Rugby is a full contact sport, and at times can be physically draining and mentally exhausting.
Athletes in this sport can wind up nearly trampled at the bottom of a scrum or sent flying after a menacing hit from an opposing player. Bruises and blood are almost a sure consequence of rugby competition.
That doesn’t slow down the women of MSU’s Rugby Club. Many of the girls on the team have played rugby in the past.
Meg Piavis, a senior majoring in studio art, as well as the captain for the forwards unit of the team, is one of them.
“I have been around rugby my entire life,” Piavis said. “Back in high school we had a club team that we played, and I came to MSU looking for the rugby team.”
Taylor Stablein, a psychology senior and the backs captain, said that the team she has been a part of the last four years is always competitive in either season.
“We do play all of the Big Ten schools in the fall,” Stablein said. “It’s our more competitive season. In the springtime we play the smaller schools, but we go to big tournaments.”
But it’s not just the competitive spirit which brings these girls together. From simply viewing a practice, it is easy to tell the team is very close to each other.
“This rugby team in particular, we are a big family,” Piavis said. “We fight, we defend each other, we laugh, we cry, all this crazy stuff. When I do anything outside of class, it’s with the rugby team. We are always around each other, even when it’s not practice.”
Corrine Devlin, actuarial science senior and head coach of the rugby team, is in the middle of a transition from being a player on the squad to coaching both newcomers and former teammates alike.
“I played for about eight years,” Devlin said. “This is my first year coaching. The whole time I’m just yelling on the sideline, and none of them hear me during the game, but I always end up losing my voice over the weekend.”
Despite it being her first year in charge, Devlin said the team is coming together nicely despite an early season defeat at the hands of the Indiana Hoosiers last weekend.
“It looked really well,” Devlin said. “Even the sir (the referee) complimented us on how well we played as a team. We just kinda got to find our groove and stick with it.”
The club offers an unparalleled athletic and extracurricular experience and urges people to discover the reasons for being a part of the toughest sport you will ever love. Even newcomers are accepted into the women’s rugby family.
“I really like everybody that I met on the team a lot — we are all pretty close,” Stablein said. “And our rookies are pretty cool I guess too.”
The women’s rugby team is currently 2-2, and plays Notre Dame this Saturday at the Service Road fields.
