Hey folks, this is the first of many posts about the women's rugby team at Clarion University in Clarion, PA. Clarion is located in the western portion of the state about an hour north of Pittsburgh. The rugby team is a club sport at Clarion, meaning they are not sponsored by the university, but are instead sponsored by the local VFW. Jerseys for the team were donated by the Army National Guard. There are a vast array of majors on the team from biology to education to art.
This past weekend they played a game at IUP (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) and lost...but they won the first time that they played IUP this year. It was a great game 17-15. And if you have never gone to see a rugby game you may want to consider it. It is a full contact sport and unlike football there are no pads whatsoever. The bruises that I have seen on these ladies are pretty ridiculous. My friend got a concussion at the last game when someone basically cleated her in the face! Pads are for your panties ladies!!
Seriously though this is a great group of girls who give back to the community and play hard but work harder to get where they are. They have a pretty good chance of making districts this year and have been kicking butt and taking names all season to win that opportunity. Hopefully the spring season is just as good (that is another thing, they play year round). These are tough girls that take their team seriously. The next post will be about the rules for the game of rugby if you folks do not already know. It is a pretty complicated game. The positions are much much different from the postions in football even though some of them sound similar.
