Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

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Women’s rugby, the newest club sport to hit Auburn’s campus, is causing quite a stir.

Danielle O’Mahoney and other rugby enthusiasts are working hard to get women’s rugby approved as an official campus organization.

However, getting approval is proving harder than making tackles on the field.

“We have to get a student faculty adviser, there’s a whole bunch of paper work to fill out and you have to write a charter,” said O’Mahoney, a sophomore in hotel and restaurant management.

The girls have been working to generate interest in the venture. The fledgling team passed out fliers on the concourse last Thursday on SGA election day.

“We have six girls right now, but we got 24 girls to sign up in the past two days,” O’Mahoney said.

“I think it’d be fun,” said Alaina Guzman, a sophomore and new recruit. “I’ve never played that many sports, but I think it would be a good way to connect and get outside.”

Some of the other schools in the area with teams include Georgia Tech, Louisiana State University and Emory University.

The women’s team can compete against these schools as soon as it is officially recognized by the University.

O’Mahoney said matches could begin as soon as late spring semester, but will definitely begin by fall 2009.

Although Auburn is just now getting a women’s rugby team, it’s still ahead of the rest of the United States.

“It’s actually the second largest sport in the world, next to soccer, but no one in the U.S. really knows that,” O’Mahoney said. “It’s more predominant up North, but I’d just really like to get the word out because it is a fun sport.”

O’Mahoney also said rugby is a great way for girls on campus to try something new.

“It’s not often you get to see girls run around making tackles unless you’re in Powder Puff, and a lot of girls didn’t get the chance to do that in high school,” O’Mahoney said. “Because it’s a club team, anyone can come out. It’s not like a varsity sport where you have to try out.”

O’Mahoney got involved in rugby through a friend who invited her to a men’s rugby practice.

“I met a guy in my physics class who played rugby,” O’Mahoney said. “He tried to convince me to come out to practice everyday, and I wouldn’t because I didn’t know what rugby was. I ended up meeting a couple of his friends who played rugby and went out to practice once and I never stopped going.”

Mary Anne Reynolds, a freshman in journalism, got involved with women’s rugby when she met O’Mahoney at a men’s rugby match.

“I came to a game and she said, ‘Oh, you should play for the women’s team,’ and I’ve been doing it ever since,” Reynolds said.

It’s this kind of dedication that O’Mahoney and Reynolds hope catches on in the 24 new recruits.

O’Mahoney acknowledges this has been the team’s biggest challenge.

An informational meeting will be held today at the Ralph Brown Draughon Library.