A new team will proudly wear the Cabrini Caviler name across their chests in the near future. A Cabrini rugby team is in the early stages of development within the athletic department. The sport is projected to begin in spring 2018.
Ryan Pfanders, a sophomore marketing major, has been pushing the process along since the beginning of the 2017 school year.
“I’ve talked with Orlin Jesperson in club and recreation and we’ve decided to recruit first,” Pfanders said. “I’ve talked to many people who are interested in playing rugby, with all variations of experience.”
Pfanders has been playing rugby since his freshman year of high school at Bishop Shanahan. During his senior year of high school, he was recruited to play rugby for Mount St. Mary, a Division I institution.
He hopes to spark an interest in the Cabrini community with talk of the developing team.
Due to the development of a team being at such an early stage, the most important element of the process is building an interest. A Facebook page was created and posters have been placed around campus, but the most effective recruiting tool is word of mouth.
Jimmy Dougherty, sophomore finance and marketing major, was one of the first people to express interest in the developing team. He has continued to recruit since hearing about the prospective team.
“I first started playing rugby my junior year of high school at Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast and, ever since then, have fallen in love with playing the sport,” Dougherty said. “I was incredibly happy to know a team was being started. I have been spreading the word around and finding new players.”
When the team is fully developed, Cabrini will enter the National Small College Rugby Organization, or NSCRO. Many local small colleges with rugby teams already belong to this organization, including Neumann University, Haverford College and Widener University. This is a competitive league, hosting small schools around the country.
Rugby is a two-season sport, taking place in the fall and spring seasons. What seems to be a mixture of football and soccer, rugby shares characteristics of each sport. The length of a rugby field is similar to that of a soccer field, while the act of playing rugby resembles football without the pads.
The goal of a rugby game is to progress up the field to score a try, similar to a touchdown, by passing the ball backward and laterally. The game is fast-paced, with many technical terms for rules and positions.
In a 2008 study, it was found that there are lower rates of injury in college rugby then college football. Although players do not wear pads during a rugby game, the hits are not head-on. Often, players use their shoulders to lead for a tackle to avoid injury.
The sport of rugby is growing in popularity in the United States. Originating in England, the sport is rapidly expanding, with 125,000 players registered with USA Rugby as of 2016.
Over 900 colleges across the country offer men and women’s rugby teams, with 32,000 college players registered with USA Rugby.
While the development of the team is in the early stages, Pfanders is hopeful that they will get enough people interested to begin the upcoming season. Those interested in playing or learning more about rugby can contact Ryan Pfanders at rjp344@cabrini.edu.
“We’re looking to start in the spring,” Pfanders said. “What has to happen before that is: we have to have at least nine players, organize the team to get into a governing body— which would be the National Small College Rugby Organization— register ourselves and go through that process.”
Although creating the team is off to a slow start, things are coming together.
“I’ve had men and women contact me about starting the team,” Pfanders said. “Slowly but surely, this team is coming together.”
