Welcome to the Homepage of Georgia Southern University Women's Rugby Club. We are a USA Rugby Division I Collegiate Women's Rugby Team. We welcome all women of any experience and ability to come and play with us. No Rugby Experience is Necessary! We practice at the RAC Fields every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 6-8pm. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact any of our officers or coaches!

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Any athlete can tell you that playing a sport includes tons of valuable lessons that can be learned in life. With each sport having its own pro's and con's, we thought now would be a good time to go over what rugby has to offer. So give the below lessons learned in rugby a look for just five of the things that can be learned from it.

1. Team work – Unlike sports like tennis or golf, rugby is a team sport. And because the team has to work together at all times both offensively and defensively, the valuable life lesson of working as part of a team is one of the first and most valuable things rugby teaches.
2. Protect your friends – In order for one to succeed, many must participate in the effort. Because everyone is after the player with the ball, the others must protect him or her in order to score.
3. Diversity – Second possibly to only soccer, rugby is one of the most watched sports across the globe. When playing for a college team, members come from across the nation and globe. They come from all different backgrounds, experiences, and more.
4. Getting back up – Set backs are common in rugby and the occasional loss is inevitable. Rugby teaches the essential life skill that if you get knocked down, you can and have to get back up.
5. Setting goals – When recruited as part of a college team, your new coach will undoubtedly find what you need most improvement on and set you to improving it. Setting goals, meeting them, and then setting entirely new ones is a lesson even the professionals work at and is invaluable for the rest of your life.

Anthony Jones is a contributor all over the web and for Sports Management Colleges which helps those looking for a career in professional sports.

This month’s Club Sport of the Month is Women’s Rugby. Last month, three members of the club were given the opportunity to participate in several USA Rugby South events. Kimberly Knipe, the team’s coach, participated in the NACRA DHL Barbados Seven Championships in Barbados, where the women’s team placed 4th overall. Also, two members of the team, Morgan Koon and Hilari Tribble were selected to represent Georgia Southern in the U19 South Women’s Championship Roster, which also held a tournament on November 19 and 20th in Fort Lauderdale,Florida.

To read more on the GSU CRI site, click here

Some prom dresses are worn by the prom queen. Some prom dresses end up on the floor of a dirty motel, but privileged prom dresses are worn by superwomen, proudly ripped to shreds and constantly bashed into the ground.
---Bianca Miller, GSU Women’s Rugby

Every year, young women everywhere take part in the sacred event known as prom. For three years now, Georgia Southern Women’s Rugby has been holding a prom of its own. It has a couple of things in common with your traditional prom. Each lady spends hours, possibly days or weeks searching for the perfect dress. These women do their hair, makeup, and paint their nails if they choose, but instead of heels, GSU Women’s Rugby opts for cleats. Instead of jewelry, they accessorize with a mouth guard, and a scrum cap takes the place of a tiara. Even Georgia Southern’s male coach, fondly known as “Ugly” or simply “Johnny”, was seen sporting a pink, off the shoulder cocktail dress. Their date is with USF, University of South Florida, and while these ladies will dance, there is nothing slow about it. This year, the third annual “Prom on the Pitch” match took place on October 23, 2010 at 4 o’clock p.m. on the GSU RAC fields.

If a prom court could be chosen for this game, the list would contain: Tori Cawthorn, Simone Colas, Kimberly Knipe, Morgan Koon, Bianca Miller, and Calida Osti. Each could be seen displaying their unique style of rugby play, whether supporting, gaining meters for their team, making tackles, or scoring tries. Tori Cawthorn, in a pink, ruffled dress with white outlines, played wing for Georgia Southern Women’s Rugby for this prom dress match. She gained possession of the ball, carrying it down the outside of the pitch and displayed supreme ability to keep grace in action, even when support seemed far away.

Simone Colas, looking stunning in a racy, little lavender number, was superb in the extreme. Using her exceptional fitness abilities, she managed to outrun the competition. When they attempted to take her down, Colas shook them off like specks of dust she just happened to notice on her shoe. It took the other team multiple tackles before they could take her down.

