2008 Woodie Awards
Rugby makes its return to Arkansas athletics
Nic Schluterman
Issue date: 2/27/08 Section: Sports
Scrums, rucks and mulligrubbers have returned to the University of Arkansas.
After a two-year hiatus from intercollegiate competition, Razorback men's rugby took the pitch at John Brown University last Saturday, falling to the Golden Eagles 71-0.
"It was a learning experience for a lot of inexperienced players," freshman back Jacob Clayman said. "We need to go over all of the basics a lot more in practice."
The school's oldest club-sport team, founded in 1973, reformed last fall and has since faced the task of teaching itself the game in time for the spring season.
The lion's share of that responsibility has fallen on coach and fly-half Michael Pope, a native of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
Pope played the sport from his youth in a region of the world where rugby balls are fixtures of elementary school recess bins.
"I started playing when I was about 8-years-old," Pope said. "I played rugby all through primary and high school, and I had the honor of playing for my high school's first-team for three years."
The rest of the Razorback lineup is made up of players who discovered rugby later in life, although a few had limited experience with the sport in high school.
Clayman said he has been playing for one semester.
Intercollegiate rugby is administered by USA Rugby rather than the NCAA, and players are offered scholarships at only a handful of institutions. The league is split into three divisions, and after each season, the best teams from lower divisions are promoted and the worst teams from upper divisions are relegated.
As a newly-reformed club, Arkansas is one of only two Southeastern Conference school teams, along with LSU, that is not a member of any of the three divisions. The Razorbacks therefore have to scramble to find opponents.
The Razorback spring schedule calls for a match against the Arkansas State B-side in Jonesboro on March 8, as well as away contests at Harding and Missouri-Rolla.
After a two-year hiatus from intercollegiate competition, Razorback men's rugby took the pitch at John Brown University last Saturday, falling to the Golden Eagles 71-0.
"It was a learning experience for a lot of inexperienced players," freshman back Jacob Clayman said. "We need to go over all of the basics a lot more in practice."
The school's oldest club-sport team, founded in 1973, reformed last fall and has since faced the task of teaching itself the game in time for the spring season.
The lion's share of that responsibility has fallen on coach and fly-half Michael Pope, a native of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
Pope played the sport from his youth in a region of the world where rugby balls are fixtures of elementary school recess bins.
"I started playing when I was about 8-years-old," Pope said. "I played rugby all through primary and high school, and I had the honor of playing for my high school's first-team for three years."
The rest of the Razorback lineup is made up of players who discovered rugby later in life, although a few had limited experience with the sport in high school.
Clayman said he has been playing for one semester.
Intercollegiate rugby is administered by USA Rugby rather than the NCAA, and players are offered scholarships at only a handful of institutions. The league is split into three divisions, and after each season, the best teams from lower divisions are promoted and the worst teams from upper divisions are relegated.
As a newly-reformed club, Arkansas is one of only two Southeastern Conference school teams, along with LSU, that is not a member of any of the three divisions. The Razorbacks therefore have to scramble to find opponents.
The Razorback spring schedule calls for a match against the Arkansas State B-side in Jonesboro on March 8, as well as away contests at Harding and Missouri-Rolla.
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