Men’s rugby begins season today in Southern California

This article was published in the BYU Daily Universe on January 18th, 2011

The BYU men’s rugby team begins its season today with a series of tough games in southern California.

The team looks to make it to the national championship game this year for the sixth season in a row. But this year they will have to do it with a different cast of players.

The team returns all four of its first-team All-Americans this season, including captain Ryan Roundy, a junior from Holladay, and vice-captain Dylan Lubbe, a junior from South Africa. But the real question this year concerns the 10 new recruits.

Roundy said the recruits seem to be fitting in quite nicely.

“We’ve been very impressed by all of the good recruits,” he said. “They’re already on-the-field leaders, they’re not normal freshmen. ”

This weekend, the team is hoping to find out where they are and how far they have to go this season to reach their goals, Lubbe said. The team has trained hard during the fall semester and after winter break put in even more hours.

David Smyth, head coach of BYU rugby for 20 years, echoed Lubbe’s sentiments and said he looks “to build a good solid foundation to springboard to the rest of the season.”

Even with the talented recruits and returning All-Americans, Lubbe said the the team is taking a humble approach into the season.

“We’re not predicting anything, but we obviously have some high expectations for the team,” Lubbe said. “We just want to stay on track and do our best.”

Today BYU’s first team will take on Claremont College in Claremont, Calif., for its first game of the season, and the first match ever between the two programs. Claremont boasts a strong team after winning the Division II national championship last year against Temple, and will be looking to start its season with a win. The game will start at 5 p.m.

On Saturday the Cougars will travel to San Diego for a 3 p.m. game against San Diego State, whom BYU beat in 2009 in the semifinals and last year in Provo.

BYU’s second team will also get a chance to play the University of San Diego on Friday and the San Diego State second team on Saturday.