Ohio State defensive back leads rugby club in preparation for nationals
By Kristen Levenick
[email protected]
Published: Monday, May 31, 2010
Ohio State rugby will play in the U.S. collegiate rugby championships hosted at the Columbus Crew Stadium Friday through Sunday.
The first-ever USA Sevens Collegiate Championship Invitational will consist of 16 teams from across the country, including fellow Big Ten schools Michigan and Penn State.
?Nobody has played an event like this in this country at the collegiate level ever,? OSU rugby coach Tom Rooney said. ?We know a lot about the athletes that are coming in, but we don?t know what kind of system they?re going to play. We don?t know what their style is going to look like, they don?t know what ours is going to look like, so this is interesting.?
Rooney is optimistic about how the Buckeyes will perform in the championships, but said the team is facing a few obstacles.
?The biggest thing that we?re struggling with currently is that we had a large graduation coming out of the fall, so we?ve got a lot of the younger players stepping up right now,? he said. ?Unfortunately those players? skills ? their passing, catching, their recognizing the opposition?s weaknesses and attacking them ? aren?t as highly progressed as we?d like them to be, and that?s holding us back a bit.?
Rooney said they?ve been working hard to build up those skills, but that they?re things that really take the whole season to ?polish off.?
Rooney said another difficulty will be tackling because the team?s size is comparatively small this season. Their goal during play will be to stay out of contact with bigger opponents, though it will surely be forced upon them.
Beyond the team?s struggles, the rugby team has welcomed Nate Ebner, an OSU football defensive back, to play with them in the championships.
Though Ebner walked on as a football player in college, he grew up playing rugby and went as far as playing for the U.S. National U19 and U20 teams.
Rooney said that while Ebner will be a great asset to the team, everyone on the field will need to play hard to be successful.
?Nate?s going to be a big part of what we do, but he?s not going to be able to do it by himself,? Rooney said.
