It was a season of consistent wins for both mens and womens rugby teams, but even that was not enough to earn places in the Division III playoffs.
Mens
Before the season, there were high expectations and much anticipation because of the move up from Division IV to Division III for the mens team. However the season didn’t start off the way they probably hoped it would on Sept. 15 with a penalty-filled first 20 minutes against New England College. Later in the second half the skill of NEC’s backs took the game over, by running in several tries from around the 50 meter line. The Badgers opened up the year with disappointing 43-8 road loss.
In the second match of the season on Sept.22, the mens ruggers took on Colby-Sawyer College in a game that ended in victory for JSC. According to game referee Michael Dupont, the game was “a bit loose, couple of heated moments, but overall played well. Lots of knock ons and lots of scrums.”
The game ended in a 20-10 win for the Badgers.
Following that win over Colby-Sawyer, the team went on to crush Champlain College in a 70 to 3 win on Sept. 30, with all around good work from the whole team.
After the blowout, the Badgers faced a very sloppy field on Oct. 7, with terrible conditions as water seemed to cover a portion of the playing surface, combined with heavy mud everywhere else. JSC, however, prevailed in a well-disciplined 26-10 mud-match with Castleton State College.
It was another week and another win for the Badgers on Oct. 21, as they started early against Brandies by jumping out to a 26-10 lead at halftime. The team then cruised to a 41-27 win.
To close out the year on Oct. 28, the Badger men had a dominating win over Lyndon State but with a surprising tight game at the half. The match went to uncontested scrums about 10 minutes into the second half due to LSC prop injury and no suitable replacement, with the final score being 47-0 in favor of JSC.
The Badger mens team ended up coming in 9th out of 32 teams with a final record of 5 wins and only 1 loss. That single loss put the Badgers just short of the ultimate goal of being in the playoffs as they only take the top eight teams in Division III. However the team had a very impressive season by anyone’s standards by outscoring their opponents by 119 points, with 212 points scored and 93 allowed.
“I am very proud of what they have done this season,” says Patrick Rogers, mens and womens rugby club adviser, who also mentioned the team looks forward to many of the players returning for next year’s run.
Womens
The Lady Badgers also moved up from Division IV to Division III after winning the national championship in Division IV last year. With a very competitive team, the Badgers had good reason to expect a solid season.
The women started off their season a little slow on Sep. 22, scoring only 5 points in the first 35 minutes of the season against Colby-Sawyer despite having an advantage at all rucks, scrums and line-outs. After scoring two tries in the final minutes of the half, they never looked back and won in convincing fashion in a 36-0 match.
Next up for the ladies, was Champlain College, where they played a very intense game on Sept. 30, eventually getting the close win at home as the final read 7-0 Badgers.
After coming off of two straight wins, the Badgers dropped a very close game on Oct. 7 to Castleton State as the game was scoreless throughout the whole first half. A sloppy, muddy pitch from the previous day’s rain forced lots of handling problems on both sides, which also contributed to the lack of scoring. The only score was a Castleton try between the posts three minutes into the second half with the conversion good. The final score was 7-0.
After the loss, Johnson state bounced back on Oct. 14, with a win over University of Maine Farmington where Johnson managed to score 20 points until UMF decided to forfeit the match due to a lack of players. Final score was Badgers 20 with UMF not lighting up the scoreboard.
The following week, the ladies went on the road and visited Franklin Pierce University on Oct. 21, and came home with a 26 to 5 win by scoring four tries and converting three times, while only allowing one try.
The Badgers then closed out their impressive season on Oct. 27, with another dominating performance over Lyndon State College as they put up 61 points and did not allow any.
The womens team, just like the mens, fell just short of making the Division III playoffs. This might be a disappointment to many of the players, as there are many who are seniors and were a part of the national championship team just a year ago, but the season was very dominating for the girls.
“I am very sad to see the seniors leave. They were the foundation of this team and for last year’s national championship team,” Rodgers said.
Even with the absence of JSC from the playoffs, the ladies had a very impressive season as well, and outscored their opponents by 138 points by scoring 150 and only allowing a combined 12 points all year.
“This team is really my family and I dedicate every minute I have to them because I know that they would do the same for me,” said Murielle Wronski, captain of the womens ruby team. “I love my family and I know that they will always be there for me, just like I am for them. It was sad to not make it to playoffs this year, but we really worked hard and our score proves that. I don’t think that we would have made it as far as we did without our passion for the sport, our love for each other, and our amazing coach, Don Allen, who helped us through absolutely everything.”
