Players and fans braved the heavy winds and snowy conditions Sunday for the SLU Rugby Team’s spring opener against Champlain College. Though the game ended in a 7-7 tie, the event was a major on-field success. Many believe this is the most talented SLU Rugby team in years, but more importantly, Sunday’s scrimmage furthered the team’s attempt to lockdown an on-campus field, something the team hasn’t had since Fall 2016.
After giving up a try on Champlain College’s first possession, the Saints quickly found themselves down 0-7. As the game progressed into the second and third periods, they altered their strategy and used their size and physicality to tie the game and nearly take the lead as time expired. A first-game draw left Club President Hunter Scott ‘19 excited about the upcoming season. “We really got going once we started playing together,” Said Scott. “Given the number of new players we have, I think we’re going to do really well this season.”
While the team celebrated Sunday’s result, players equally expressed excitement of playing their first home scrimmage since October 2016. The past two years have been a struggle for the SLU Rugby Club since the Upstate Small College Rugby Organization (UpSCRO) declared the SLU intramural field in violation of rugby league standards. Field defects such as a lack of sideline, presence of electrical wiring and inadequate field dimensions have kept the SLU rugby club from using the intramural field for official league matches. UpSCRO additionally threatened to suspend the team from the local league if they used the field in league matches.
Before the start of Fall 2017 semester, Match Secretary and player/coach Samuel Foote ’18 attempted to negotiate with the Athletic Director, Bob Durocher, to grant the Rugby team usage of a St. Lawrence varsity field. However, in addition to meeting with President Bill Fox and Director of Student Activities John Robert O’Connor, no agreement was ever reached. As a result, the team forfeited all home matches. “Last year we had to travel to every single game,” said Scott ’19 “Away matches make it more difficult to recruit kids and grow the club. We also have to organize rides and that comes out of our budget.”
November 27, 2017, the executive board members of the SLU Rugby Club appeared before the Thelmo Senate motioning for Thelmo’s support in re-kindling negotiations between the rugby team and athletic administration. Though the motion was a near-unanimous pass, no discourse between the two parties ever originated, the team was continuously denied use of the varsity fields and the inadequacies of the intramural field were never refashioned. “We don’t care if there’s been issues with communication, we just want to have a field and be able to have home matches,” said Samuel Foote ’18 “We don’t blame the administration because they’ve done nothing wrong. We just don’t want to lose the team’s presence on campus simply because we don’t have a field.”
The Hill News contacted Athletic Director Bob Durocher for an administrative perspective. “The athletic departments role is to try to provide student life scheduling options for our venues if they’re available,” described AD Bob Durocher. “We have 34 varsity teams and sometimes rotate 5-6 teams on one field (turf field) it doesn’t leave much time for other uses.” Durocher also acknowledged the complicity and high expense of reconstructing the intramural field.
Even without a varsity field, adequate intramural field and facing the possibility of forfeiting all home matches this spring, SLU Rugby remains hopeful. “I’m optimistic,” said Scott ’19 “We just need to find a solution that’s agreeable to everyone. We want to make sure our field is safe, playable and on campus so we don’t have to travel and can continue developing our program.”
A.D. Durocher reinforced Scott’s confidence in resolving the issue. “Probably the most realistic solution for the immediate future is to try and rent field space close to campus for our home games,” said Durocher
As the problem remains unresolved, the executive members of the SLU Rugby club are set to meet with John Robert O’Connor regarding use of an on-campus field for the Fall 2018. Meanwhile, the SLU Rugby Team prepares for their first tournament of the season that they will be playing away at Clarkson.