PSU, Temple Ready for Rugby Sevens

With the USA Sevens Collegiate Rugby Tournament this weekend teams are finishing their final practices and preparations as they eagerly await their first-round match-ups.

The top college rugby programs in the country will take the pitch weekend at PPL Park in Chester, Pa., and they all have their own stories and journeys for how they arrived there.

In-state powerhouses Penn State and Temple headline the local hopes for rugby glory.

Both Penn State’s Men’s and Women’s teams will represent their university this weekend and each team is expected to face its share of challenging and intriguing opponents in the tournament.

“I feel our Pool is the toughest in the tournament,” said Penn State Men’s Assistant Coach Joseph Pullara, whose team is grouped with Ohio State, Louisiana State and reigning National Champions Cal-Berkeley. “Ohio State and LSU have some outstanding athletes and rugby players on their respective clubs that would make for a very challenging pool play. For instance Ohio State has a couple cross athletes from their football team on the squad and LSU has Rugby All-American level players.”

Penn State has had a rivalry with Ohio State rugby that dates back since before Penn State’s entrance into the Big Ten, and they competed against LSU and Cal last year in the Collegiate 15’s National Championship, which Cal won.

“Cal is the National Powerhouse of Collegiate rugby and sets the standard that we try to compete with,” explains Pullara. “It will certainly be a team effort for us this year.”

While the Men’s team is off to compete against a collegiate rugby giant, the Penn State Women’s team is itself a leader within the sport. The Women’s team, which won back-to-back titles in the 2009 and 2010 seasons, is looking for a rematch against Army, who it competed against in the 2011 collegiate National Championships, losing in the finals, 33-29.

Most fans are expecting the Lions to go deep in the tournament and eventually meet Army, and the team is confident that it will have a chance to face the Black Knights again.

“We have one of the best programs in the country,” boasts Women’s Head Coach Peter Steinberg. “We’re looking forward to our first opportunity to play Sevens, especially having had time to practice since Nationals.”

While Coach Steinberg concedes that his team may be lacking in speed, it is still full of top-level players, and he has every confidence in them to go far.

“Eastern Pa. is one of the best areas in the country for high school female players,” says Steinberg, “There are much more leagues here and the area produces players who come to Penn State specifically to play rugby.”

This is still somewhat of a phenomenon in college rugby, where often players are athletes who are currently in the off-season of their “main sport”.

While he couldn’t be more proud of his team to this point, Coach Steinberg says “We’re still looking to get better, to improve.”

However, not all local teams are coming into the tournament as favorites, and the Temple Owls are among them.

“All eyes are on us,” says Temple Head Coach John Sciotto, “No one’s giving us much of a chance, we’re definitely an underdog.”

While the Temple Men’s Rugby does not have the administrative support that is enjoyed by the large state schools taking part in the tournament, they have something else that powers them.

“They never quit on each other, they play as one,” says Sciotto.

Coming from a smaller school, the team has been proving itself since Day One.

“There’ve definitely been peaks and valleys to our season,” says Sciotto. “But the players are excited for a chance to prove themselves.”

For this team, coming together in the face of adversity is nothing new. The memory of Josias Sterling, who died in Ocean City following his freshman year, is still in the hearts and minds of his teammates.

“Half of our players played with him, some were even high school teammates with him,” says Sciotto, as he explains how unfettered spirit of his players allows them to succeed not only in rugby, but in life.

“These players are committed. They’re on life journeys.”

Men’s Rugby Sevens action kicks off Saturday morning as Penn State takes on LSU at PPL Park starting at 9:58.

Tickets for both days of action are still on sale or available at the door.