Point Loma Nazarene University has welcomed a new club for the 2024 school year: women’s rugby. Men’s rugby has been at PLNU, but thanks to third-year nursing major Reaves Dayton, third-year multimedia journalism major Sydney Brammer and fourth-year men’s rugby club president Chris Lynch, competitive women’s rugby is on the horizon.
The men’s rugby team has been around since 2001 and competes in the Gold Coast Conference Intercollegiate Rugby. The team plays against local schools and teams, including San Diego State University, University of California San Diego and the University of San Diego. Lynch is in his third year as the president of the club. The club is coached by Robert McFadyen, a longtime rugby coach.
Brammer and Dayton went on a LoveWorks trip to New Zealand over the summer, where they were introduced to rugby. Brammer said they would play during their free time on the trip and grew fond of the sport. Brammer credits Dayton with the initial idea of bringing the sport to PLNU.
“I’ve got to give it all to Reaves,” Brammer said. “Rugby’s the number one sport there [New Zealand]. Me and Reaves were like, ‘We could do this.’ It seemed like this dream of being able to play the sport and now it seems like it actually is going to happen.”
At Lomaland (formerly known as Bobby B’s Birthday Bash), Lynch said Dayton approached him and the men’s rugby stand to inquire about forming a women’s rugby club.
“We held sign ups at the club fair and got over 70 sign ups and thus, the team was born,” Lynch said.
According to Lynch, the plan for the women’s team is to compete in a seven-on-seven league against other local schools, similar to the way the men’s team does. As of now, the men’s and women’s teams are merged as one club. If the women’s team is to start competing in a league, they’ll have to split and become their own club. But first, they must get enough girls on the roster.
“We need at least 10 girls,” Brammer said. “Right now, we don’t have a set number I would say, because we’re still trying to learn the sport. Then we can all register and pay the registration fee to become a team. Our coach has us scrimmaging but we need the [10] girls.”
Until the team has the numbers to play competitively, they’ll continue practicing and scrimmaging. Lynch said the men’s and women’s team practice together on Sundays, and individual team practices are planned separately throughout the week.
Of the girls signed up thus far, one of them has rugby experience. Arwen Martin, a fourth-year biology major, played rugby in high school. Though she’s excited to be playing her sport and bring it to a new place, the experience itself is a bit different.
“The practices are super fun but definitely structured,” Martin said via email. “I played touch rugby in high school so learning tackle is pretty different. Reaves and Sydney are the two awesome co-captains and they are doing an amazing job … The sport is getting more attention too and I see a lot of girls really loving it and leaning into the community.”
Lynch is excited about the growth of rugby at PLNU and progress that’s been made.
“It’s awesome,” Lynch said. “Coming into my sophomore year as the first year heading the rugby club I really didn’t know what to expect. To see huge success from the guys’ program and now a girls team being added on, it’s great to see from a rugby standpoint but also as a student at PLNU, it’s great to see so much interest and excitement around the game.”For those interested in joining the women’s rugby team, you can email @sbrammer0022@pointloma.edu or @rdayton0022@pointloma.edu.
Maile Pollington