International Bowl: Match Report

The 2013 International Bowl was about redemption for the U.S. Under-19 National Team.

Watch the full game here

The sport is bigger than ever, played in every corner of the Earth with 64 International Federation of American Football member nations on six continents.

National Signing Day

The first Wednesday of February every year College Football teams in America finalise their rookie class on National Signing day. This years signing day already has several intriguing storylines before we even get into the potential for 5 star recruits flopping on their commits.

Click here for a list of the top 25 classes according to 247Sports

Here's a run down of the top 5 stories to keep track of:

Alabama not securing #1
Four of the last five years the Tide have secured the Rivals #1 spot for their recruitment class, securing talent to maintain their grip on the Coaches Trophy.

This year however Florida, Notre Dame and Michigan have all pulled interest from some top athletes. Rivals and Scout.com has those 3 teams all projected to finish above the current national champions.

Steelbowl: Match Report

The Sabres secured their first Steel Bowl victory in five years with a 40-20 win over the Hallam Warriors. The match, played under floodlights, kicked off the Sheffield Varsity 2013, and the 600 in attendance were treated to an entertaining affair.

Both teams knew that a solid start was key, and it was the Sabres who hit the ground running, forcing a three-and-out after James Sharrock’s kickoff left the Warriors deep in their own territory. This left the Sabres in good field position and, after marching the ball into the red zone, David Saul powered the ball home from close range to secure the first score of the game.

On the ensuing drive, the Warriors looked to have found their rhythm, picking up a first down, only to fumble the ball in the backfield, allowing defensive end Sam Stancombe to recover the ball and force the turnover. Two plays into their own drive however, and the Sabres also turned the ball over, a fumbled snap swinging the momentum in Hallam’s favour.

The double-wing offense took full advantage and a pass to a wide open wingback put the Warriors’ first points on the board. A successful outside run took their score to eight, giving them the lead for the first time in the game.

The RP Poll

Woo! They’re finally back! The rankings are finally back!

Now, you may recall that just before Christmas we released our official top 25 voted for by a group of twelve individuals. Well, after long discussions in the DC towers, we decided to continually run two rankings similar to the college game in America.

The official top 25 will be similar to the BCS standings and that’s the rankings we will use in predictions, etc, while the RP Poll will be similar to the AP Poll. It’s not the official ranking, but it is a ranking and it offers a different opinion to the official one.

So remember, your team may be ranked highly on this ranking board, but they may be ranked lower on the official board which will be released on Thursday.

Now all the mumbo jumbo is out of the way, let the list begin!