It's official: college rugby is back

All eight colleges go head-to-head this year

2007 saw the first unofficial college rugby XVs matches, as Derwent overcame Alcuin, James and the worst weather Yorkshire could throw at them. But the following year saw James triumph in the same tri-college tournament, while Halifax, Vanbrugh and a combined Goodricke/Langwith team also battled it out in Spring.

However, while the annual 10s tournament has continued to contribute Inter-College Cup points, the 15-a-side matches have only counted towards bragging rights. Sadly, the state of play remains the same this year, as Goodricke, Langwith and Wentworth will be forced to combine forces to muster the full complement of players, which would wreak havoc on college points allocations. Fortunately, a friendly inter-college rivalry is already well established, so G/L/W will join Alcuin, Derwent, James, Halifax and Vanbrugh in a fearsome fight for the college rugby crown.

Another change to the set-up this year sees the league being sponsored by Emperor’s Gym in town, hence it’s revamping as the Emperor College Rugby Championship. In exchange for having the gym logo printed on the team kits, members of all college rugby teams will be entitled to reduced membership fees of £15 a month (for the whole year) or £60 a term.

Meanwhile, over the summer, new College Rugby President Alex Muntus and Yorksport College Sport Officer Paul Guest managed to secure valuable funding from the RFU, thanks to some helpful pointers from UYRUFC. Muntus explained how, “After chatting with the uni team last year, they kindly pointed me in the direction of their coach, who also happened to be an RFU Development Officer for the Yorkshire area. Through close liaison with the uni and their coach, Guesty and myself attended a few forums and came up with a design for an intra-mural league.

He continued: “The uni side have a development plan with the RFU and we were told that if we got our idea written into it then college rugby would be eligible for incentive funding. Both Guesty and [Yorksport President] Emily Scott were extremely helpful, in particular with getting the funds transferred and allowing me quick access to the money over the summer holidays. Since then around £700 worth of equipment has been purchased purely for the use of college rugby.”

Let the banter begin!!
College Rugby President Alex Muntus

Now fully decked out with tacklebags, match balls and a boxful of that most perennial and multipurpose items of sporting equipment, the cone, college rugby is fully equipped to train up the next generation of players. But given York’s meagre allowance of just two rugby pitches, which this year are already accommodating four Men’s and one Women’s University teams, the prospect of six more trampling across 22 acres twice a week naturally did nothing to please the groundsmen.

Hence, once again, college rugby matches will be played off-campus. However, as well as using the pitches at Archbishop Holgate’s School like last year, a deal has been negotiated with local club York R.I.. As part of this, a referee course starting next week has been organised to get more college rugby players to referee, which should ease the officiating burden that has thus far sat so heavily on the selfless Rob Donnell’s shoulders.

So, with all the organisational machinery in place for a full year of college rugby, all that is needed to seal the deal is a large dollop of participation. Muntus commented, “The fun thing with college rugby is that it is all run by students who are very passionate and committed to both the game and their college! We're hoping now the weather doesn’t let us down and that this will be the start of a closely fought and competitive league throughout the year! Let the banter begin!!"

The first game of the season will be James vs Goodricke/Langwith/Wentworth, on Saturday Week 2, kicking off at 2pm at Archbishop Holgate’s School.

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