Calida Osti, the hooker, who wore a classic, vintage, lacy v-neck full-length gown in pink. Seemingly a professional at carrying the ball into contact, gaining her team meters, Osti pushed off the beastliest of girls, and she used her excellent ball placement to set her teammates up to maintain possession of the ball.

That is exactly what brings us to our next court member, Bianca Miller. Miller, in an adorable purple and black empire-waist dress, after many successful plays, proved that she is the queen of the pick and go, a fast-paced technique used often off of a ruck. After Osti crashed and placed the ball, Miller, taking advantage of the opportunity, grabbed the ball before the ruck was formed, making an admirable pass to Kimberly Knipe.

Then there was captain, Kimberly Knipe, seen sporting a cream, knee-length dress with an elegant bow and long, sheer fabric flowing loosely down the back of the dress. Although stunning, Knipe was probably cursing her choice of attire by the end of the match. Knipe made several, far-reaching breakaway runs throughout the match. Unable to take her down with a tackle, USF players were only able to get Knipe on the ground by pulling on that beautiful, flowing portion of her dress. At one point, Knipe was pulled down using this method but immediately gained her feet and ran the ball even further down the field. Quickly learning that the other team could only get her down by pulling at her dress, Knipe took to guarding the material, all the while making successful breakaways. She even managed to keep her lady dignity during lineouts. Kimberly Knipe kept her dress down, but even more importantly, she kept winning those lineouts!

Finally, there was Morgan Koon, the rookie whose name is on everyone’s lips. She looked fun and flirty in a red plaid, button-up sleeveless. It has been speculated that Koon must be in competition with captain, Kimberly Knipe, as to who can keep possession of the ball more often and possibly who can take the most girls out on the way down the field. Morgan Koon displayed her usual skill, dancing around (or sometimes through) the competition, exhibiting exceptional power and refinement in every pace. Morgan did a quite striking job of kicking the conversions in this match as well, which played an immense role in GSU finding themselves with the win at the end of the match.

As is tradition, the M.V.P., or in this case the prom queen, is announced at the social after the match. Which of these lovely ladies was bestowed the honor of being called GSU’s “Prom on the Pitch” Queen of 2010? Simone Colas! Somewhere between that risqué lilac piece and the awe-inspiring show she gave, Simone Colas truly earned her title, making her teammates not only proud of her but proud to have her on their side.

The final score was GSU:37, USF:34; again, it seems like Georgia Southern University Women’s Rugby team cannot lose lately, not even at “Prom on the Pitch”!

Georgia Southern University Women's Rugby team is at it again, beating the Kennesaw State University women 51:7 on October 7, 2010. This was a friendly match during Georgia Sothern's social season with some surprising twists.

The GSU ladies took this opportunity to test out different strategies. Non-matrix/social season is a smart time to try out new combinations and put out feelers for ruggers who are capable of playing multiple positions. GSU mixed up their front row three times without using substitutions, swapping around players already on the field. First Sheila Gonzalez, playing her first match since a recent injury, came in as hooker, with Calida Osti and Jessica Johnson as props. This is Calida's first year at the position of prop, and she did not disappoint. Later in the game, Calida Osti switched to hooker and was propped by Jessica Johnson and Kim Reichel, who is traditionally a back line player. The final combination in the front row was Tam Hindes at hooker, being propped by Calida Osti and Kim Reichel.

Also, Casey "Tundra" Browne and Morgan Koon played the entire match as locks. Casey Browne is no newbie to the rugby field. She is a universal player, meaning she is not only capable but excels at many different positions in the game of rugby. Having played not only as a lock but as a back, a prop in sevens rugby, a flyhalf in Georgia Southern Women's Rugby "alter ego match", an eight-man and a flanker, one would think that Morgan Koon, a rookie to the Georgia Southern team would have trouble keeping up. However, that is not the case. Morgan is a powerful player with a true love of rugby that shows in every game she plays. She has speed, stamina, and drive that seem to rub off on her fellow teammates.

