The Review

Issue date: 11/13/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: THE REVIEW/ File Photo Both teams will compete in the playoffs next spring.

Just south of the library, on a small field next to the Student Health Center, they can be found practicing four days per week. To the unknowing eye, it appears to be a cheerleading practice mixed up in a football scrimmage, with no pads to be found. However, for those who know enough it is actually the practicing of line-outs and scrums for the club rugby teams.

One of the university's most popular club sports, men's and women's rugby have enjoyed years of improvement and success. The women's rugby team, fresh off a 6-2 fall season, returned from the Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Union Championship, where the team placed second after defeating rival Kutztown 48-0 in the semifinals then losing a devastating 17-5 game to Shippensburg in the championship.

"The loss to Shippensburg hurt after such a great season, but we hadn't made it that far in recent memory and it allowed us to advance in the spring playoffs, so we still had pride in the team," junior scrumhalf Missy Gordon said.

The men's team (5-2) also enjoys a career-year ranked No. 5 in the nation by the American Rugby News. The team placed third in the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union, finishing the season with a 22-18 loss against No. 3 Kutztown on Saturday. The team will be in the MARFU playoffs in the spring.

Senior eighth man D.J. Wolf said the team's first priority is to capture the Mid-Atlantic Championship this year, especially since the team lost in the semifinals by one try last season. He said the team has the capability of winning the MARFU championship.

"We want to make it to the national sweet-16 for the first-time ever this spring," Wolf said.

Men's rugby head coach Bjorn Haglid said the team's experience will prove beneficial once the playoffs begin in the spring.

"This is easily the most seasoned team that I have ever put on the field with 11 of my 15 starters being seniors who have spent a lot of time together practicing and becoming emotionally hardened," Haglid said.

Rugby is one of the most popular sports in the world, with events like this past September's Rugby World Cup, which drew in billions of viewers and millions of dollars in revenues according to a recent BusinessWeek.com article, but in the United States, rugby has only enjoyed moderate success.

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