Northeastern University Rugby Club

Northeastern Rugby Club
Full name Northeastern University Rugby Football Club
Union ECRC
Nickname(s) Maddogs
Founded 1984
Ground(s) Parsons Field
Brookline, Massachusetts (Capacity: 3,000)
Coach(es) Edward Tubridy, Alex Miccio, Bob Carroll
League(s) Collegiate Division I
1st kit
2nd kit
Official website
www.northeastern.edu/nurugby

The Northeastern University Rugby Football Club (or NURFC or Maddogs) is a college rugby union team representing Northeastern University, competing in East Coast Rugby Conference and governed by USA Rugby. The team competes in College Division I rugby, against the best college rugby teams in the Northeast.

The Northeastern Maddogs has approximately 70 members from all over the United States, and from countries all over the world, including South Africa, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, China and Japan. The Maddogs field a competitive team every year, and have been nationally ranked.[1][2]

The NURFC competes in, and is an original member of, the East Coast Rugby Conference that was founded in 2011 during the USA Rugby college re-structuring.

History

Founding

Maddogs logo, used from 1985 to 2011

The club was founded by a Northeastern University student and rugby enthusiast named Bob Hubbard in 1984. He, along with 14 other students were the first team ever fielded by the Northeastern University Rugby Club. This first incarnation was not affiliated with Northeastern University, its only connection to the school was its players being students. The team's practices were held on a small triangle of dirt on Huntington Avenue across from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which is now the Wentworth Institute of Technology athletic complex.

In 1985, the club became more organized as another key leader named Tony Kalaijakis emerged. Kalaijakis turned the rag-tag group into a team, under him the club drafted a constitution and elected leaders yearly. The team lobbied for school recognition, hoping to become an official Northeastern club, but was denied. Disappointed by the university's decision, but wishing to maintain a connection with the school, the team chose as its mascot, the MadDog; instead of the traditional mascot of Northeastern University, the Husky.

NERFU (1987-2010)

In spring of 1987, aided by Northeastern University Professor Peter Eastman, the team became an official club of Northeastern. The club then hired its first coach, Jay Dacey of the Mystic River Rugby Club. Competing in its first Beast of the East Tournament, the Maddogs went undefeated and won the 1987 tournament. The following fall the Maddogs joined NERFU Division I and made the play-offs in their inaugural year.[3]

The NURFC competed in New England Rugby Football Union College Division I from 1987 to 2010, playing against teams such as Army and Boston College. Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale competed in NERFU until fall 2009, leaving to join the new Ivy League Conference.[4] In the years since its creation, Northeastern Rugby often competed in the Beast of the East rugby tournament, winning it multiple times in recent years including in 2005 with a 21-0 win over Buffalo in the tournament final.

ECRC (2011-present)

In 2011 Northeastern along with Boston College, UMass Amherst, University of Connecticut, Middlebury College, UAlbany, and Southern Connecticut State University joined to form the East Coast Rugby Conference. In their inaugural season, Northeastern went undefeated and scoring an average of 37 points and allowing an average of 4 points per game. Their undefeated season led them to the National Championship Round of 16, where they lost to Stony Brook University 24-22.[5] Northeastern's fall 2012 season resulted in a 5-2 record, with losses to Boston College and Middlebury, to finish 3rd in the conference.

Northeastern, as the winner of the 2012 ECRC Sevens Tournament, qualified for the USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships, in College Station, Texas. Assigned to Pool A with Life University, Colorado State, and Wisconsin, Northeastern went 2-1 with their only loss coming from the reigning champion Life University, to advance to the bowl bracket.[6] Northeastern was eventually knocked out of the tournament by Cal Poly.[7] After their strong showing at the National Sevens Championships, Northeastern received an invitation to the 2013 Collegiate Rugby Championship tournament at PPL Park in Philadelphia, broadcast live on NBC. Northeastern finished as winners of the bowl in their first appearance at the CRC's. In 2014, Northeastern finished as a runner up for the plate at the CRC's which represented an improvement on the year prior.

Season by season records

2015 Season

Week Team Result Record Date
0 @Babson (Non-Conference) W 65-22 1-0 9/12/2015
1 @UMass L 7-65 1-1 9/19/2015
2 @Boston College L 0-55 1-2 9/27/2015
3 American International College L 5-79 1-3 10/4/2015
4 @UConn W 35-30 2-3 10/10/2015
5 University of Albany W 53-73-3 10/18/2015
6 New England College L 8-463-410/25/2015
7 Fairfield University W 57-7 4-4 11/7/2015
8 @Middlebury College W 29-8 5-4 11/14/2015

2015 Cianci's Sevens Tournament Champions (5-0 vs Bentley, Bryant, Salve Regina 2x, Brown)

Past seasons

Year Conference Div GP W L D PF PA PD Conf Ranking
2015-2016ECRCD1-AA8440194297-1035
2014-2015ECRCD1-AA615072198-1266
2013-2014ECRCD1-AA633015014284
2012-2013ECRCD1-AA7520211121903
2011-2012ECRCD1-AA6600226271991
2010-2011NERFUD16510151106451
2009-2010NERFUD1--------
2008-2009NERFUD17070----
2007-2008NERFUD1--------
2006-2007NERFUD1743021511897-
2005-2006NERFUD17340120142-22-
2004-2005NERFUD17430121124-3-
2003-2004NERFUD1761016111051-
1989-1990NERFUD155008946432