Morgan Koon not only shined at her position in the second row but she acted as a lifter along with Julissa Goodwin, another rookie and lifter who played flank in the match against Kennesaw, Kimberly Knipe, captain and jumper, and Calida Osti, thrower, in the line-outs through the entirety of the match. There is no doubt in any onlookers' minds that this made for a winning combination. Georgia Southern Women's Rugby did not just win most of the line-outs in this match; they won every single one of them! These ladies definitely earned bragging rights in this match, as this is a remarkable fete for any rugby team.

However, these were not the only astounding occurrences in this particular match. Not only were, the line-outs a complete success and the pack got to test their limits, Georgia Southern Women's Rugby team played a traditional 80 minutes match in a rather untraditional manner. Not only did the front row not use any subs, the entire match was played without a single substitution on the part of GSU. An even greater achievement, the GSU gals played 20 minutes of the 80 minute match short a player. Even during this time, where KSU maintained the usual 15 players, Georgia Southern was not scored upon and truthfully, did not miss a step.

Also, the Georgia Southern ladies were honored with the presence of one of their own alumni, Aubrey Janousek. She proved she still has what it takes to be a GSU rugger, scoring the very first try for Georgia Southern within the first few minutes of the match. Coming into a team that has been working and bonding together all season, she fit right in, declaring herself a GSU Women's Rugby alumni through her skill and passion for play.

Other than Janousek, Julissa Goodwin, in addition to her already stunning play, scored two tries. Lisa Hill, captain and a very expert back line player scored two tries as well. Deciding to join in the fun, Kimberly Knipe, along with her undisputedly undefeated line-outs, scored a try as well, and Lauren Hodges, the rookie that has, within a few weeks, already proven her incredible speed and ball carrying skills, outdid herself in the match against Kennesaw, scoring three tries! Lauren also kicked the conversions in this match, adding to the scoreboard even further. Even with so many individual ruggers on the team that stand out, Georgia Southern Women's rugby shines its brightest when working together as a team. Thanks to the combined efforts of these ladies and the supporting field play performed by their teammates, the final score of this match was GSU: 51, KSU: 7.

There are only two more matches left in these women's social season schedule: Georgia Southern's annual "Prom on the Pitch" against USF on October 23rd and an alumni match set for November 5th. Both will be played at the RAC fields, and both will present more of the barrier-breaking capabilities of this unstoppable Georgia Southern University Women's Rugby team. It is truly the year of the Georgia Southern Women's Rugby team!

Georgia Southern Women's Rugby made a surprising flip from last year, coming in second place, in the Georgia Rugby Union(GRU) tournament this past weekend(October 2-3, 2010). The Georgia Southern lady ruggers played four matches total: three matches on Saturday and the championship match Sunday morning. At the end of the first day of the GRU tournament, the ladies walked away undefeated, having beaten Emory 53 to 5, Georgia Tech 22 to7, and North Georgia 19 to 10. Each match was memorable, and each match left the other teams noticing this seemingly new Georgia Southern Women's Rugby that had stepped onto the pitch.

During the reportedly marvelous social, Lauren Hodges, a rookie rugger and a wing, was named Bitch of the Pitch for her outstanding play in all three games on Saturday. Having taken some powerful tackles and made several proficient tackles herself, Lauren also scored multiple tries throughout the weekend. Her vet, Calida Osti, was reported proudly stating repeatedly throughout the social: "That's my rookie. That's my rookie!"

The GSU Women's Rugby played the GRU tournament championship match Sunday against the University of Georgia Women's Rugby team. They played a good high-intensity match, and although defeated on the scoreboard 14 to 0, the GSU lady ruggers could not be defeated in spirit. Coming in second place in the tournament is a progressive step forward for these players, and they will advance from here. It is clear to anyone who was watching the pitch this weekend, that for GSU Women's Rugby this is a new year, new attitude, and new team.

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