The University of Colorado club rugby team’s spring season is underway. Their season will consist of five games. The team will play University of New Mexico, Northern Colorado, Central Washington, Wyoming and Colorado State.
Their season was supposed to start two weekends ago, but New Mexico forfeited the match, giving the Buffs a 1-0 start to their season.
(CU Independent Illustration/Josh Shettler)
The Buffs will travel to Ellensburg, Washington this weekend to play Central Washington for their game on Saturday, March 23.
Sophomore back Zachary Savage says that Central Washington could be a challenge for the Buffs.
“Our biggest competition will be Central Washington, who we have never played before, and who will be bigger and faster at almost every position, a team we will have to beat in execution,”Savage said.
Head coach Jim Snyder thinks that their biggest challenge will come from in-state teams.
“I think this year, Northern Colorado is going to really be on the rise,” Snyder said. “They had a really good recruiting class last year, so those guys are coming of age. Colorado State is always good because they get a lot of athletes up in Fort Collins. Those two games will be good tests for us.”
Savage says they are ready for any competition.
“After all the work our coaches have put into our practices during the offseason and preseason, I feel ready to compete with some of the best in the country,” he said.
Coach Snyder says that he scheduled some preseason games against strong men’s clubs to toughen the boys up.
“We scheduled a couple of really difficult preseason opponents, men’s clubs, which they are usually better skilled and more physical,” Snyder said. “We put them in that position where they had to rise to that challenge, so when they faced collegiate competition, it would be easier.
Senior back Brendan Cox says that playing the men’s clubs will help the team down the stretch of their season.
“Our coaches scheduled a very rough few scrimmages to prepare us for the season, playing multiple men’s clubs,” Cox said. “I feel that playing teams that have much higher skill levels in the preseason will benefit us during our season.”
Their coaches not only scheduled tough competition for their offseason, but made them work hard at practices, as well. Brendan Cox says that he thinks all this conditioning will make his team strong.
“Well, I can comfortably say that we may be the most fit team in our league this year,” Cox said. “The amount of conditioning we have done is amazing. In the four years of playing here, I think we are the most fit team.”
The Buffs will come back home and play their next game against the University of Wyoming on April 6 at 4:00 p.m. at Infinity Park.
Contact CU Independent Sports Editor Jillian Arja at Jillian.arja@colorado.edu.
