Cal Poly Rugby players are a tough, resilient bunch. They train hard year round for a sport that is a mystery to most Americans. They take to the field on cold winter days and get beaten, bloodied and banged up but often come out victorious. These men are not playing for acceptance on campus and do not expect to move on to a lucrative rugby career after college. Rugby is their passion and they want to be the best.
The Cal Poly Rugby Club is consistently one of the most successful sports organizations on campus. The club is composed of 60 players split into three teams, two of which travel and compete against other schools. Every season the team’s goal is to win a national title. In 2004, the Mustangs made it to the national championship game before losing to top ranked Cal 46-24.
Last season, Cal Poly held a record of 8-1 in their league with a dominating 354-point differential. They made it to the quarterfinals of the National Championships but fell once again to Cal. After last season, the American Rugby News ranked the Mustangs sixth in the nation. The Mustangs are currently 3-1 in league.
“Our success is a combination of good information, commitment from the players and athletic ability,” head coach Nick Massman said. “Everyone is pretty motivated to be successful.”
Even with the Mustangs’ overwhelming success, however, rugby is relatively unknown across campus. Rugby’s obscurity in the United States is partly to blame, but a more immediate factor is that rugby is a club sport and is therefore not officially recognized or funded by the university. Cal Poly does not advertise or sell tickets to rugby games and offers no scholarship incentives to draw players.
“We fully fund our own operation,” Massman said. “We get no help from the university at all, other than access to fields and even that’s an issue, so it’s funded by the players, our alumni group and parents and supporters of the program. We’re always looking for help.”
Universities with official rugby teams like Cal and BYU have an advantage over club teams. These schools have fully salaried coaches, access to training rooms and weight rooms and subsidized travel expenses. The Mustangs, however rely on player dues and donations to cover all of their costs, which include referees and travel.
Despite not receiving any funds from Cal Poly, the Rugby club opened a scholarship in the name of Kevin Higgins, a club member who went on to play professional rugby overseas, who has passed away. Every year, four members involved with the program for over a year are chosen to receive $500. These scholarships are made available through strong alumni support and sponsors, which include John Deere, TSNN Seeds and the Air National Guard.
The commitment of each individual member provides further testament to the strength of the club. Every player is committed to focusing strictly on rugby. According to club president and bioresource and agricultural engineering junior Ben Cannon, not one member plays for any other sports teams at Cal Poly. There are, however, great athletes that cross over to rugby.
“I think we’ve had really good years of kids coming in; just crazy, weird athletes,” Cannon said. “We end up getting a lot of kids who walk on for football and don’t make it and they’ll just come out and play rugby afterwards. We get a lot of soccer players and that translates well into rugby.”
Rugby is often considered the “father” of American football. While rugby shares similar elements with football, including an oval shaped ball and tackling, it is a unique game. A rugby match consists of two 40-minute halves. Like football, the ball is kicked off to start the game but from there any player can take possession of the ball.
The game is continuous. The clock does not stop when the ball hits the ground and there is no distance a player must travel to retain possession. A player with the ball can only pass the ball laterally or backwards, but may kick it forward at any time to advance the ball or improve field position. A team scores by either running the ball into the opposing end zone or drop kicking it through goal posts. Any player carrying the ball is fair game to get tackled, making rugby a brutal sport. Players wear very light padding. If a player is tackled, they must release the ball for others to grab.
Each team fields 15 players who are responsible for playing offense and defense. Usually eight of the larger, stronger players are forwards. Their job is to win possession of the ball. The rest of the team is composed of smaller, faster players who try to make plays.
“There’s something about the game that I think is unique in itself,” Cannon said. “It’s kind of hard to see from the sideline. It looks like a big mess but it’s interesting because there are so many fine points to the game that you just don’t see in other sports.”
Rugby has given some players the opportunity to travel the world. History junior Chris Spiers has played rugby in 13 different countries. He spent last summer in Argentina and traveled to Whales with the Cal Poly rugby club two years ago.
“Rugby is giving me an opportunity to see the world,” Spiers said. “I’ve stayed with other families and learned how they live. If it weren’t for rugby I would have probably never left the country.”
Spiers and the rest of the club won’t have to worry about traveling for their next match. The Mustangs host UCLA at 2 p.m. Friday. The second squad will lead things off at noon.
Massman is optimistic about the rest of the Mustangs’ season. He expects to go undefeated in the four remaining league games and play well in the national championship. While the Mustangs may not receive the same university support as many of the top teams, Massman is proud of his team’s accomplishments.
“It’s pretty grass roots,” Massman said. “I don’t think there are many top-10 teams in the nation that will have to scrap for it like we do.”