By Brooke Szpaicher
“National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) provides a total of nine different men’s and women’s national club playoff systems, both for XVs and 7s, complete with qualifying and regional championship events. Qualifying, regional, and national championship events are hosted at top notch facilities across the United States and are some of the most well-run collegiate rugby events on the calendar.”- NCRugby.com.
Many may recognize the familiar face of one of locals, Tui Osborne, who is St. Bonaventure’s Men’s Rugby Head Coach. Tui has been coaching at SBU since 2015. Originally from Fiji, Tui grew up surrounded by rugby, as rugby is Fiji’s national sport.
Tui started his coaching career at Life University in Marietta, GA in 2009 for the men’s club sevens team which kicked off his urge to carry on his coaching career. After assisting with the undergraduate team and graduating in 2013, Tui was promoted to head coach at Life from 2014-2015.
“I started coaching at St. Bonaventure in 2015. It has been a great five years as we’ve achieved a lot of our goals as a program we set when I started. The growth of the program has been a testament of our university’s support, our fantastic staff’s hard work, great alumni engagement and support, family and fans support and most importantly the players since our elevation to varsity status, (current included) who’ve worked hard to get us where we are now.”
In December, Osborne led the team to the National Championship of the Men’s Nationals XVs. “Coming out of Covid, SBU kept a controlled environment, and we were fortunate enough to navigate through to stay active, not one hundred percent, but in groups during this time,” Osborne mentioned.
Members of the National Champs team have been training since graduation, about two weeks, in preparation for another event, May Madness 7s. There are thirteen guys on the roster, with seven guys playing on the field at a time, in other words, it is an abbreviated version of the game. The team had tryouts to make this roster consisting of seniors, juniors, and other underclassmen. You may have seen them at the Village of Ellicottville Park this week training. “It got the guys off campus to practice and a change of scenery!”
May Madness 7s is a three-day event in New Orleans that will broadcasted on CBS. There are a total of 110 teams for the 2022 Collegiate Rugby Championship in New Orleans, making the 2022 tournament the largest collegiate tournament to be held in North America! There are six men’s and women’s divisions: Men’s Premier (SBU) (32 Teams), Women’s Premier (16 Teams), Men’s Division I Club (8 Teams), Women’s Division I Club (11 Teams), Men’s Division II (16 Teams), and Men’s Small College (28 teams). Games start on Saturday and teams are guaranteed four games, if not six if they make it to the finals. SBU will play LSU to start on Saturday, May 28th, 2022.