Rugby team battles hard in final game of the season
Catherine Rogers
Staff Writer
This past Saturday, the Bryan College Rugby Football Club played its final match of the season at Lee University (Cleveland, Tenn.). Before the game had even begun, things didn’t go as planned.
While Lee took the victory, it was one of toughest matches the Bryan Rugby Club has ever fought against the University. Photo courtesy of Lana Douglas.
“Lee is going through some transitions as far as coaches and secretaries and so they didn’t really have good communication with us,” said Phillip Kohler, president of the Bryan Rugby Club. “They didn’t tell us where the field was until the night before the game.”
Michael Palmer, associate professor of communications and the rugby club’s faculty sponsor, drove to Lee University on Friday evening to find the playing field, according to Kohler.
“He even got the police to try and take him to where the rugby fields were, and they couldn’t find them [at the university] because the fields where we played were 10 minutes north of Cleveland,” said Kohler.
However, the surprises didn’t end there. When the Lions arrived at the game, Lee forfeited the game. They did so for three reasons according to senior Josh Jones, the team’s lock. They had no official referee, the field was not appropriately marked and they allowed alumni as well as their coach to play in the game.
“They pulled in some really big 25-26 year old guys and so it quickly became just one of those informal rugby games—let’s get out and have fun—which would have been fine if they had just communicated that ahead of time,” said Kohler. “We could have pulled in some alumni too and had some extra players and just had some fun with it.”
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