Men’s rugby secures third straight nationals bid

The University of Richmond men’s club rugby team has qualified for the Collegiate Rugby Championship for the third consecutive season after winning its open regional qualifiers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The Spiders secured one of 16 bids in the men’s Small College Division on April 6, finishing atop the Mid-Atlantic Small College National Qualifiers hosted by Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Over the course of the weekend, the Spiders defeated Robert Morris University 31-14, Franciscan University of Steubenville 17-7, and shut out the University of Pittsburgh 45-0 to place first among 12 teams vying for a playoff berth. 

“We went in with pretty high expectations because we made nationals the last two years… this year we’re really living up to it,” senior Sean Leyden said. “We’re trying to take a step up from being a team that always goes to nationals, to being a team that actually competes.”

UR’s postseason record is certainly a continuation of its success in the regular season, where the team posted a 20-3 record and an undefeated, 6-0 mark against Division I and Division II teams like the University of Virginia.  

Nor are the Spiders strangers to tourney success either, posting two first-place finishes and one second-place finish in tournaments earlier in February and March. The team allowed just ten points through seven games at the Spider 7’s Series on Feb. 10, shutting out Hampden-Sydney College, Longwood University, the University of Virginia, Emory and Henry College, and Old Dominion University. At the Spider 7’s Invitationals on Feb. 17, meanwhile, UR notably split a series with perennial championship contenders Christendom College.

“The biggest difference that I feel for this team this year, as opposed to years in the past, is that we have a lot of depth with our squad,” senior Bobby Styles said. “We’ve really stormed back, and now we have a lot of experience, and we have a lot of depth.”

The Spiders got one more opportunity to play between punching their ticket and playing in nationals with another circuit of qualifiers hosted by Longwood University, although the Virginia Military Institute bounced the Spiders in the semifinals on April 13th.

“We’ve just got to focus up… we can play our game; we can play our game against anyone, and we can beat most people when we play our game, so we’ve just got to get in the mindset of doing that,” junior Andy Quinn said.

Contact sports writer Scott Valentine at scott.valentine@richmond.edu.