Women’s rugby club formed
Washington University has a new club sports team this fall, and it’s not about to back down from anybody.
On October 7th, the WU women’s rugby club, founded by president Emily Vance, was formally sanctioned as an official club team.
Women’s rugby is played with the same rules and the same intensity of the men’s game. It is a full-contact sport with plenty of tackling and hard-hitting. No pads are worn by the players, and injury is always a risk.
The fledgling team is led by coach Jen Doman, a WU graduate student in East Asian Studies. The team consists primarily of sophomore students with a few juniors, one senior and one freshman. Doman, a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, competed in women’s rugby while a student at UCSB and later coached at the school as well. Doman faces a new challenge in coaching this team, though, as the players are all rugby rookies.
“I hope to have the girls really learn the game and understand what rugby is all about and start a tradition of women’s rugby here at WU,” said Doman.
She will not be alone in her coaching of the new team, however. Three members of the WU men’s rugby club team will assist her with coaching duties.
The team will scrimmage for the first time on November 2nd against a local St. Louis-area women’s rugby club team. Because there is no official college division for women’s rugby teams to compete in, the team will play solely against other colleges’ club teams, as well as club teams from around the area.
The team’s actual season will begin in the spring, and games will all be played on the Forest Park rugby fields. In the meantime, the team will be practicing three times a week for two hours to build familiarity with the game.
While there is not yet divisional college women’s rugby, individual players can still advance on to higher levels of competition as their skills progress, with the United States national team being the highest level. The United States’ women’s team is currently ranked number-two in the world behind only New Zealand.
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