Traditionally, the men’s rugby team would have been clobbered in the Saturday, Sept. 29 game, against Duke University’s A-side (their best and most experienced players)-who are generally acknowledged to be the best team in the league.

But the game, which was the men’s last home game of the semester, was very close, with Guilford leading for 60 minutes of the 80-minute game. The final score: 20-18, Duke. When Guilford played Duke’s A-Side last semester, the score was 35-7 Duke.

“It’s the best game we’ve played all year and it was against the best team in the state,” said first-year David McKinley-Ward. “It was a completely winnable game. We just got the short end of the stick this time.”

The men’s rugby team has improved mightily this year and the other league teams have taken notice. Wake Forest’s director of rugby, Patrick Kane, complimented Guilford on their 20-18 victory over his players a few weeks back.

“(The0 Guilford team that has come a very long way from the team that last year was losing to Wake’s second side,” Kane wrote in his blog. “(It was a) great performance from a much improved and well-drilled Guilford team.”

“In the past, rugby has been seen as something to do on the weekend when you weren’t wasted,” said senior rugby veteran Nick Hunter. “But now we are taking ourselves seriously. We’re a small team but we are extremely physical. Its funny seeing these big dudes, with confident looks on their faces, running down the field and getting steamrolled by a 150 pound fly-half.”

The turnout for practices has been more consistent this year than ever before. Twenty-five guys regularly show up when in previous years it was often as low as nine or ten.

“I know it’s a clich, but we’ve been in every match this year,” said senior Tyler Cope, one of the team’s most experienced players. “It’s been frustrating when we lose, but we’ve been legitimately competing against teams that used to wreck us.”

Although the Saturday match against Duke was the last home game of the semester, the men’s team will still be playing games in the area. The next game close to campus will be at UNCG after fall break. Home games will resume in the spring.

“We’ve surprised a lot of people this year,” Hunter said. “In terms of morale we beat Duke’s A side. It was just due to a random penalty that we lost. And I got to head-butt somebody!”