Newton Rugby opens season Friday

Newton Rugby heads into its fifth season with games Friday. The Cardinals will play in the upper division (Class 2A) of the Iowa Youth Rugby Association’s High School Boys’ Contact League.

Rugby is a club sport. It is not a sanctioned varsity sport by the Iowa High School Athletic Association or the Iowa Girls High school Athletic Union.

Under co-coaches Bill Reed and Justin Liston, Newton’s boys won the 2013 Class 1A state championship. A year ago, the Cardinals went 8-3.

Newton’s rugby team plays two games each Friday during the season. The team’s April schedule starts Friday — at 7:20 p.m. against Mason City and 9 p.m. against Urbandale — at Valley Stadium in West Des Moines.

Newton hosts one Friday night of club games this season. Newton is at home April 10. It plays a 6:40 p.m. game against Union and a 9:20 p.m. game against Marion at H.A. Lynn Stadium.

“We just want people to come out to watch us play next week. We couldn’t host any games in May this season because of schedule conflicts,” Reed said.

Eight players return from last year’s team. Reed and Liston said it appears the team will have a roster of 17 players.

“In central Iowa, high school-level rugby is growing as is in the eastern part of state,” Liston said. “We’re seeing more teams. Our goal is to have the sport commissioned as a sanctioned high school sport.”

The IAYTA teams play rugby 7s, which is a cutdown version of rugby union. Everything is in sevens with seven players a side on the field and seven-minute halves. Tries — scoring plays — are seven points.

“Rugby 7s is a fast-paced game,” Reed said. “This year we’re going to be focused on ball-control. We’re big and we don’t have the quickness we had last year. At least, we haven’t shown the quickness or speed yet. One of the new players might develop.”

Cole Doerring is a four-year player for the team. Playing for their second year are Mason Bowes, Cameron Porter, Riley Nine, Jacob Smith, Tony Telez-Jordan, Anthony Cornwall and Collin Daniels. Daniels is hampered by an injury.

“Cole and Mason are our only returning starters from a year ago,” Reed said. “It’s nice to have this many back. Most of them got their feet wet, so to speak, last year in learning the game. We’re hoping they can step up and contribute more this season.”

Rugby 7s, which becomes a Summer Olympic sport in 2016, is a style of rugby fundamentally the same, but without the brute force of the original game played with 15 players per side. Rugby players are props, hookers, scrum-half, fly-half, centre and fullbacks.

“This sport is pretty simple to pick up — you run with the ball, tackle the ball carrier and pass the ball to maintain possession,” Reed said. “In rugby, you can go backward five yards to be able to pick up 15 yards. As long as your team holds on to the football, you can have it for the whole half and score right at the end, win the second-half kickoff and possess the ball the next seven minutes.

“There are no downs in rugby. If you can maintain possession and score once, you win the game. You don’t have to give the ball up to the other team.”

A ruck is when the ball is dropped by a tackled ball carrier and a group of players from each team is trying to win possession of the ball. A scrum is a way to restart the game after a minor infraction on the field.

“We’re a young team learning the game,” Liston said. “We bigger and more physical as a team. We just don’t have any burners to get open-field runners.”

Reed said positions haven’t been solidified. He said the kids are working hard in practice and have been coachable in learning the rugby skills.

“We’ll have growing pains early. We’ll focus on getting better each week, Reed said.

Newton goes to Ankeny April 17 to play Des Moines Hoover and West Des Moines Valley. The May portion of the schedule is still being set up, Reed said.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com