is twenty seats.

It is open to everyone, not just Rebels parents. If your club is short of qualified coaches this season, and most of them are, this is the cheapest fix on the table.

A Rugby Clinic for Ages 5 to 14

Youth rugby in Georgia skews high school, so it is worth flagging when somebody opens the door lower. The Savannah Shamrocks are running a youth clinic for ages 5 to 14 from 10:00 to 11:00 am at Forsyth Park on Saturday, August 8, 2026, at the same hour as their women's intro camp and just before co-ed club touch. One trip, three age brackets, one park.

A Georgia U19 Side Went Unbeaten in Alabama

A result that has not been written down anywhere until now, and it deserves to be.

Atlanta Old White Youth Rugby travelled to Mobile, Alabama for the Luau 7s on Saturday, July 11, 2026, hosted by Battleship Rugby at Battleship Memorial Park, and came home U19 champions. Their own words: clean sweep, tournament U-19 champs, what a great day of rugby, and one hundred degrees didn't hold these boys back.

Georgia youth sides travelling out of state and winning is the kind of thing that never makes it past a club's own feed. It goes in the record here. If your side has a result from this summer we have not carried, send it to us and it goes in too, however long ago it was.

College rugby in Georgia is easier to follow this fall than it has been in years. Four programs put fixture lists out in the last month, and between them you can fill most Saturdays from August without leaving the state.

Georgia College open at home in Milledgeville on Saturday, September 5, 2026 against Georgia Tech, one of six dates on their card, and they host the Deep Roots Tournament on Saturday, October 17. Georgia Tech women play five, including The Citadel at Stamps Field on Saturday, September 19 and an in-state meeting with Georgia at home on Saturday, October 24. Life University men have seven, four of them Saturdays at Lupo Family Field in Marietta, starting with Mary Washington on Saturday, October 3.

Georgia men have a full slate up too, opening at home in Athens on Saturday, August 22 and hosting South Carolina the following Saturday. Three of the opponents on their card are not yet confirmed on our side and the venue for the October 30 fixture has not been announced. We have asked, and all of it goes up here the moment we have it.

Every confirmed date above is on the Radar calendar, which you can subscribe to so the fixtures land in your own phone. If your program has a fall schedule and it is not here, send it over and we will carry it.

A USA Camp Set Up Shop in Marietta

The USA Women's Falcons did not stop in Georgia for the scenery. The national team's development squad ran its pre-tour training camp on the Life University campus in Marietta and finished it with a match against the host side on Monday, August 3, 2026, winning 40-5.

Three Life players were named to the Brazil touring party, which is how all three came to line up against their own teammates that evening. Life head coach Ryszard Chadwick called hosting the camp a tremendous honor and a clear sign of the progress the program continues to make.

The wider point for anyone tracking the college game here: a national selection camp chose a Georgia campus, and the college side it played is the reigning national champion in the women's game. That is a college program other states travel to find.

Want Your Program Featured?

Through the end of 2026, a featured club card on the Radar is a flat $100, charter rate: your crest, your colors, your links, in every issue and on the site through December 31. College programs, this one was built with you in mind, with fall season arriving and a statewide audience of players and families reading along. Write to hello@therugbyradar.com and we will set it up.

The social game is the easiest rugby in Georgia to join and the hardest to find, because almost none of it lives on a fixed schedule. Here is where it actually is this month.

Southern Touch runs Sunday touch in the Atlanta area, and we owe you a correction: the club's own most recent post puts it at noon to 2:00 pm, not the 2:00 to 4:00 pm we have been carrying. The venue moves too, rotating between parks in Marietta and Atlanta depending on the week, and the club posts the location to its Facebook group rather than to Instagram. Check the group before you load the car.

Savannah Shamrocks run co-ed touch on Thursdays at 6:30 pm at Forsyth Park, and they are folding a co-ed club touch session into their open day at the same park on Saturday, August 8, 2026, starting at 11:00 am. No sign-up. Asked in their own comments whether anyone needed to RSVP, the club answered: nope, just show up ready for a good time.

And Macon Love have put Saturday, August 8, 2026 down as Rugby, Rings and Refreshments, which is either a social or a very confident recruitment pitch. Their training runs Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:30 pm at Carolyn Crayton Park.

ATLANTA COPPERHEADS RLFC

Rugby league has come to Atlanta.

Open men's & women's (13-a-side) • Roswell Area Park

The Copperheads' 2026 campaign is a wrap. Now comes the rebuild: the club is recruiting for the 2027 season, players from any background welcome, no rugby league experience required. Details at copperheadsrlfc.com.

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