Though the men’s rugby team is one of the oldest club sports on campus — it has been around since 1965 — the 2008-09 team can best be described as young and inexperienced.  During the course of the fall season, the team went 6-6 while losing both matches to rival East Carolina as well as having a disappointing finish in both the State Tournament and Rucktoberfest.  According to Will Teague, a junior in industrial engineering and a center on the team, they are getting better but are not quite where they need to be.”The desire is there, the talent is there, just not the experience yet,” Teague said.Similar sentiments were expressed by the coaching staff.”We’ve been really progressing over the past couple of weeks,” assistant coach Matt McCullough said. “The guys have been showing good sportsmanship and applying what they have been taught.”According to the coaching staff, one of the major reasons for the club’s average play and last place standing in their division is the youthfulness of the team.”We have got a very young team.  I would say the average age of our players is sophomore year,” McCullough, an alumnus, said.  He went on to say that while they may be young, they do possess the skills necessary to compete. “Even though we are young, we still do have a lot of athleticism, and the guys want to play,” McCullough said.   The Wolfpack won the State Championship just two years ago, beating ECU, Appalachian State and UNC Chapel Hill.  But this year, the team has not been so fortunate.  “Our level of play is still not where we want it to be at,” team captain Phillip “Yoshi” Burcal said.  State currently holds a division II status, unlike some teams in the ACC such as North Carolina and Virginia.  While this may affect funding for the team, the players do not let it influence their level of play.  “There is some very good rugby in the state of North Carolina,” McCullough said.  “Our first step is to succeed at [division II] and then move our way up.”  While the fall was not quite what the team had hoped for, they intend to compete at a higher level in the spring.  “Going into the spring, we can definitely expect to get better,” Teague said.  “A lot of young guys got some much needed experience.”The spring season is when the Pack will compete in conference play, also known as “matrix matches.”  They will compete against teams such as Wake Forest and Appalachian State.  This Saturday, the Pack will host East Carolina on the lower Miller Field.  According to Teague, this match will be a measurement for how much the team has improved.”ECU will be our test,” Teague said. “We played them twice in the fall, so we will see how we do against them.”