Southern Virginia University’s Rugby Team: Understanding the Game
By Katherine Kloepping
This Saturday on Oct. 2, Southern Virginia University’s rugby team will compete, at home, against the United States Naval Academy, a Division I team and rugby rival. With a loss against the University of Mary Washington last weekend, the face-off this weekend has the potential to correct the course of the season for Southern Virginia’s rugby team.
In order to appreciate the game this weekend, it is important to understand how rugby works. How is it played? What are the rules? What sets it apart from football?
Rugby is a contact sport with a lot of tackling and shuffling to get the ball. There are 15 players on the field at a time, eight forwards and seven backs, and the game is split into two 40 minute halves. A critical rule of the game is players can’t pass the ball forward —it can only be passed sideways or backwards.
Ethan Ashton (‘23) plays the position of a back for Southern Virginia’s rugby team. Before coming to the University, he had never played rugby but decided he wanted to join the team, even if it was just as a team manager. Ashton is now a part of the rugby team as a player.
Ethan Ashton states, “The principal way to score points is to score a try. You have to get into the try zone (rugby’s version of the end zone), then you have to ground the ball. Unlike football where you just have to cross the line of scrimmage, in rugby you have to touch the ball into the score zone. That’s why you will see rugby players dive in everytime.”
There are some similarities between rugby and football. A conversion is similar to a field goal and is attempted after a try has been scored. A try is worth 5 points and the 2 extra points from a conversion kick, following the try, are called bonus points. In rugby, when kicking a conversion, players have to have the ball parallel to the goal posts in order to get the points.
Jake Cuevas (‘24) plays the position of a forward for Southern Virginia’s rugby team and has been playing the sport since his junior year of highschool. Cuevas explains, “The field is 100 meters. It’s different from football, because rather than yards we run meters. Typically in football your goal posts are in the back [of the end zone], but in rugby the posts are on the try line.”
A favorite aspect of the game for some players is the physicality. Ashton says, “It’s kind of fun to get in there and knock each other around.”
He continues, “It’s a rough sport, but at the end of the game, we respect each other. We know everyone has the same goal and that we are playing for the same reason. We respect each other because of that.”
Rugby came to Southern Virginia University back in 2019, with David Smyth being named as the head coach. Smyth has coached rugby for 40 years and brought that experience and expertise in rugby to the team at Southern Virginia.
One thing that makes Southern Virginia University’s rugby team different from most other schools is that before and after every game and practice, the players all come together in a huddle to pray.
This year, and for years to come, rugby will be the sport to keep an eye out for.
The Southern Virginia University vs. The U.S. Naval Academy game will be held at The Fields and will start at 1:00 p.m. View live updates here.
