Club Corner: Men's Rugby

By Peter Smith

JULIA TIERNAN/YH

Walter Camp, Class of 1890, created American football while playing rugby at Yale. Just 126 years later, Camp's idea has evolved into one of America's favorite sports--but Yale's rugby team continues as a club sport.

For spring break, this year's squad went on a 12-day tour of England and Scotland, where rugby is taken seriously. The athletes knew that learning from lifelong players would be valuable, especially since most of Yale's players are relatively new to the game. The Blue played three matches abroad, losing to Cambridge's Downing 33-19, Oxford's St. Edmund Hall 70-10, and Edinburgh 27-5. "We only went over there to learn how to play from them," Club President Jed Herrmann, JE '00, said. "We didn't expect to win, we just wanted to learn and have fun."

It is obvious from the Elis' performance this season that they learned something from the British. On Sat., Mar. 28, the Elis dominated the Wesleyan Cardinals in a 65-3 victory. At the Ivy Tournament the next weekend, seventh-seed Yale fell to second seed Brown in the first match. "We kind of blew it," Herrmann said. "But we showed overselves that we could compete with one of the top teams in the Ivy League." Next, the men defeated Pennsylvania 26-17. "We were blatantly better than they were," captain Derek Webster, PC '99, said. "Though we won, we played down to our competition a bit." In their last match of the tournament, the Bulldogs lost to Cornell in a double-overtime thriller. "We ran them all over the field in the overtimes. We even scored, but the ref called it off," Herrmann said. The Big Red converted the penalty kick for an 18-15 victory.

In his last home game on Sat., Apr. 11, Danny Magida, SY '98, scored four times, leading Yale to a 123-0 win over Columbia. This weekend, the squad travels to the "Beast of the East" Eastern Collegiate Rugby Tournament. Since several top Ivy League teams will be at the Cherry Blossom Tournament in Washington, D.C., Yale hopes to do well. "We want to come out at the very least in the top three," Magida said. "Last year, we lost in the finals of the Division II bracket.... A first place finish would be a great way to finish the season."

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