Although it’s gaining popularity, rugby does not hold nearly as much space in the United States as it does in most of the rest of the world. But, the sport is indescribably important to the Michigan State men’s rugby club.
MSU Men’s Rugby is a rugby club that competes in the Big Ten division of the College Rugby Association of America (CRAA). The club is split up into three teams to accommodate a wide range of skill and commitment levels. The A-Side and B-Side regularly compete in Big Ten play, but there is also a social side for more casual players.
Just because a sport isn’t one of the big four sports in America doesn’t mean it’s nonexistent—just ask the 61 Spartans who took to the pitch during the fall semester for the team—but, two Spartans found their love for the sport on the other side of the world.
Spartan scrum-half Ndi Sibanda grew up surrounded by rugby in his hometown of Harare, Zimbabwe. Sibanda said he started playing the sport basically as soon as he could walk, and during his sophomore year at Michigan State, he decided to join the club team.
“The big thing about rugby is it's more than just a game,” Sibanda said. “It’s actually like a community. When I joined the team, or when I wanted to, I was enjoying my time at Michigan State. But, joining a team, you formulate that community of people. You see them basically five times a week. You all practice together, you have matches together and everything. And, I wanted the community feeling but in a smaller place and in like a team sense—not like the university community feeling—I wanted a more personal feeling.”
The club team wrapped up a successful fall season of rugby 15s back in December, and they are now gearing up for their rugby sevens spring season. The big difference between the two seasons is the number of people on the pitch—15s has 15 players and sevens has seven.
During the fall season, MSU men’s rugby logged six wins, clinched the Big Ten East championship and ended the fall nationally ranked No. 20 by the USA CRAA National Committee Poll.
Michigan State scrum-half Fisher Nowick is from Dover, N.H., but he found his passion for rugby 10 years ago in England when his dad relocated to the United Kingdom for work.
Nowick is now a sophomore at Michigan State and has been on the team for the past two years. His sentiment about joining the club is commonly echoed by his fellow teammates.
“My favorite part about being a Spartan is having the ability to step on the pitch with my brothers to represent green and white,” Nowick said.
All the members of the MSU men’s rugby club put hours and hours of hard work and dedication into training that can go unnoticed because the sport isn’t formally by university Athletics. But, they had a chance to prove themselves in the fall during the Big Ten championship match against six-time champion Indiana.
“Sometimes people just think ‘Oh, it's like a club team, they probably aren't doing anything, they're messing around, they don't really care—stuff like that,’” Sibanda said. “But we do put in a lot of work…The chance of competing against other schools that are fully funded—because in the championship game, we played against Indiana and they have a fully funded rugby program…Still, being in the situation where we get to compete against all these different universities and all these different schools that are putting way more resources into it. I think that's kind of just one thing I'd like people to know. We do put in the work, even though we are not fighting with the same resources.”
The Spartans ultimately fell to the Hoosiers, but their accomplishments to get to that championship game were huge for the program.
After their strong fall season, the spring rugby sevens season for the MSU Men’s Rugby Club starts in April after three months of practice without matches.