Rugby: the game with two teams, 15 players each and one grass pitch.
The USD men’s rugby team was founded in 1980 by students Johnny Purcell and Tim Klier. Rugby serves as a club sport on campus with 24 athletes making up the team from all grade levels. With seven different individuals representing the coaching staff, the team holds a high standard. Their culture came from hard work and success from its founding days, according to their official website.
The game came to be in 1823 at the Rugby School in Warwickshire, England; its roots were derived from the traditional sport of football, according to the World Rugby Organization. In the U.S., rugby is not nearly as popular. Rugby is not considered an official NCAA sport, as athletes usually only play in high school leagues with the possibility of eventually joining the USA national team, the Eagles. In 2024, USA Rugby had a little over 50,000 sign ups for youth-level clubs and high school level clubs, compared to over 4.5 million participants in the more popular American sport, tackle football.
Tyler Holm, a USD sophomore, shared his insights on the sport after playing for the men’s team for the past two years.
“I still learn something new about the sport every year I play,” Holm stated. “It took me a while to really understand it, but I don’t blame people for being confused after watching.”
In the past four years, men’s rugby has won three national championships and four Gold Coast League championships. Director Kevin Eaton played for the Toreros for four years and transitioned into head coach from 2016-19, then became director in 2019, continuing today.
Head coach Charlie Purdon coached the Toreros in back-to-back sevens, a game that involves seven players per team and only lasts 15 minutes. There’s also fifteens, a game that involves 15 players per team and has two 40-minute halves. The team practices twice a week and travels to games throughout Southern California.
Torres Kapust, a senior at USD who has played on the rugby team all four years, shared his experience on the field.
“What I enjoy about rugby compared to any other sport I’ve played is just the camaraderie with teammates,” Kapust said.
“The difference between rugby and football is that in football you can rely on a couple star key players, but in rugby, you’re only as strong as your weakest player.”
The Torero’s season comes to an end with the national championships taking place in May 2027 where they have the opportunity to win their fifth title. Even without the public support system that the Division I athletics receive on campus, rugby plays how they practice.
Christina Pedreiro, a first-year student, wishes that she knew more about the program.
“I’ve seen the players walk around school but never heard anything about them,” Pedreiro commented. “I don’t know exactly what the sport entails, but it seems like not a lot of other colleges have the club so I would be interested to hear more about it from USD.”
Due to its lack of status as an established Division I athletic team on campus and lack of popularity throughout the U.S., sports like rugby don’t receive as much attention from the student body or athletic departments. The sport isn’t listed on the Torero athletics website and their only communication is through their Instagram account and official website.
Wyatt Rothgery, a first-year student at USD and new rugby team member, shared his experience on rugby’s popularity.
“I think it is growing in popularity at least in my life,” Rothgery said. “I’ve noticed it a lot more on social media too… USD students know less about the game and the playing, but a lot about the team itself.”
Rugby is both a high-impact and intense sport, with not only physical injuries being extremely common, but also long-term cognitive and mental deterioration from head-on collisions and tackles.
The game involves two 40-minute halves, where players aim to score points in one of four ways. First, they could score three points via drop goals, drop-kicking the ball through the opponents goal posts on the first bounce. They also have the opportunity to score two points with conversions, kicking the ball through the goal posts after scoring a try. In addition, there’s penalty kicks worth three points, kicking the ball through the opponents goal post as a reward for penalty, or tries worth five points grounding the ball in the opposite team’s end-zone.
Vivian Gregory, a sophomore at USD, is familiar with the rugby team on campus through her classmates and peers.
“It’s a pretty aggressive sport and they get hurt a lot,” Gregory said. “However, I think that the team in general has a really positive family-centered feel, with lots of camaraderie within the organization.”
Players are not allowed to wear any sort of padding other than a mouthguard or light protective helmet, which significantly contributes to the amount of injuries players endure. The National Library of Medicine emphasizes how sprain, fracture and contusion rates regarding the shoulder, wrist/hand and lower leg were over four times greater than that of football players.
The most common forms of injuries in rugby players include shoulder dislocations from repeated tackling and hard falling, cauliflower ear from blunt-force trauma to the head and scalp lacerations, according to the University of Utah Health Department.
For Kapust, Rugby is more than a sport at USD.
“Team camaraderie and team care and team traditions — that’s what’s kept me coming back every year,” Kapust commented.
The 24-man roster has already made strides, beating UCLA in a historic 40-19 run at the inaugural Loc Vetter Memorial Cup. They took home the win at the West Coast Sevens tournament, securing the victory with a plate championship title.
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