Tigers accustomed to blood and mud

The Four Leafs Tournament began when one of the Tigers' four subs broke his ankle on the way to the bus. Nineteen players, with hardly any substitutes, faced four games on a pitch, or field, filled with dirt, sand, gravel and broken glass. These were the challenges facing the men's club rugby team when it began its spring season on March 19, yet the team overcame all of them and went home with the championship trophy.

In a sport that nearly guarantees a mouthful of dirt for every player by the end of the day, Princeton faced its treacherous pitch with the same stubborn resolve that it faced its four opponents. But for a team that has long lived in the shadow of the varsity athletics program — the team was founded in 1931 — surmounting difficulties was nothing new.

As a club sport, the rugby squad is relegated to practicing on the far reaches of West Windsor field across Lake Carnegie. But the team has no plans to seek varsity status, since the majority of the Tigers' players play rugby mainly because they enjoy the game — no one is recruited to play rugby at Princeton.

"It is really fun," junior co-captain Matt Ginivan said. "There is a lot of camaraderie. We get a lot of people who didn't want a varsity time commitment but wanted to play a sport."

Hard work ...

Though they play for fun, the Tigers still work extremely hard. For three or four days every week from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., the squad hits the West Windsor fields for conditioning, practicing everything from ball-handling to tackling.

"You're trying to wrap them up," Ginivan said about the type of tackling involved in rugby. "You can't just throw yourself at them, but we do have a knack for getting injured."

Once a player is downed, unlike in football, he must immediately release the ball in order to keep the game moving. Therefore, the team spends a lot of time learning the essential skill of rucking, in which the bigger players form a barrier around their downed teammate so the scrum half can retrieve the ball and continue bringing it down the pitch.

It may sound confusing — especially to Americans — but the sport is growing in popularity.

"Even though [rugby] is not anything like the standard or popularity of rugby in England (my home), it's performed on a surprisingly impressive scale," said former team captain senior Cameron Young, who received an honorable mention on the 2004 All-American Collegiate list.

Points are scored in either a try or a kick. A try, which is worth three points, is when the ball is run into the end zone and downed. A successful kick through a field goal earns two points after a try or three points during the regular game play.

The team is divided into different types of players. Forwards are generally the larger players who are important in the scrum and in rucking. Backs deal more with making sure the ball progresses up the pitch.

After dividing into specific positions and drills, the 20 to 25 team members come together at the end of practice for a chance to scrimmage.

... And the payoff

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The grueling practices paid off for the Tigers at the Four Leafs, their spring season opener.

After a fall season full of qualifying matches, the spring season is mainly comprised of regional and national championship tournaments. Princeton overcame one of its biggest rivals, the West Chester squad that beat them in the fall. It was a grueling day where most players got nearly three hours of playing time, yet Princeton won the championship trophy in the end.

"We just played out of our minds," Ginivan said.

This past weekend, the Tigers competed in the Ivy League Championship hosted at Penn. Though Princeton ultimately lost to the Quakers on a heartbreaking last-minute missed kick, 18-17, and then lost to Yale, the Tigers came back on the second day to crush Columbia, 31-5.

Though the squad was unable to defend its championship title from 2004, several Princeton players recorded impressive individual performances, as Ginivan and sophomore Nanso Maduka were named All-Ivy scrum half, and senior Al Brown made the All-Ivy second team.