In 2016, the NC State men’s rugby team will enter a new league for its fall season.
Teams such as Clemson, a five-time Atlantic Coast Rugby League champion, who finished 10th in the nation this past fall, and Wake Forest, a club program that has finished last its past five consecutive seasons in the league, will leave the ACRL along with NC State.
“Clemson wanted to leave because they’re going to go play more competitive teams like Life University,” said Stephen Glass, a senior studying nutrition science and president of the men’s rugby team. “A couple of other teams, like Wake Forest, were really bad, so they wanted to drop down to division two, so they disbanded.”
The NC State men’s club rugby team, will stay in the newly created league that will emerge closer to the end of this month. However, the club has achieved plenty of success in its current league.
In the fall, the men’s rugby team finished ranked 47th in the nation and second in the Atlantic Coast Rugby League after suffering one loss in the regular season to Clemson’s varsity rugby team and tying against Virginia Tech’s club team.
The men’s rugby team has been progressively improving after tying for last in the conference in its fall 2013 season, finishing third in the fall of 2014 and second the fall 2015 season.
Amongst its wins of the fall 2015 season included a triumph against University of Maryland, a long-time foe who defeated NC State five years in a row, and a 69-3 win against UNC-Chapel Hill.
The new league will be based more on geographics.
“It used to be more competition-based — the teams that were about the same skill level played with each other, but now it’s going to be more geography-based,” said Nathaniel Monteleone, a sophomore studying math and a captain of the men’s rugby team. “All North Carolina teams will probably play in the same league; Virginia might sneak in.”
The meeting to create the new fall league based upon teams that want to stay and teams that would like to enter will be held Jan. 23 in Richmond, Virginia.
The women’s rugby team looks toward its upcoming spring 7s this next season with optimism, after an even finish in its fall season.
This coming spring season marks the beginning of its Matrix season, which only consists of games that count toward its conference standing.
The women’s team will have to face several teams from the Mason-Dixon conference such as UNC-CH, who went undefeated in its spring 2015 season and beat NC State last spring 59-19.
“We have skill players, our fitness is getting better, so it should be a good fight,” said Alayne McKnight, senior studying environmental technology and president of the rugby team. “Chapel Hill and U.Va. are known to be powerhouses, but we are growing fast.”
The women’s team drives itself internally when combating bigger and better teams.
“Everyone knows they are the biggest teams we play,” said Lindsay Jones, a senior studying bioprocessing science and a captain on the women’s team. “It’s all of internal motivation more than anything,” Jones said.
The men’s team plays its first home match against the Cincinnati Feb. 22, and the women’s team plays its Feb. 13 against UNC-CH.
