Men’s rugby beats Virginia Tech 76-12
3 min read
Men's rugby is currently holding a winning streak of four games. | David Hughes
By: Mason Godek
Staff Writer
The University of Mary Washington men’s rugby team hosted Virginia Tech in a Chesapeake Collegiate Rugby Conference (CCRC) on Saturday, Oct. 16. UMW ended the game with a win against Virginia Tech with a final score of 76-12, pushing UMW to a winning record of 4-1.
Mary Washington began the game strongly by outscoring Virginia Tech 57-0 in only the first half.
“As with most teams this year, VT’s players were a lot bigger than us,” said senior art history major and rugby president Joseph Ritter. “Our team is not made up of large players. But Head Coach Hennie Van Zyl has really been training us to play at a quick rate and focus on moving the ball into space, rather than try to out-muscle them.”
Freshman Sebastian Schefermann led the team in tries with three total in the game and an additional try from freshman business administration winger Connor Foster. Freshman accounting major and winger Lewis Naylor joined his fellow teammates with two tries.
Not to be forgotten are tries by freshman psychology major Bill Tamani, freshman business administration major Cameron Giwa, and freshman international business major Toby Barnfield-Lee.
“We have an incredibly talented team this year, and also a very young team,” said Ritter. “During COVID, our team struggled with numbers, but our Player Executive Board did a fantastic job recruiting, and our freshmen class this year is about 20 guys, many of whom came from professional academies.”
Out of a 43 man roster, 18 of this year’s men’s rugby team are freshmen.
“Our game plan is the same every week,” said senior accounting major Seamus Brennan. “We just stick to our strategy because there is nobody that can play with us when we keep our heads on straight and play our game.”
UMW has previously conquered teams like North Carolina State (64-0), Southern Virginia University (52-15) and the University of Maryland (90-0).
Compared to the University of Mary Washington’s previous season in the CCRC back in 2018, the team is making similar strides. They went undefeated in the 2018 season and look to replicate similar results for this season.
This win against Virginia Tech puts UMW in second place in the premier competition of the CCRC, right behind Mount St. Mary’s, who is placed first with four wins and one loss. Mount St. Mary’s currently leads Mary Washington by only one point in the Premier Competition, making it a tight race for first place for the Eagles.
“We take it week by week and only focus on one game at a time, but these next two games will be the toughest and most crucial because ourselves and the other two teams are the top three teams in the conference and are all nationally ranked,” said Brennan.
UMW will be looking to become first in each of the forms of competition as they look to take on Mount St. Mary’s on Saturday, Oct. 23.
“Since we don’t have football it’s really fun to go out and root for the school,” said junior environmental science major Mary Woodrum when asked what she enjoys most about these matches. “I also like that we play big schools like Tech and do well against them.”
