Northwestern Rugby
Northwestern Rugby is a competitive club sport at Northwestern University that competes in the collegiate division 2 level as accorded by the USARugby union. Northwestern Rugby's main season is during the fall, where it competes against various teams around the area such as Depaul, Loyola Chicago, Notre Dame, University of Illinois-Chicago, etc. in the CARFU league (Click Here). The squad, consisting of players with high level of prior experience in rugby to players who have never heard of rugby, welcomes all players to join if they are interested in pursuing a active and new sport at the collegiate level.
In fall of 2007, Northwestern Rugby, for first time since 1999, won the CARFU league cup by going undefeated in the regular season including close wins against rivals Loyola Chicago and Depaul. The squad fell in the first round of the Midwest playoffs to University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
After falling to Loyola in 2008 and settling for the CARFU runner-up spot, Northwestern Rugby rebounded in 2009 and defeated its league opponents by an average score of 44 to 9 to regain the CARFU cup and its 2nd in 3 years.
During the process, the team garnered its first ever national ranking via erugbynews.com by claiming the 24th spot. Despite falling in the first playoff match to Wisconsin-Platteville, Northwestern subsequently defeated Iowa in a nailbiter match of 36-32, which became the first win for a CARFU team in the playoffs in almost a decade.
The 2010 season brought in a new wave of leadership, with underclassmen stepping up to fill the void left by the outgoing senior class. Although the fall season ended with a somewhat disappointing .500 record, this season was viewed as one of rebuilding, with many ruggers playing new positions and some playing for the first time. This rebuilding culminated in an 84-22 victory over DePaul in the final game of the spring season, and the team hopes to bring this momentum into the 2011 Fall season, beginning in September.