USD men’s club rugby begins spring season

“A lot of people think we’re like polo or the horse polo game and I don’t know why,” USD club rugby’s coach junior Taylor Middlebrooks said with a laugh.

Those were the first words out of his mouth Jan. 28 at the rugby club’s first practice of the semester in the DakotaDome.

While sharing the space with the club cricket team, and often throwing back stray balls that found their way into the rugby team’s area, 12 Coyote students of all years and disciplines come to play a game that’s popular around the world.

According to Forbes, rugby has grown 13.3 percent over the past five years. This is more growth than any other sport has experienced. As  popularity continues to surge, the USD club rugby team looks to use it to its advantage.

After a fall semester that saw the Coyote team go 3-5, the team now prepares to transition to the game of sevens for the spring. Sevens is different from usual play, as only seven players take the field, rather than the normal 15. The game is also shorter, lasting just 14 minutes.

These 14 minutes are nothing if not action packed, as junior Kevin McLaughlin, president of the club, said.

“A sevens game lasts about 14 minutes but we run the whole 14 minutes so it’s pretty tiring,” he said.

The team usually plays about three games each weekend, McLaughlin said.

“We have about 12 guys or so, which is a pretty good amount for sevens. Every Saturday we have a game, usually they’re going to be in a tournament style,” he said. “We will have SDSU, Wayne State and then even Sioux Falls and some other places come and we just play a tournament together. We usually have about three games every weekend.”

As the team gets ready for the first competitions in March, Middlebrooks said he’s seen great improvement in the relatively new team.

“As a new team we’re not really super focused on winning the tournaments, we just want to learn something every game we play,” Middlebrooks said. “We used that philosophy last season, won a couple games, and everybody generally knows the rules.”

McLaughlin agrees, and wants anyone who’s interested to feel free to come out and play.

“We teach the game from the beginning and it’s designed for beginners,” McLaughlin said. “We’re mainly just out to have some fun. We’re not worried if you’re the least athletic person or if you’re just trying to get in shape. We take anyone who is interested in playing.”

Middlebrooks and McLaughlin have been big on recruiting after the team was nearly shut down because its members began putting their partying over their play.

“When I showed up about year and a half ago the team was Kevin [McLaughlin] and I,” Middlebrooks said. “So our biggest thing was recruitment. The team had gotten in a lot of trouble with drinking and fraternity parties and the whole thing basically shut down for a year or two. They didn’t have anybody playing. Kevin and I rebuilt it last year basically.”

Despite the stereotype of rugby going hand in hand with drinking, Middlebrooks believes the game should actually come first.

“I’m a really boring rugby coach. Most teams in America, and the world, are half play the game, half drinking. That is what rugby is really all about when you get down to it. I don’t believe in that, especially when the team got shut down because of drinking,” Middlebrooks said. “I try and steer away from that even at the big toga party at the Wayne State tournament.”

Circuit games will start March 19. Middlebrooks urges everyone to come and see what rugby is really all about at their home matches.

“It’s a hell of a lot more fun to watch than football,” Middlebrooks said.