Volume CXXXII, Number 2 September 20, 2002 f

Ruggers sluggin'
ALLIE YANIKOSKI
STAFF WRITER

"Dangerous… athletic… successful:" as proclaimed by senior co-captain Dave Kirkland, these words describe Men's Rugby at Bowdoin College.

At the close of the 2001 season, the Men's Rugby team was ranked in the top 16 teams in Division II nation-wide. The Polar Bears successively capped their undefeated regular season by claiming the Down East Conference Championship, a second place finish in the New England Regionals, and a narrow loss to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in the final round of the Northeast Tournament-one step away from the Nationals.

"We're a successful team," says Kirkland. And despite graduating nearly 20 seniors last spring, senior co-captain Dennis Kiley says, "I feel that we have the pieces to actually improve on last year's performance."

Continuing, Kiley says, "Our scrimmage [last Saturday] against Bates, which we won, showed that we not only have the players and talent to have a very successful season, but that there are obviously parts of the game that we need to improve upon as well."

With 15 first-year players picking up the sport for the first time, Kirkland agrees with Kiley that last week's scrimmage aided the inexperienced and the veteran players in "learning what the sport is about," and "shaking off the rust."

However, Kirkland says that "this year's team is more athletic than last year's team, and after we get over the hump we will be just as dangerous as last year."
At this point, however, the rugby team is more concerned with teaching the mechanics of the game to the younger players.

Kirkland refers to this process as "trial by fire," where the new players are "just trying to find their way around the field."

The season officially begins for the Polar Bears this Saturday, September 21, at home versus Plymouth State. With only five regular season games, the last scheduled game is also at home on October 19 against Colby.