M Rugby headed to National Championship Tournament
For the second straight year, Michigan Men's Rugby has made it to the Collegiate Rugby Championship. This is the national championship tournament for Men's Collegiate Rugby Sevens.
Last year was Michigan's first apperance in program history. They demolished Ohio State en route to winning their pool and making it to the knockout stage of the CRC Tournament where they lost to powerhouse Kutztown.
Only two other BTU schools made the CRC Tournament: Indiana and Penn State/
Here's how Michigan fared this Rugby 7s season. They're 18-9 this Sevens season
| Date | Opponent | Result |
| College Clash 7s (Brighton, MI) | ||
| 2/21 | Western Michigan | W 33-14 |
| 2/21 | Bowling Green | L 10-26 |
| 2/21 | Michigan State | W 21-5 |
| 2/21 | Bowling Green | L 22-27 |
| Dayton 7s Tournament (Dayton, OH) | ||
| 3/21 | at Dayton | W 30-7 |
| 3/21 | Kent State | W 36-0 |
| 3/21 | Michigan State | W 24-10 |
| 3/21 | Notre Dame College | W 26-10 |
| Notre Dame Tournament (South Bend, IN) | ||
| 3/28 | Purdue | W 15-14 |
| 3/28 | Western Michigan | W 24-5 |
| 3/28 | at Notre Dame | W 33-7 |
| 3/28 | Bowling Green | W 31-5 |
| 3/28 | Indiana | L 31-43 |
| BTU Tournament, Round One (Ann Arbor, MI) | ||
| 4/4 | vs Michigan State | W 12-10 |
| 4/4 | vs Western Michigan | W 14-12 |
| 4/4 | vs Illinois | L 10-15 |
| 4/4 | vs Ohio State | L 0-24 |
| BTU Tournament, Round Two (Iowa City, IA) | ||
| 4/11 | Creighton | W 15-0 |
| 4/11 | Minnesota | W 24-0 |
| 4/11 | Purdue | L 12-17 |
| 4/11 | at Iowa | W 28-26 |
| 4/11 | Michigan State | L 17-20 |
| BTU Tournament Finals (Champaign, IL) | ||
| 4/18 | Wisconsin | L 12-15 |
| 4/18 | Michigan State | W 14-10 |
| 4/18 | at Illinois | W 19-7 |
| 4/18 | Indiana | L 5-19 |
| 4/18 | Purdue | W 19-17 |
| Collegiate Rugby Championship (Philadelphia, PA) | ||
| 5/30 | Arkansas State | 10am |
| 5/30 | UCLA | 12:40pm |
| 5/30 | Texas | 2:20pm |
| 5/31 | Knockout Rounds | TBD/NBC |
Here's the tournament field-
| Pool A | ||||||
| Team | Pts. | W | L | T | PF | PA |
| Boston College | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| California | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Notre Dame | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| #20 Virginia Tech | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pool B | ||||||
| Team | Pts. | W | L | T | PF | PA |
| #17 Air Force | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| #4 Kutztown | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| #11 Navy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Temple | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pool C | ||||||
| Team | Pts. | W | L | T | PF | PA |
| Alabama | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Clemson | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Indiana | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| #6 Life University | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pool D | ||||||
| Team | Pts. | W | L | T | PF | PA |
| #1 Arkansas State | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| #15 Michigan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Texas | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| #5 UCLA | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pool E | ||||||
| Team | Pts. | W | L | T | PF | PA |
| Arizona | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| #7 Dartmouth | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| #16 Penn State | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| #25 St. Joseph's | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Rankings are from the latest RugbyToday Top-25 Poll
CRC Tournament TV schedule. If Michigan advances to the knockouts, they'll be televised. You can follow @umrfc for game updates.
Saturday, 5/30
3pm-4:30pm on NBC
4:30pm-6:30pm on NBCSN
Sunday, 5/31 -- Knockout stage
2-4pm on NBCSN
4-6pm on NBC
I love Rugby Sevens. Is this a club sport at Michigan like LAX used to be, or is it a full varsity sport?
are you starting that campaign?!!
Thanks for posting, WD. Michigan has a good rugby program, and they deserve some recognition for their hard work (and this is being said from a guy who played at Purdue). They are quite well organized for a "club" sport, and hired a new coach this year, who seems to be a good fit. As mentioned above, it's only a club sport, but more and more schools (albeit smaller schools for the most part) are adding men's and women's rugby as varsity programs. Some bigger schools, like Cal, Penn State, BYU, among others, are already at that level or near it (Penn State is a varsity program just without the scholarships - full time training staff, nice facilities, university funded, etc.).
For those who don't know, rugby 7s is a faster version of traditional rugby union (15s rugby). It will be played in the Olympics next year and it is a very exciting sport to watch with big hits, impressive skill, and fantastic athletes. USA's national team has a qualifying tournament for the Olympics on June 13-14, which will likely be televised somewhere (probably on Universal Sports, or on their website). For those who haven't seen it before, I highly recommend you check out the Michigan team and the rest of the tournament this weekend on NBC and NBCSN. The rules will be very strange at first, but you won't regret watching!
Yes, Sevens is like the Spread Offense of Rugby.
whats it take to get a M rugby jersey?
I think World Rugby Shop has some.
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Here is a link for all the swag you can handle
http://rugby-gear.worldrugbyshop.com/search#w=Michigan&asug=
Good for them. This is apparently the summer of non-revenue sports doing great things.
Damn that's a tough pool.
This event has rapidly climbed my list of sports functions I want to attend. Won't be going this year because the Michigan high school rugby championships are Saturday. The competitions in the CRC were rightly criticized the first few years for lacking competitive balance due to 'name' schools getting invited over schools that are good at rugby (Bowling Green / Davenport / Life are examples) but the event has actually helped raise the sport profile and competitiveness at name schools while also allowing more pathways for the competitive teams such as Life, Arkansas St, and Kutztown.
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So am I safe to assume the University club side is a separate, distinct entity from the Michigan men's side I've been playing against since the 90s?
Since 2000 they have been completely separate. However, there is a lot of alumni support for the college side. If you are interested in the history http://www.mrugby.com/history/
The link provides a fine description of our history. I was a hooker in the late 80's and worked my way up from E side to A side. We played through a parent organization that comprised mostly non-students and a large number of foreigners who had grown up with the game. The best student-athletes were assembled to play other universities but we also played on the broader sides, which improved our game considerably. The parent's A side was ranked #2 in the country at the time, and both the parent and University teams won a heckuva lot of matches. Mens rugby is developing into a powerhouse and I truly hope the University will grant the program varsity status.
Our bracket this tournament is a tough one, with Texas and UCLA in the same pool. Both cited programs have fielded excellent teams recently. Good luck men.
- An Olde Boy
Do I correctly remember playing matches on Elbel Field, or is that a beer-fueled mish-mash of rugby and Michigan football memories?
Probably won't make the early game, but UCLA and Texas games I'll be up and cheering in my Cazzie jersey.
Go Blue!!!
Hell yeah - good work boys. This program has made serious strides over the last ten years or so (as well as the sport at the college level).
Soiled Meat & Sand!
As to how the pools are drawn up?
It certainly seems like those pools aren't very well balanced.