The core group of seniors that led the N.C. State’s men’s rugby club to a 100-0 obliteration of UNC-Chapel Hill last spring have graduated, leaving big shoes to fill on one of State’s most successful club teams.

The Wolfpack faces an uphill battle in a rebuilding year as it looks to replace the large group of graduated seniors.

The Atlantic Coast Rugby League, the club’s regional governing body, implemented a new structure, which has made the rebuilding process difficult. 

“Our league season used to be in the spring, which gave more time to teach our new players the game,” head coach Bryan Maxwell said. “Now, with the season in the fall, we have much less time to prepare.”

Despite these hurdles, the club’s new players are adapting relatively well to the game, according to their teammates. 

“We’re doing well this year, considering over a third of our spring semester team graduated.” said Cameron Jernigan, sophomore in biological engineering. “The new players are filling in better than we could have ever expected considering the amount of time they have been playing.”

The team currently sits in fifth place in the ACRL standings with a 2-2-1 record. Although its players said they would like to be higher in the standings, they are happy to be having at least some success in their games.

“We’ve been competitive in almost all of our games,” said Brandon Alvey, junior in business administration and club vice president. “More importantly, we’re continuously improving our level of play. That tells us that our coaching methods are working.”

Due to the influx of new players, the club has concentrated on teaching rugby fundamentals at practice, but leaving fitness work for the players to do individually. 

The players said they will begin working on fitness in practice as soon the team’s overall skill level rises and its new players become more experienced. 

The men’s rugby club is also active in community service events.  The club’s members recently participated in a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math night at an elementary school, helping out at experiment stations to assist the elementary school students.

“It was a great experience helping the kids with the experiments,” said T.J. Dixon, sophomore in statistics. “They’re a lot smarter than I expected. It’s always nice to be able to make a difference in the community.” 

As for the remainder of its season, the members of the club hope to continue improving and finish their season strongly. The Wolfpack’s upcoming games include away matches against Virginia and Virginia Tech, before closing out the ACRL season this fall at home against Maryland on Nov. 2. 

After its fall season ends, the Pack will continue practicing to prepare for the ACRL’s condensed mini-season in the spring. 

The club is always looking for new members, even ones with no prior rugby experience and encourages anyone interested to visit its website, www.ncstaterugby.com, and email one of the club’s officers.

“We’re always welcoming of new players to build the club,” said Kent Mackman, senior in accounting and club President. “A fair amount of our current seniors and juniors actually didn’t play any rugby prior to college, but they all learned pretty quickly.”