Team accomplishments

Divisional championships

Tournament championships

Individual player accomplishments

Collegiate All-Americans

Player Name Class 7s or XVs Year Team Reference
Dimitri Efthimiou 20127s2013Honorable Mention[12]
Chris Frazier20147s20141st Team[13]

All-Conference / Regional selections

Player Name Class Conference Year(s) Team(s) Reference
Nino Balduzzi 2001 NRU 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 First Team XVs
Mike Bruce 2011 NERFU 2010 First Team XVs [14]
Tom Budravich 1989 NERFU 1988 First Team XVs
George Chacharone 2005 NRU 2004 First Team XVs [15]
Tim Cummings 1990 NERFU 1989 First Team XVs
Gil Danaher - NRU 2004 First Team XVs [15]
Chris Frazier 2014 ECRC 2013, 2014 First Team XVs, First Team 7s [16][17]
Josiah Herbert 2005 NRU 2004 First Team XVs [15]
Franco Liebenburg 2016 ECRC 2014 Second Team 7s [17]
Rudy Machacek 1989 NERFU 1988 First Team XVs
Diego Maquieira 2014 ECRC 2013, 2014 First Team XVs, First Team 7s [16][17]
Bob McCarthy1989 NERFU 1988 First Team XVs [18]
Dave McDermott - NRU 2005 First Team XVs [19]
Greg McInerney 2013 ECRC 2013 First Team XVs [16]
Mark Phillips1989 NERFU 1988 First Team XVs [18]
Aaron Reich 2014 ECRC 2014 Second Team 7s [17]
Mike Schoelch 2007 NRU 2005 First Team XVs [19]
Scott Sivak 2004 NRU 2004 First Team XVs [15]
Nick Smit 2011 NERFU 2010 First Team XV [14]
Aaron Smith 2015 ECRC 2014 Second Team 7s [17]
Michael Strouch 1990 NERFU 1989 First Team XVs
Ty Taylor 2013 ECRC 2013 First Team XVs [16]
Alex Throssel 2011 NERFU 2010 First Team XVs [14]
David Tobias 2013 ECRC 2013 First Team XVs [16]
Sebastien Voigt 2013 ECRC 2013 First Team XVs [16]
Luke Wallin 2006 NRU 2005 First Team XVs [19]

National representation

Player Name Class Country Caps Debut Date Reference
Dimitri Efthimiou 2012United States United States (7s)1*2010–11 IRB Sevens World Series21 January 2010[20]
Mikhael Shammas 2009Lebanon Lebanon (Rugby League) 2Lebanon v British Armed Forces XIIIs 3 July 2006
Kyle Winter 1999Indonesia Indonesia3Indonesia v Guam1 July 2009[21]

(*) denotes tournament appearances

References

  1. ↑ "DI Rankings: New #1". Americanrugbynews.com. Archived from the original on 2010-11-12. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  2. ↑ "College Men 7s Rankings Oct 10 2012 - P". www.rugbytoday.com. October 10, 2012. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
  3. ↑ "The Maddogs". Maddogs.neu.edu. Retrieved March 3, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Ivy League teams split from NERFU". Americanrugbynews.com. Archived from the original on June 5, 2009. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  5. ↑ http://www.rugbymag.com/news/scores/4038-scores-april-2012.html
  6. ↑ http://www.rugbymag.com/news/colleges/collegiate-sevens/6565-predictions-how-we-did.html
  7. ↑ http://www.rugbymag.com/news/colleges/collegiate-sevens/6573-mens-7s-nationals-brackets-updated.html
  8. ↑ "The Northeastern Voice - 5 Spaulding docs team with NU - 6-7 Club sports take off - 12 Co-op in La" (PDF). Northeastern.edu. July 23, 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 23, 2011. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  9. ↑ "2007 Brackets with Scores" (PDF). Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  10. ↑ "2010 Final Brackets" (PDF). Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  11. ↑ http://www.rugbymag.com/news/colleges/collegiate-sevens/6012-northeastern-wins-ecrc-7s.html
  12. ↑ RugbyMag Staff (August 10, 2015). "USA Rugby Names Men 7s All Americans". www.rugbytoday.com. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
  13. ↑ Reed, Curtis (August 11, 2014). "All-Americans, Hawks, Falcons Name Serevi RugbyTown Sevens Rosters". www.thisisamericanrugby.com. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
  14. 1 2 3 "College: NERFU All-Stars". Americanrugbynews.com. Archived from the original on April 9, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Hamlin, Drew (June 3, 2004). "Northeastern Maddogs send four memebers to All-American selections". www.maddogs.neu.edu. Archived from the original on July 25, 2008. Retrieved February 23, 2016.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 http://www.rugbymag.com/men's-di-college/6934-east-coast-all-conference-teams.html
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 Clifton, Pat (June 17, 2014). "ECRC All Conference 7s Team". www.rugbytoday.com. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  18. 1 2 Lee, Jennie M. Cauldron 1989 (PDF). www.archive.org LXIX (Boston: Northeastern University). p. 100. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  19. 1 2 3 Goff, Alex. "2005 College NASC Rosters - Northeast". www.erugbynews.com. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
  20. ↑ "U.S. Men’s National Sevens Team Begins". www.teamusa.org. January 18, 2010. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
  21. ↑ "Rhinos Pick 42-Man Squad ahead of 5 Nations Tourney". Jakarta Globe. May 13, 2009. Retrieved February 5, 2016.

External links

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