Men's rugby building towards Ivy title

Coming off of two successful seasons, the men's club rugby team has high expectations. Ivy League champions in 2004, the team lost last year in the semifinals to a Dartmouth team that went on to place eighth nationally.

The Big Green team that foiled the Tigers' aspirations last year lost 12 seniors, however, and Princeton looks primed to take back the title of Ivy League champion.

"All of that is looking pretty far ahead, but we are definitely optimistic about our chances," team captain and senior Mike Dreibelbis said.

Princeton isn't waiting for the other powerhouses of the Ivy League to fall down to their level, however. Many of the Tigers have stepped it up this year.

"You can tell that [junior] Kithinji Muriira, [sophomore] Benton Erwin and [junior] Phil Farinacci put in a lot of hard work over the summer," Dreibelbis said. "We graduated a lot of seniors last year, and these three have stepped up to fill their shoes."

The team has also benefited from the addition of new talent in the form of freshman standout Cameron McLain and Oxford exchange student Chris Copplestone.

It's a good thing the Tigers showed up for this season ready to play — qualification matches for the spring Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union began almost as soon as the players got to school. Princeton posted a win against TCNJ before losing to Temple, giving them a 1-1 record to start the Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Union (EPRU) schedule.

This .500 start sets up a crucial match against perennial rival Penn. Two years ago, the Quakers beat Princeton to keep the Tigers out of the playoffs. Last year, the Tigers returned the favor by defeating Penn in both of their meetings. This year's matchup already has postseason implications.

"The game will probably decide which one of the two of us go to the playoffs," Dreibelbis ominously predicted.

Unlike most club sports, which have an accompanying varsity team, the club represents the highest level of collegiate rugby. Most players were either varsity football or soccer athletes in high school, though a few played rugby there as well. The sport requires an incredible amount of endurance — games last 80 minutes with very few breaks. Unlike American football, there is no scrimmage; play is continuous. Club rugby isn't a retirement league for washed-up varsity athletes; it's the show itself.

Founded by a pair of British graduate students in 1931, the Princeton Rugby Football Club posted a number of early successes. In its inaugural season, the club defeated both Harvard and Yale twice. In 1934 the team went undefeated — with the exception of a loss to touring giant Cambridge University. By 1960, the club had become recognized as a national and even international force. In 1959 and 1960 the Tigers pulled off consecutive undefeated seasons and in 1962 they won the first Commonwealth Cup tournament. In 1969 the club pulled off the trifecta – winning the Ivy League tournament, Easterns and the prestigious Washington Seven tournament.

In recent years, the club has settled into a comfortable niche. Though it's not a powerhouse, the team consistently does well at regional tournaments and occasionally makes it to the national championship tournament. Princeton last placed in the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union in 2001 and picked up the EPRU title in 2001.

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As for the future, the Tigers take on the University of Delaware on Saturday in a home game at West Windsor Field. The following weekend, the Tigers travel to the Penn for the most important match of the fall schedule.

The club closes out the month of October with a two-legged tournament to decide the champion of the EPRU. Whether the club participates in the more prestigious Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football League is based entirely on its performance over the next few weeks. In either case, the club will still have the opportunity to participate in regional tournaments such as the Philadelphia College Cup.

"For now we're just focused on getting through our EPRU schedule...but we'd really like to make a run at another Ivy League championship," Dreibelbis said.

Like the game itself, it should be a hard and bruising road — but no one signs up for the sport without expecting a fight.