Thanks for the kind words Steve. I think you hit the nail on the head. There just isn't much incentive for young kids to play rugby over football and other sports. The sport in general fights a stigma of being a drinking game and many parents are concerned about injuries, although you are as likely to get hurt playing baseball or basketball as you are rugby. Granted, there are certain social benefits that come with the sport, but OSU, along with most the other teams that compete for the national title take the game very seriously. We train as hard as any other team at the school and these players often make many sacrifices, especially financially, to participate in the sport that other athletes don't have to. Ohio, along with many states out west, is on the cutting edge as far as youth programs go. We are working hard to develop young rugby players that appreciate the athletic nature of the sport. The US is way ahead of the normal curve...if you look at where we were 150 years after the creation of soccer versus where we are 150 years after the creation of rugby, rugby is way ahead. But the truth is that any one of the Super 12 teams (the equivalent of the NFL) could probably easily defeat our national side. We have a long way to go, but rugby players are typically some of the most committed athletes in the world.
Here is how the Sweet 16 is shaping up...we potentially have a tough second game ahead of us. We play St. Mary's at 11:00 AM on Saturday and with a win would play for the pool championship at 1:00 PM on Sunday. The four winners of the pool play will meet on April 29th at Stanford.
Men's DI College Brackets
April 4, 2005 – With the territorial championships concluded throughout the country, following are the matchups for the men's DI national championships.
Note first of all that not every GoffonRugby Top 20 team is represented, as Oklahoma was, as expect, eliminated by Air Force, and Washington lost a tight one to BYU. Sacramento State and Texas A&M were also teams not able to break through their very competitive TU opposition.
Pool A, Berkeley, Calif. April 16-17
Cal (ranked #1 in GoffonRugby Top 20) v. Minnesota
Dartmouth (#20) v. Tennessee (#13)
Pool D, Colorado Springs, Colo. April 16-17
Ohio State (#4) v. St. Mary's (#10)
Navy (#3) v. Air Force (#2)
Pool C, Colorado Springs, Colo. April 15-16
Penn State (#7) v. BYU (#6)
Clemson (#16) v. Army (#8)
Pool B, Santa Barbara, Calif. April 15-16
Utah (#5) v. Purdue (#14)
Wyoming (#12) v. UC Santa Barbara (#17)
