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Syracuse club rugby head coach Bob Wilson stood with his hands in his pockets on the sideline intently watching his players run through their warmup drills. In the bitter early November air, he was impressed by his team. The Orange had recently clinched their second straight undefeated season, finishing first in their conference.

“All these guys exceeded my expectations. It astounds me,” junior captain Liam Hannah said.

Wilson — who first joined Syracuse’s rugby club as a player in the fall of 1970 — initially agreed to play as a favor to his friend, then graduate student Peter Baigent. The latter wanted to help develop rugby culture at SU. Upon finishing his college career, and after a brief return to his hometown in England, Wilson began coaching the Orange, a position he’s held for the past 41 years.

But this season, Syracuse’s team looked different than years past with several younger players who lacked experience in the sport and a steep learning curve for the newcomers, Wilson said.

“We started this league season with 50% of our team (or more) as freshmen and sophomores who had never played college rugby, so there was a lot of work to be done,” Wilson said.

The Orange don’t have any cuts on their team, but the squad plays 15s in the fall season. This form of rugby includes 15 players on each side, while SU plays 7s in the spring season. Both Wilson and forwards coach David DeSalvia welcomed the challenge of teaching incoming rookies the ins and outs of rugby.

“It’s like getting fresh clay,” DeSalvia said.

Syracuse’s underclassmen, molded by Wilson and DeSalvia, have largely lifted SU to win all six of its regular-season games. The Orange ended the fall season ranked first among seven teams in the Empire Division of the Liberty Rugby Conference.

Brady Thompson, a freshman from London, was one of SU’s best players this year. Thompson started playing rugby at six, but at Syracuse he had to adopt a new position. He now suits up at fly-half, the rugby equivalent of a quarterback.

Thompson said he hasn’t had the smoothest transition into his new role, but he finished the regular season in contention for a spot on the LRC’s all-conference team.

“We grew as a team this year, and it allowed me to be the best player I can be,” Thompson said.

Sophomore Joe Hamm was also a valued addition to the club’s 2021 season. Hamm played for the Northeast Rugby Academy before coming to Syracuse, wanting to play rugby at a higher level down the line. Hamm felt right at home as soon as he joined the squad as a freshman, he said.

“There’s just an overall great spirit throughout the entire team,” Hamm said.

Hamm uses his speed on the field to weave and juke past his opposition, which helped Syracuse in a comeback win against the Nazareth College Golden Flyers.

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“We really turned that game around after being down early,” Hamm said. “It was a huge team win for us.”

Besides competing on the turf and creating friendships, the club also spreads knowledge about rugby and draws attention to the growth of rugby within the community, Wilson said. Although Wilson recognizes that rugby is still far from being a staple favorite in the U.S., he was surprised by how the game has expanded since his playing days at Syracuse.

“The game is much much more organized,” Wilson said. “We (used to) sit outside Bird Library on a Saturday morning thinking where could we find an extra group of players.”

Thompson also saw more passion from players as they became more familiar with the sport.

“There’s a hunger to learn. A hunger to get better here. They (the team) really seem like they want to learn,” Thompson said.

Despite the team’s high levels of success, the club is still overshadowed by many other sports at SU. The strong values of brotherhood and welcomeness are unparalleled, though, Hannah said. Now boasting more than 60 players split between three different teams, the club hopes to have even more involvement in future seasons.

“We have some really talented kids overall, and it’s beginning to look like a real program,” Nick Merriam, the president of the Rugby Club, said. “Keep an eye on us. This is becoming something special.”

Published on November 8, 2021 at 10:54 pm

Contact Tyler: trschiff@syr.edu | @theTylerSchiff