UEL’s Rugby club have recruited well over the past year or so with almost too many players for the Men’s side.
One ambition of the club is to get a Rugby Sevens team set up for the players who may not be a starter in the first team.
For those who don’t know, Rugby Sevens is a much quicker version of the Union game adhering to the same rules of play as the 15-a-side game. Teams are made up of seven players, playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves.
Speaking on whether or not Rugby Sevens is a possibility this season Vice Captain Harry Walker said:
“Normally what we try to do when there’s more than enough players for one squad, we try to take people to a merit competition,” Walker responded. “That’s because we don’t have enough for two teams – we still want people to be involved because they’ve worked hard and come to training.
“Over the summer, we also want to reward them with game time, when people who aren’t as interested in playing because of exams and things like that, to come and start playing.
“This Sevens [team] gives a different alternative to a game, being a different format and it gives people opportunities who wouldn’t normally get into the First 15 side.”
Progressive Outlook
The increase to the roster shows that rugby at UEL is on the rise alongside other sports such as American Football.
The outlook on the future has seemed to follow the rise in profile and Walker said: “It’s definitely positive, especially because the university as a whole isn’t too rugby mad. I think in most other universities rugby is maybe the top sport (e.g. Loughborough) because you have semi-pro leagues that you can get up to in BUCS.
“But at UEL it’s more basketball and football, I think that’s just from the area in general. To see the numbers grow again from last year, which they grew last year in my first season, and to have another influx of first year students shows hopefully that recruitment is going in the right direction and so are the numbers.”
More To Be Done
However, Walker believes more could be done in terms of how they recruit players in each year, revealing: “I think during the playing season we could advertise a bit more. We really went full force over the summer to get people to notice the rugby team, over freshers’ week we really publicised it really hard. But, then when we got a large influx of players we, sort of, took a step back.
“Moving onto next term and definitely next year I think we should continue to advertise throughout the year because people who miss out during freshers’ week may think that’s it, but it’s not, they can come and join anytime.”
All signs point in the right direction for the club as their ambitions slowly turn into reality.
