The season went well for Saints Rugby. The men’s team finished with an impressive winning record and a victory against LeMoyne, 27-15.
For those unfamiliar with rugby, LeMoyne was previously a Division II team. This year they won the Northern Upstate Small College Rugby Conference (SCRC) Division. For the Saints to win by a twelve-point margin against such a team is nothing short of outstanding.
According to the Club Rugby President Hunter Scott ‘19, this has been the team’s best season since entering the Upstate SCRC.
Not only did they prove victorious over LeMoyne, but they also managed to crack the top 25 Division III national coaches poll for the first time in school history, sitting at 21 for two straight weeks.
Over the course of the season, the team managed to incorporate a large number of new players. The team began practicing the first full week back from summer break and kept up a strict schedule, training five days a week.
This dedication paid off in the end. Scott lauds the cohesion of the team, saying “there are no internal tensions between players, and everyone loves spending time with each other.” Next season, the team would love to win the league.
According to Scott, they know what they need to accomplish as players to make this happen. But unfortunately, other obstacles stand in the way of SLU Rugby accomplishing their goals.
In the past, the league deemed the club’s venue, the intramural field, as being unplayable because the dimensions are incorrect for a proper rugby pitch. SLU put a Band-Aid on this issue by paying for the team to host their three home matches at SUNY Potsdam, rather than allow Club Rugby to play on varsity fields for three days out of the year. Next year, the club is expected to shoulder the burden of payment.
“Ideally we would rather play at home,” says Scott. From the standpoint of the school, it makes sense not to allow a club team to utilize varsity fields. This is a matter of fairness when it comes to other club teams.
But according to Scott, Club Rugby is more than just a club. After all, the team practices five days a week in season, belongs to a national organization, and has a fairly focused skill set to ensure safe and successful playing. Many of the teams that Saints Rugby compete against are varsity level and most have a paid coach.
A possible fix for this problem? The club approached the administration about becoming a varsity team in the spring, only to be denied.
Access to a playing field and concussion testing are two small benefits that come from varsity status that may well be key to the team’s future.
The club has broached the idea of partial access to fields and testing as a reasonable compromise that would give the athletes access to the resources they need to play safely and improve without necessarily becoming a full varsity team.
Scott, who plans to graduate in Spring 2019, has voiced fear that without change, the team could remain in a stagnant position, or worse, regress. However, he also expresses his faith that the team will continue to improve Club Rugby’s standing at St Lawrence University. “We have proved that rugby has a place at SLU,” he says. “I am excited to see where it goes from here.”