Michigan Rugby

I used to play for a team in SE Mich a long time ago and we played against the Michigan Club Team.  Rugby is a fantastic sport once you figure out what the hell you're doing.  Some of the guys I used to play with started creating high school clubs and teaching it to the youth.

I wish it would catch on more and I wish I was still physically able to play.+

Its a club sport at michigan, they wouldn't be in this tournament I don't think.  They are a pretty good club team, not as dominant as michigan crew but have made a few runs to the finals in the past 5 years or so.  Interesting note on Cal, they were the dominant team but actually got recently relegated to club status because of the financial issues in the UC system, it upset a lot of people.

...history page at the team's website for answers to many of your questions.

Rugby is the greatest sport on earth to play.  While soccer is the most popular, combine that with football and you have Rugby.  I played on a local squad and we toured NA, mostly the US) at tournaments.  It was a blast.

Undefeated State Champs last year!

Seriously though Michigan does have a club team. I have a friend who plays for it and my former coach played on it. There is a 7s tournament coming up in Kent County and I am pretty sure Michigan will be there because they were last year.

Absolutely love playing rugby, I played all 4 years while I was at the Coast Guard Academy.  In 2008 we almost played Michigan at the Div II Nationals. I didnt get to see them play because our game was at the same time.  In general rugby is really starting to get popular across the country.

It takes leather balls to play rugby!

I saw the national champs game last year, Cal vs Utah, and I really thought it was a great spectator sport. I felt like it combined the power of football with the speed of something, I don't know, but fast.  ;-) Not only would I like to see more of it, we all will.

There is a big international tourney coming up, a la the World Cup or whatever (maybe the Olympics - I just don't remember what event, but if you do, please chime in). It's a safe bet that the USA will amp it up a little bit for this, like when we really kicked up our soccer efforts leading up to and following the time when we hosted the World Cup.

I played for Brighton for 3 years.

And Michigan's club team was really good when I was there. If you're in college and love sports and miss playing football, I highly suggest joining M rugby. Even if you're as much as a novice as I was (and still am) they'll teach you how to play and make you feel welcome as a part of the team.

I've played rugby with the Flint Rogues since '95, and it seems to me the U-M club has kinda waffled between a Men's side and university club side.  If anyone can clarify that, please do.  Are there now distinct and separate Men's and Collegiate sides?

Does anyone know when rugby and football split and were considered two different sports, both in general and at UM?  I'm sure there's a very interesting history...

I played for Grandville a few years ago. What a great sport. I don't know how many teams give scholarships for rugby but I know Davenport University does, which is cool. I love the growth of the game in the US...maybe we can really compete at a national level once all this young talent grows up.

I played on the team for my first semester freshman year in '96 and it was a club team.  Sadly I was not able to go to practice which where super far away from my dorm.  I had played some in high school and then played during business school... rugby rocks, a comraderie like no other sport (I love to watch football the most, but I prefer to play rugby).  

Cal is the monster college team, though BYU and Utah are pretty good as well... It does seem like rugby is getting more and more popularity in the US (though I prefer the full 15 players per side game rather than 7's) which is great.

I played when I was in undergrad at UM.  They had both collegians and local men playing.  They had multiple sides (equivalent to 1st string, 2nd string etc.).  I did not know anything about rugby when I joined.  I just wanted a sport similar to football, and I was not good enough to walk on at Michigan.  The members were friendly and happy to teach the game.  As a beginner you would be on the 3rd or 4th side, but you always got to play.  The other team either had a 3rd and 4th side or there would be injuries, other players couldn't make it ...

It was very social.  After practice, everyone would go out for beers.  The home side was required to throw a party after the match for the visiting team.  They would usually coordinate matches with football team.  We played Notre Dame in South Bend then went to a bar to watch the football game afterwards.  It was a lot of fun.  In full disclosure I will mention that it is a VERY physical game.  I played tackle football at a high level and was never injured.  I separated my shoulder playing rugby.  Almost everyone who played rugby for a while had some type of injury.  There is a reason that football players wear pads and helmets.

New Zealand is hosting the Word Cup bginning in a few months.  It will be spectacular.  The quality of teams will be great, and the country is beautiful with very friendly people.  I have been there multiple times and hope to make it for the contests.  If you go, have a Speights Gold Medal Ale. If you can't go, catch some of the matches on TV.  You will love it.  My wife prefers to watch rugby over football.

Michigan has both men's and women's teams. Both have been pretty good in recent years (women more recently than the men), however I think the men were suspended from club sports for some off field issues.

If you play rugby you should wear a legal 3/8" padded vest. They are optional but most of the guys I play play with wear them in games...usually AFTER they have injured their shoulder. I took up rugby at age 50 and played two years with Nevada (UNR, collegiate, on B side). Fun, but dislocated shoulder, fractured elbow, broken collarbone. I can honestly say however that once I knew what I was doing more, the potential for injury went way down.

was founded in 1959 as the Ann Arbor Rugby and Cricket Club.  A few of the original members are still around the area.  One of the more famous people who was on the origina club was Boxing reporter Bert Sugar, who still comes back for Olde Boy (alumni) games.

As the name implied, while there was a loose tie to the University, and the player pool did draw from the undergrad student body (including from EMU), grad schools and even many of the ancillary university staff, until around the late nineties, it was a town club.

When I was at M, we did get some money from the club sports budget and it was an official club sport contingent upon keeping a minimum number of students participating.

There were a few all collegiate tournaments we played in each year, including the BigT en tourney, but our union (the league) was comprised of town teams like Grand Rapids, Flint, Detroit RFC, Detroit Tradesmen.  We played clubs from throughout the midwest and country.  We were for a few years a Mens Division I team (pre-Super League).  The team dropped down to Div. II and won a National Championship in 1995.

Eventually, the town team and the college team split.

I have played for many rugby clubs throughout the US and even the world, and my strongest affinity is still for the M club.

I play for the Purdue club. We didn't get to play Michigan's A side this year, but our B sides played each other. As of now, I belive Michigan is a Division II team. I think Michigan's women's side was in the final four this spring, if I remember correctly. A majority of the college teams are club sports, with a few being varsity. As someone mentioned before, Davenport has a varsity squad, and they actually won the Division I national championship a few weeks ago.

If you enjoyed watching the Rugby sevens on TV this weekend, there is a Big Ten Sevens Tournament in Madison, WI in late August. I've heard the Big Ten Network might broadcast some of the matches, so you might be able to see Michigan play then. I'd expect Penn State (if they participate, they didn't participate in the Big Ten Tournament for 15s rugby this fall) and Ohio State to perform the best in August simply because of their experience playing in the past two Collegiate Rugby Championships.

On a side note, the only good thing that I could see from not having an NFL season is that more people might watch the Rugby World Cup in September and hopefully help the sport grow. I played football for 6 years and I've played rugby the past 3, and I must say, rugby truly is the greatest sport to play. I could see why many people would prefer to watch football, but choosing between the two to actually play, there's nothing like rugby!