Crusader Rugby

Nathan Macdonell ’23

Contributor

This year, the Varsity Crusader Rugby Team season started early. The team was invited to travel down to St. Louis to play in St. Louis University High School’s (SLUH) second annual All-Catholic Rugby Festival. The team trained indoors at St. Paul’s and the WSF Soccer complex for weeks ahead of their departure to St. Louis.

On April 14th, the day after we arrived, we volunteered with a few SLUH students at Guardian Angel Settlement Association, a non-profit organization that helps underprivileged youth. The boys did a variety of tasks such as gardening and cleaning up class-rooms. The people at Guardian Angel loved having volunteers and the players all enjoyed helping the St. Louis community. The team was then treated with St. Louis-style pizza and toasted ravioli before getting a tour of the SLUH campus. The St. Paul’s Varsity rugby team finished off the night with an MLB game where the St. Louis Cardinals played the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Day three of the trip had our team play two tough opponents from Kansas City: St. Martins and St. James Academy. Unfortunately, the team lost both games, with the first game being a huge learning curve with some players who had just experienced their first-ever rugby game. In our second game, the team lost only in the final seconds, but proved that they deserved to be at this tournament.

Day four would be the team’s biggest test as they would finally get to play SLUH, who at that point was 2-0 in the tournament. The team was up for the test battling hard all game, but SLUH defeated the Crusaders leaving the boys with a 0-3 record which didn’t reflect the growth the team showed over the weekend. Day five marked the end of this great trip with the team traveling back to Winnipeg eager to start their own season. The team knew that their experience at St. Louis would only make them better prepared to start their own season.

The Varsity Crusaders dominated when they came back to Winnipeg late May, going undefeated in the regular season. The team captured the city final banner after beating the Dakota Lancers. In early March at the provincial semifinals, the team dominated Croquis Plains, winning 50-12 to punch their ticket to the provincial final. The team played the Dakota Lancers, a familiar opponent they faced a week prior. The team battled hard all game with the score always being tight, and the Crusaders triumphed over the Lancers, defeating them 27-19. This season was amazing for the Crusader Rugby pro-gram, noting that success came through hard work, comradery, and coaching.