Arkansas' Rugby team completed their final season at the USA Rugby Division II level and will move to Division I in 2011. PHOTO: Craig Jackson.
Arkansas’ rugby team had another big season this year, finishing 12-2, ranked No. 6 in the nation.
The Razorbacks dominated in their final season playing at the USA Rugby Division II level, defeating teams like John Brown University, Pittsburgh State and Central Missouri on their way to an undefeated Heart of America conference championship.
Next season, Arkansas will move up to Division I and play against Big XII competition.
It’s been a swift rise for a program that didn’t exist several years ago.
The rugby program had been discontinued, but was reinstated in 2007. The Hogs didn’t start well, losing the majority of their games that season.
The tables have turned.
“Where as before, we got murdered in our games, now we are murdering these teams on a regular basis,” senior team co-captain Ryan Boggs said. “It was due to lack of experience that we lost, a new club and new guys.”
The Razorbacks set a goal in 2007 to join Division I within 10 years. They will have accomplished the goal in half the time, because of a USA Rugby restructure putting schools with Division 1 football programs in Division 1 or the elite College Premier Division.
The roster grew from 13 players in 2007, to 20 the next season and 30 in 2009. Arkansas had 45 players participate in its final practice following this season.
The program’s growth was aided when coach Warren Fyfe took over.
After reading a local newspaper article about the team’s struggles following a 17-0 loss, Fyfe’s wife took notice.
She told her husband about the team and encouraged him to help them. Fyfe, born and raised in South Africa, has been involved with rugby since childhood. When his wife told him about the Razorbacks, he jumped at the opportunity and contacted club president Jacob Clayman, the student responsible for reinstituting the program.
Before Fyfe arrived, the team was coached by players.
“He has the structure, he has the discipline,” co-captain Tucker Shaw said. “He’s not a put-you-in-the-ground type of coach. He instructs you by leading by example We’re so much more structured now. ”
Shaw and Boggs treat the team as a business, with set goals for the future. The team’s next goal is to have a strong showing in their first season in Division I.
“It’s huge for our club,” Shaw said. “Moving up to Division I, we are playing the best of the best and it’s going to be a lot more difficult. One of my main goals is to focus on fund-raising more. It will be a lot more clear cut and easier to delegate what each officer will be doing in the fund-raising process.”
While some players on the team played rugby in high school – including Boggs, Shaw and junior winger Collin Jackson – many players joined the team to stay in shape and be part of a team.
Malachi Reeves – 6-foot-6, 235 pounds – is one of the Razorbacks’ standouts, but never played rugby until college. Tony Zambrano was a gymnast in high school and has been a key player since joining the rugby team.
“Rubgy has so much diversity,” Shaw said. “You have so many different types of people, ethnically, peronality-wise, career choice. We have guys from Bolivia, Colombia, England, Zimbabwe. It’s completely diverse, and people have different athletic backgrounds too, so there is diversity in the type of athlete as well.
“It’s not a bunch of former football players running around wearing Air Jordan’s and screaming, ‘Put me in, coach.’”
There are no tryouts and anyone can join, as long as they are ready for intense fitness and extreme physicality.
The team practices two or three times a week, with cardio and teamwork the main focuses.
“It’s such a unique sport because you play non-stop, continuous,” Fyfe said. “It’s a great contact sport. Everybody is a running back and everybody gets to tackle. If you like to tackle, this is the sport for you. Games are tough, so it builds character.”
The top 22 players make the playing squad each match. With the switch to Division I, more players will get to see game action. The team is deep in freshman and sophomore players that will gain experience in the upcoming seasons.
The deep roster is necessary for the Razorbacks to make it through a game that has more players and is longer than football.
“You got out, it’s 15-on-15, guys literally beating the crap out each other,” Boggs said. “No pads, just a mouthpiece. You get stepped on, its extremely rough, but at the end of the game, you shake hands. You’re not just going through the motions. It’s legit, after every game the home team hosts the visiting team. You spend time with that team that you just fought with for 80 minutes.”
A particularly physical game for the Hogs came in a 25-16 win against Central Missouri in the Heart of America championship game. For the first time all sesaon, Arkansas was the smaller team and had to battle for the win.
“Up until that point, we had run through every team, easily” Jackson said. “UCM was the only team that was bigger than us at every position. They scored first, they scored three times and it was the first time we’d been down all year. We came back and won in the last ten minutes. It was the most satisfying win I’ve had since I’ve been on the team.”
The team will have their first practice for next season in early August.