Women’s rugby has gained some popularity due to the Olympics this past summer; however, it is still a very underrated sport in America.
“[Rugby is] a nice mixture of football and soccer,” president of the club and center Mylah Jimeneza said. “You have your kicking aspects and your running aspects. It’s an odd sport.”
The first record of a woman playing rugby was in 1884 at Portora Royal School, but many women played the game in secret because of social unacceptance. After World War II, rules for women changed which allowed them to publicly play rugby. The first clubs for women’s rugby popped up in the 1960s and 1970s, and the first Women’s Rugby World Cup was hosted in 1991.
The UTSA women’s rugby club formed in 2012 and after Covid the club, like many other teams, needed to rebuild.
In the last two years, the club has seen a lot of growth. At the start of last year, they only had three returning players. The team now has 20 players with six new girls joining this year. The women’s rugby club currently practices every Monday and Wednesday from 6-8 p.m. at the UTSA Recreation fields.
The womens rugby club plays fifteens rugby in the fall and sevens in the spring. Rugby fifteens is when there are fifteen players on the field, while rugby sevens is played with seven players.
The team has attended Nationals three times for rugby sevens and made it to quarterfinals for fifteens in 2022. This season the team will have three home games.
The veteran players on the team work one-on-one with newer players, especially people new to the sport overall. They give them tips and go in depth on the rules, plays and anything they need to know. The team mainly focuses on building a strong bond between the players. Practices are open to anybody.
“Rugby to me is a community, you get to travel all over and meet all sorts of people,” backs coach Kyler Myers said. “It’s really an opportunity to be social and find people that share common interests and really it’s a family. Once you’re in you meet everybody like you’re all connected.”
Fans can go out and support them at their next home game Oct. 5.
