This past fall, a Columbia club team finished its season with only one blemish on its record: that club was the Columbia University Rugby Football Club. The club, a member of the Metropolitan New York Rugby Union-Division I, overtook the seven opponents it faced during the regular season by an average margin of victory of 28.7 points. It then entered the division playoffs, for which it received the top seed in the Red Division. In defeating last year’s victor, the United States Merchant Marine Academy, the club won the division championship.

[1] It then played in the Northeast Rugby Union Division I playoffs as the third-seeded club. Although it fell to SUNY Brockport in its opening game, the club finished the fall season with a 17-1 record. This feat is all the more impressive considering that, on paper, it did not seem that the club would be competitive. Twelve members of the club had graduated, and Marc Porter left the head coaching position. A club with losses like these does not usually contend for a division championship, let alone win one.

“This was supposed to be a rebuilding year,” club president Philip Kemp, SEAS ’09, said. “But no one on the team seemed to care about that.”

In addition to the Union games it plays during the fall, the rugby club takes part in exhibition games and tournaments during the spring. It also goes on tour during spring break for more competition. In 2007, the club traveled to Trinidad. This year, it spent time in Argentina.

“The rugby club, like other club teams, is an example of how a club sport can have success and compete at a very high level,” Kemp said.

Despite the club’s achievements, experience in rugby—or in athletics, for that matter—is not required to join. Members of Columbia’s undergraduate schools, as well as students in some of its graduate schools, are welcome.

“A lot of the guys who join our team are looking for a new sport that combines the physicality and strategic elements of football, wrestling, soccer, lacrosse, and hockey,” co-captain Tony Vongdara, SEAS ’08, said. But, he added, “There are members ... that have never played a ‘physical’ sport, but have backgrounds in swimming, golf, bicycling, or no athletic experience at all.”

The members’ levels of involvement in the club vary, but many of those who participate are incredibly dedicated. Practices are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. at the Columbia Soccer Stadium, where the club works on improving individual skills and group plays. The practices usually last two hours or, Vongdara said, “until the lights are turned off on us.”

The club now enjoys use of the stadium for its home games as well, but it did not always have guaranteed access to the Baker Field Athletics Complex.

“Last year, if we were unable to get hold of the football field, we had to play our home games up at Van Cortlandt Park and had to show up hours before the game in order to set up our own field and pick up pieces of glass and metal embedded in the ground,” Vongdara said. “But now this year, we have been allowed to play all our home games on the soccer field, and the University lines the field for us.”

The Athletics Complex takes on added significance for the rugby club this weekend, as it will be the site of the third round of the 2008 Ivy League Tournament. After the first and second rounds of play—eight games—take place at Tibbetts Brook Park on April 26, Columbia will host five games on April 27. Due to the seeding process, which ranks the teams based on last years’ results, Columbia has been ranked seventh and will play second-ranked Dartmouth in the first round. Play is set to begin at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. on Sunday, with the championship match to be played at noon.