University of Arkansas Rugby Club Excels

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The University of Arkansas rugby club won the Heart of America conference championship in November. Photo by Craig Jackson.

It seemed as if the University of Arkansas Rugby Club hit headlines almost overnight. At the beginning the 2009 season, the club ranked at the invisible spot of 25 and began the 2010 season with a few former players and a handful of rookies. After it doubled in size, this 45-man team banded together to form one of the best rugby teams in the university’s history.

Under the direction of Coach Warren Fyfe and the leadership of captains Tucker Shaw and Ryan Boggs, the Arkansas rugby team was undefeated in the 2010 season, ranking it fifth in the nation.

The club recently defeated Central Missouri 25-16 to take the Heart of America championship. An account of the game can be read at rugbymag.com.

Shaw credits Michael Pope and Jacob Clayman, who helped to re-establish the rugby team in 2007, for the success of the team.

“(We) are more than a team, but a band of brothers who strive on discipline, character, and intensity,” Shaw said.

Although the team is currently ranked in the Division II category, it was recently declared there will be a restructuring process in collegiate rugby that will make all schools ranked Division I in the NCAA also consider their club rugby teams ranked Division I on the club level. This will mean the rugby club will play a whole new set of teams in the upcoming fall season. According to Shaw, the team is “starting to play higher-caliber teams through friendly exhibition matches to help get a feel of what to look forward to.”  

Another change for the rugby team is the reintroduction of sevens rugby. Sevens rugby involves seven players rather than the usual 15. Teams usually play sevens rugby in tournament style, competing in shorter, more intense 14-minute matchups against half a dozen teams in a given day. Since sevens rugby has been approved for competition in the 2012 summer Olympics, Shaw theorizes that the university's rugby schedule will soon be divided; traditional 15-person matches being played during the fall and spring, and the sevens matches being played in the spring and summer.

April brings the 40^th anniversary of the rugby team at the University of Arkansas and with it 300-plus players from as far away as New Zealand and France. These alumni, or “old boars,” will gather to play the unifying sport of rugby and to celebrate the oldest club sport at the University of Arkansas.

For more information, visit http://clubsports.uark.edu/mensrugby. The intramural and recreational sports department oversees 31 club sports on campus.