Collegiate rugby uses a system which, unlike college football, uses a playoff system to determine a national champion. Though reaching the 16-team playoff is no easy feat, the Virginia men’s rugby club has its sight set on this goal. With the leadership of coach Neil Livett, the Cavaliers believe they have a chance to reach this level in due time.
The team’s lackluster 4-5 start in the fall, however, has left Livett disappointed. The Cavaliers have several more games to play during the spring, but they will need to improve in several key areas to find success.
“I have very high expectations for this team,” Livett said. “They simply didn’t materialize.”
Livett attributes the team’s shortcomings to its difficulty with the line-out, an out-of-bounds play in which both teams line up parallel to each other and compete for the in-bounds pass. Virginia’s inability to retain possession on the line-out play “led to most of the defeats in the fall,” he said.
The Virginia rugby club’s challenges are more deep-seated than its on-field struggles can account for, though.
“Since a decade ago when rugby went professional, programs within the United States have changed dramatically with many universities running programs in a semi-varsity status,” Livett said. “That assists the sport because these colleges are constantly in the mix for the 16-team national championship picture.”
Though Livett hopes his team can reach this championship-caliber level of play, he points to various recruiting disadvantages Virginia faces — that perennial contenders have overcome — as the major sources of the Cavaliers’ struggles. “Arkansas State ... and [California-Berkeley] recruit worldwide because their programs are backed by the university,” Livett said. “They tend to acquire better players and higher academic players.”
Virginia rugby’s recruiting process is complicated by the lack of full institutional support that its competitors may receive. Livett currently relies on a two-tiered approach, recruiting students at the University who were varsity athletes in high school and also through an alumni system. He said he believes his efforts are hindered because the program exists only at the club status. Junior fullback and club president Chris Colliton said the team’s club-level status limits opportunities to raise funds, the value of a deeper connection with the University and the use of certain facilities and transportation. Increased public exposure, Livett said, could also help the program thrive.
“One thing that success on the rugby field would bring is increased awareness of the college to qualified foreign students — both academically and rugby playing — and also to the huge base of high school rugby players in the U.S.,” Livett said.
This focus on recruiting players who are both academically and athletically prepared to play at Virginia is of the utmost importance for Livett.
“I place a huge emphasis on scholarship,” Livett said. “It would be nice for the University to allow players to attend to their academic requirements but in a time scale that allows players to train every day. Currently, this keeps us from being effective.”
The team has conditioning five days per week, practices three evenings per week, holds pre-game run-throughs and plays most weekends.
Despite the disadvantages the team faces, Livett has improved the team’s situation in his two years as head coach.
“Four or five years ago, the program was locally based,” Livett said. “When I arrived, the club was promoted to the Division I Territorial Union. This step up from local to this level is a huge step, hence the building stage.”
The team hopes to continue to develop and build on the success of its four wins in the fall. Livett sees in his team the signs of a fundamentally sound, up-and-coming team that displayed its capability in a 1-point loss to then-No. 3 ranked Navy.
“We moved the ball around the field much better, increased our tackling quota,” Livett said. “And our restarts at the scrum were very strong.”
Because of the club’s slow start in the fall, only the first team will compete against other Division I schools that are not in the championship mix, while the second team will face local competition. Livett said he hopes the team’s tougher development track this spring will translate into success next fall and will prepare the club for a national championship run. To qualify for nationals, the team must finish in the top four in its region in the fall.
“We’re really going to try to get more of the younger guys experienced,” Colliton said. “We know we can finish in that top four.”
Such success cannot be achieved without team cohesion.
“Unlike in baseball and football — where you have star players — in rugby, it is a requirement that all 15 play together,” Livett said. “A single player cannot alone turn a game around — we’re getting that way.”
But perhaps most important for Livett is support from the student body.
“If the student population gets involved, that would help the team, improve recruitment and bring national attention,” Livett said.
Livett is a strong advocate for the sport and said he believes it is a very entertaining game — one that the student body should embrace.
“Rugby is a mix of soccer because it is territorial, basketball because of the frequent changes from attack to defense, the contact nature of football, together with the live-ball situation of wrestling,” Livett said.
It is telling that Livett described rugby as a conglomerate of common American sports; this may be the only medium through which many people can begin to understand the game. The rugby community acknowledges a sort of language barrier that often dampens interest in the sport.
“People tend to think of rugby as just a bloody game,” Colliton said. “It’s really a sophisticated game; once you learn the rules and see how it should be played, people really enjoy it.”
Many rugby insiders turn to football comparisons. “Football is five seconds of intense work split by periods of downtime,” Livett said. “Rugby is anywhere between five seconds to two minutes of intense work interspersed with a lot of running.”
Virginia rugby players will next enter the fray Feb. 4 against James Madison. Though the team’s fall season was mediocre, the Cavaliers will look to pass their recruiting hurdles and develop their rugby fundamentals so they can continue to remain competitive even while at the club sport level.
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