24
January
2006
Rugby team loses old rivalry to Rice
Jan. 24, 2006
by REBECCA LILLEY, reporter
The two oldest rugby clubs in the state of Texas faced off Saturday to settle an old rivalry in the Stewart Morris Challenge Match.
Baylor’s green and gold circled up opposite Rice’s blue and gray. After the Bears knelt to pray and the owls performed their ritual pre-game chant, the teams lined up, the whistle blew and Baylor kicked to Rice. What followed was a series of passes and tackles with the final score 24-11, Rice.
For those unfamiliar with rugby, the sport can be surprisingly intense. The players wear little or no padding and tackle each other full force onto the ground.
In rugby, a ruck occurs when the ball is on the ground and members of each team are in physical contact and kicking the ball. A maul is like a ruck except the player with the ball is on his or her feet.
Several times during the game, the players lined up opposite each other in clusters, bent down and shoved against each other. The referee threw the ball in and the teams tried to kick it backwards to their side. This is called a scrum and is usually called after a penalty.
Blake Rodgers, a Dallas sophomore and captain of the Baylor rugby team, said the roughness is what appeals to players.
“I play because of the contact. I like the camaraderie of the team. We kill each other on the field, but we go out and have fun afterwards,” Rodgers said.
Jennifer Purnell, a Dallas junior, has attended every men’s rugby game for the past three years, home and away.
“The first game made me nervous, but I got used to it,” Purnell said. “The guys are all good sports. They look rough, but they’re not out to hit each other, they’re just playing the game. They all go out to dinner afterward.”
Baylor lost the trophy to Rice this weekend, but Zachary Oliphant, the men’s rugby coach, said the players are not discouraged.
“We played a tough game against a D-1 school,” Fairfax, Va, junior Jeff Kriesel said. “We still need to get the kinks worked out. We have a lot of new players this year. We could still win the season.”
Oliphant is confident in his team’s ability to win.
“I think the game this past weekend showed me some real promise in our squad,” Oliphant said. “Our team has improved our cohesiveness and fitness two-fold since early in the year. It was an unfortunate loss this past weekend to Rice, but I am confident we will continue to improve and have a successful season.”
Baylor is hosting the Texas Rugby Union tournament this March. The four best rugby teams in Texas will play in Waco for the championship.
Rugby is not a sport for the faint of heart, Kriesel said. It’s full of sweat, blood and hard work, but the game is fascinating and fun to play.
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8
November
2005
Please find below a very good article by Alex Goff of www.goffonrugby.com about how college rugby has grown in recent years. Click this link to see pictures of the Dartmouth field and the USMA Clubhouse Rendering.
Shining Lights in College Rugby Illuminate Possibilities
By Alex Goff for Rugby Imports
September 28, 2005 — It was a beautiful day the way fall days in New Hampshire can be. The sun glinting off the hospitality tents, the crowd packed around the rugby field, and two exciting, dramatic rugby games to watch.
Such as the opening of the Corey Ford Clubhouse at Dartmouth College in Hanover. Corey Ford was a 1921 graduate of Dartmouth and coach of the rugby team much later. He left his home to the club to be used to finance a clubhouse. Dartmouth Rugby, in its wisdom, decided that if they were going to build a home for rugby, they were going to do it right. They initiated contact with alumni (pictured, along with other photos, courtesy of Rory Goff), and started an effort to raise enough funds for a new field, and a clubhouse with high-ended facilities that looked the part.
Good for them. They did a wonderful job, and anyone who set foot in the Corey Ford Clubhouse will tell you it’s beautiful, and the field next to it, with the grassy banks all around, is lovely too. But Dartmouth is by no means the only school to do this. It’s just the latest in a series of college programs that have tried to leverage a growing rugby alumni population, the improvement in the sport’s image on campus, and the example of others to say that being a club sport doesn’t mean you can’t aspire.
Flagship of these types of programs was for many years the University of California Berkeley. And clearly they are masters on the field, have their own rugby field and clubhouse, and are a varsity program. But several other schools challenge Cal for facilities and a presence on campus. Stanford, of course, with their paid coaching positions and rugby stadium, is another obvious example, and the University of Oklahoma has its own field and a clubhouse they are very proud of.
Read the rest of this entry »
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8
August
2005
This past weekend I decided to round up some big boys and enter a team in the Mudfish Tournament in Dallas. This tournament is played in 7s format and consists of an open weight division and a Mudfish division (200+ lbs). We had a good showing and were headed for the Semi-Finals when the tournament was rained out. We were poised to have a rematch with the Dallas Harlequins in the Finals, but it was not to be. It was a great time getting to see a bunch of old buddies.
Our team consisted of:
Zachary Oliphant (Baylor Alumni and Woodlands RFC)
Roberto Hanson (Baylor soon to be Alumni)
Connally McKay (Baylor soon to be Alumni)
Ben McGuigan (Baylor Alumni)
Ted Gonzales (Baylor Alumni)
Bryan Bleidbdrey (Baylor Alumni)
Richard Rodriguez (UT Alumni and Woodlands RFC)
Brendant Cruz (UT Alumni and Dallas Harlequin)
Matt Lathrop (TAMU Alumni and Austin Black)
Justin (TAMU Alumni and Dallas Harlequin)
From Left to Right: Standing (Cruz, Oliphant, McGuigan, Gonzales, McKay, Hanson, Rodruigez) Kneeling (Justin, Lathrop)
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