Women's rugby sweeps through British tour in preparation for spring season

Many Princeton teams take lengthy road trips to the South and to the West during Spring Break to play against strong competition in preparation for the upcoming season. With that objective in mind the women's rugby team travelled East — to England — to take on some of the top clubs in the country that invented the sport.

While England is a popular tourist destination, these women were not there to take in the countryside or to gawk at the Tower of London. They were there to play some serious rugby against three quality opponents — and emerged victorious from each game.

"It's a real training trip for us," senior captain Liz Bogel said. "[England] is a place where we can really focus on rugby."

The team arrived in England Friday, March 10 for its six-day stay and didn't waste much time — the team held practice that very day. Saturday, however, the team got a full dose of English rugby.

Following a morning practice, all 32 members of the squad watched a professional rugby match between London Irish and Bath. Following the game, Dan Lyle, an American rugby star who plays for Bath, posed for photos with the team, and signed multiple autographs. That night, Princeton took on Royal Veterinary College London, a team that had recently won the London college rugby championship.

By design, RVCL was supposed to be the easiest game of the trip, coming just a day after the team arrived. For this reason, head coach Alex Curtis used a young lineup for the match. The jet-lagged Tigers were a bit surprised by the skill of RVCL, allowing two tries from the home side's star fly-half. Princeton's overall speed, however, proved to be too much for RVCL as the Tigers won 22-12.

The next day, the team travelled to Oxford to take on Bedford — normally one of the top five teams in England. Despite Bedford's size advantage and rough play, Princeton shut out its host, 29-0.

"Bedford has some big players," Curtis said. "[Bedford was] much more physical than RVCL. It was a really hard-fought game — tough from beginning to end. We took advantage of our scoring chances."

The battle-scarred Tigers — Bedford's bruising play had led to some Princeton injuries — practiced all of Monday and Tuesday morning, before taking on Oxford, the reigning British collegiate champions.

"There are not too many sports that Oxford and Princeton can compete in," Curtis said. "It's nice to see these two institutions [on the field] together."

Oxford would prove to be the best side that Princeton had seen all year. The Tigers were seldom tested during their fall season in which they were undefeated and not scored upon.

On a windswept pitch, Princeton prevailed, 8-5, with junior wing Audrey Ellerbee scoring the lone Tiger try on a weakside play following a scrum in the second half. About 15 minutes before the end of the game, junior fly-half Katie Schweighofer kicked a penalty following an offsides call against Oxford to provide the winning margin.