{"id":9902,"date":"2022-05-11T20:55:09","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T20:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2022\/05\/18\/furman-rugby-club-will-compete-for-collegiate-championship\/"},"modified":"2022-09-07T15:47:56","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T19:47:56","slug":"furman-rugby-club-will-compete-for-collegiate-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furman-rugby-club-will-compete-for-collegiate-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Furman Rugby Club competes for collegiate championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Furman University Rugby Club<\/a> claimed third place in its division during the USA Rugby 7s Collegiate Championship<\/a> last weekend in Georgia.<\/p>\n

The event, which took place at Fifth Third Stadium on the campus of Kennesaw State University May 14-15, was sanctioned by USA Rugby and its collegiate council as the official national collegiate championship weekend of the sport of rugby sevens in the United States. Rugby sevens is a variant of rugby with seven players a side playing two seven-minute halves, instead of the traditional matches of 15 players a side playing two 40-minute halves.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll in all, we had an amazing experience, and the players were able to establish some lifelong memories,\u201d said Mike Miller, the team\u2019s head coach.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jackson King \u201922 (left) and Jack Hoffman \u201924 (take the field during a rugby match in fall 2021.<\/p><\/div>\n

Competing in the Men\u2019s Blue Division, the Paladins lost to the University of Memphis Tigers during the tournament semifinals Sunday afternoon. The University of Southern California Trojans were the Men\u2019s Blue champions, defeating Memphis 29-7.<\/p>\n

The Furman club was cheered on by roughly 40 people from what Miller called \u201cthe Dins Rugby Nation\u201d \u2013 Furman rugby alumni and parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough we had a very strong season, this invitation is more than a reflection of that,\u201d said Mike Miller, the team\u2019s head coach. \u201cOur invitation represents how well we have performed over the lifetime of our program and exemplifies how highly the rugby community values our sportsmanship.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the regular season, Furman reached the semifinals of two Southern Rugby Conference tournaments, losing narrowly both times. Over the past four full seasons between 2017 and 2021, the sevens team compiled a record of 78-31<\/a> for a winning percentage of 72% and has finished in second place in the Southern Rugby Conference three times, says Miller.<\/p>\n

The tournament included 60 men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams from around the country across three divisions. The championship was broadcast live on NBC and CNBC on May 14 and 15 from 2 to 4 p.m.,<\/a> with additional coverage streamed on Peacock both days from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

The school\u2019s rugby club has \u201cthe best team culture in any sport that I have played,\u201d said Jack Hoffman \u201924, a politics and international affairs major from Babylon, New York. \u201cI\u2019ve learned more about focus and effort in the past season that I have learned all throughout my athletic career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of this would be possible without the hard work, effort and commitment from everyone from 1998 to 2022 that pulled on the Furman jersey to compete,\u201d said Miller. \u201cWe hope that all of our rugby alumni feel connected to this invitation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Furman University Rugby Club claimed third place in its division during the USA Rugby 7s Collegiate Championship last weekend in Georgia. The event, which took place at Fifth Third […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,24,25,27,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-administrative","category-athletics","category-rugby","category-student-life","category-top-four-news-1st-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}