BY JIMMY GILLIGAN | The Statesman Playing in the Division II rugby 15s National Championship final four this weekend, the UMD men’s club rugby team (9-0) has a chance to not only go undefeated but win their third consecutive 15-man championship.
After winning the 2013 and 2014 Division II national championships, the Fighting Penguins are back in familiar territory. They ran the table on the Northern Lights Conference regular season and have reached the final four for the fourth consecutive year.
“All I’ve known here is winning so far. I haven’t had that feeling of defeat (and) I don’t plan on feeling it,” senior co-captain Trace Bolstad said.
After grinding through the elite eights last weekend while several inches of snow fell in Des Moines, Iowa, they travel to Greenville, South Carolina this weekend for the final two playoff rounds.
They will face a familiar foe in the round of four: Salisbury University (Maryland).
The Salisbury Sharks beat the Fighting Penguins in the 15’s championships in 2012. Since then, UMD hasn’t lost a playoff game.
“When I came in my freshman year (2012) the 15’s finals were actually in the spring,” senior co-captain Luc Desroches said. “We lost to Salisbury that spring and then USA Rugby changed the championships to the fall and we beat them in the playoffs that same year. So we have a rivalry going with Salisbury.”
Like UMD, Salisbury has a simple, smash-mouth style of rugby, where they use brute strength to possess the ball and move it up field. Although their possession style has been successful, it has still drawn outside criticism.
“That’s how we’ve been critiqued throughout my time here, (they say) ‘UMD, they have a very simple style of play.’ And yeah, we’ll stay simple until someone can prove they can stop us,” Desroches said.
One potential advantage the Fighting Penguins have in their matchup against Salisbury is that the Sharks’ style is to try and force mistakes out of their opposition.
“Salisbury kicks a lot, they play more of a field position game,” senior co-captain Trace Bolstad said. “They trust their kicker to pin us in our end and then make tackles, so they’re pretty defense-heavy, relying on the other team to make mistakes which I think plays into how we play.”
Salisbury isn’t the only team in the final four that the Fighting Penguins have a history with. On the other side of the bracket is the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, a team that UMD doesn’t face in the regular season but has several times in the playoffs over the past few seasons, including in last year’s championship game.
The chance at a third consecutive 15’s title is what the UMD Rugby Club has been training for since mid-August. Two wins this weekend would give the Fighting Penguins respect as one of the top Division II rugby programs in the nation.
“We’ve definitely begun to establish this program, we’ve been in the national scene the past four years,” Desroches said. “Now we’re just trying to cement our names into the history books and continue to be a program, and not just a one-year team.”
Whatever happens, the Fighting Penguins will have all winter to muse over it. After the 15-man season, there is a three-month gap before the spring 7-man rugby season kicks off.