The glory days under the lights on a Friday night are over for you. Nick Saban never called you to play football for the Tigers on Saturday nights. But you still want to bust skulls. Meet the LSU rugby team.
In existence since 1970, the LSU men’s rugby team is one of the most popular club sports on campus with more than 50 members.
The club plays in the Texas Rugby Union, equivalent to the Southeastern Conference in the NCAA, club president Chris Shinners said. The major competitors in the union include Texas A&M, University of Texas, Rice and Sam Houston.
“[Texas] A&M is our biggest rival,” Shinners said. “They are the toughest school. I haven’t beaten them since I’ve been here. We’ll go back and forth with [Texas]. Every now and then we’ll tie Rice. We haven’t played Sam Houston, they just entered our division.”
The season for the team runs from mid-fall to mid-spring, starting Sept. 20.
“We don’t play until [Sept.] 20th against Tulane,” Shinners said. “Our first big, big game is not until the 25th of October and that’s against [Texas] A&M.”
The team hosts the Mardi Gras tournament annually, which runs the weekend prior to Fat Tuesday. Approximately 20 teams usually attend the festivity, Shinners said, and come from as far away as South Dakota. Last season, LSU lost in the finals to the team from South Dakota.
In the Texas Rugby Union last season, the team finished tied for second place with Texas, but failed to reach the playoffs due to a tiebreaker with the Longhorns.
“The second time they played us, they beat us by more points,” Shinners said. “So they went to the playoffs and we didn’t. It was the first year we haven’t made the playoffs since I’ve been playing.”
The team is coached by Slidell, La. native Brad Hudson, an LSU graduate and former rugby player at LSU.
Hudson said even though the team failed to reach the playoffs last year, his expectations for this season are higher than ever.
“We really think with the numbers we have out and the returners we have out that we have a chance to win the championship this year,” Hudson said. “To get a high seed, we have to finish first or second in Texas, and we really want to get first this year.
For more information on the LSU rugby team, go to the team’s website, www.lsurugby.com.