The Virginia men's rugby team, which first came together in the fall of 1999, recently completed its most successful season in team history. The squad finished with a No. 20 ranking nationally thanks to a 13-2 record, despite competing in Division I for the first time.
The team played in its last tournament of the season this past weekend at the Ed Lee Virginia State Championship in Richmond. Virginia started the tournament strong, beating Richmond, 15-0, and VMI, 13-3. Despite a very solid effort, the team fell in the championship to Radford.
"Unfortunately, we ended up losing to Radford, 22-9, although the game was a lot closer than the scoreline reflects," senior flyhalf Brett Beckner said.
Virginia led 9-8 with 10 minutes remaining in a hard-fought defensive battle when Radford finally broke through the stout Virginia defense for a couple of late scores.
Despite its heartbreaking final loss to Radford, the Virginia rugby team is enthused by its success, attributing it to the work of the coaching staff and to team play.
Steve Guiffre has been the team's head coach since the fall of 2003, and he received help this year from new assistant coaches Jon Conrad and James Potter.
"Jon was instrumental in bringing our pack together this season," loose-head prop Jeff Todd said. "Because we never had more than one coach, it was great to have someone who knows the game take responsibility for conducting practice when we split up between forwards and backs."
The leadership and instruction of these coaches has helped guide the Virginia rugby team to its best season ever although many of the players are relatively new to the game. A good portion of the team consists of players who had never played rugby before going to college.
As a result, there are two teams: the A-side and the B-side. Virginia's more experienced and talented players play on the A-side and compete against other schools' best competition. The B-side provides a good opportunity for younger players to develop their skills and prepare for the better competition of the A-side. The players on the B-side also serve as the first reserves for the A-side, and many have contributed in games this season to the A-side.
"We have a group of solid athletes who seem to thoroughly enjoy themselves on the pitch," Beckner said of the B-side. "Their enthusiasm and dedication drove them on as they were constantly biting on the heels of the A-side team."
This competition drove the players on the A-side to step up their games and produce an amazing season despite not having an All-American for the first time in several years.
"One thing that is distinct about this team versus years past is that we don't have one huge weapon and several other key players surrounded by a team who just waits for them to make big plays," Todd said. "We had three years running of All-Americans, an extreme rarity for a D-II side, yet we were never as good as we are now."
The team concept certainly helped Virginia's rugby team this year. Its ability to have a scoring threat at every position made them unpredictable to opposing defenses. Combined with a stellar defense that allowed only 113 points in the entire season, Virginia was able to post wins over solid programs such as Maryland, North Carolina and Tennessee en route to its historic season.
The season is now over, though, and the Virginia rugby team next hits the pitch in the spring, when they will hold a number one seed in the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union Tournament. This comes as a result of finishing ahead of Virginia Tech in the past weekend's tournament.
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