By Emily Mulcahey
Contributing Writer
It is no secret that the St. Bonaventure Men’s Rugby team has had immense talent over the years, so much so that they were moved into the highest division in the region, Rugby East.
With higher stakes in this new division, the men’s team embarked on a trip to Syracuse Saturday to test out the team in its first scrimmage in the new Division-I A conference.
The result of their opening scrimmage against Syracuse was an 81-0 victory.
The Bonnies are hoping for a similar result against Iona this weekend, a team that has also recently joined the new division. With Iona’s last fall season record of 3-5-1, it seems the Bonnies earn a similar result.
Coach Clarence Picard, however, is still being cautious.
“Iona has a new coaching staff,” Picard said, “very experienced and accomplished. So we know they’re going to be a lot better this year. They beat Fordham this past weekend by about 50 points, so we know they’re going to be a lot better than they were.”
However, Picard is confident and excited about the new division, and the season as a whole.
“It’s going to be a big challenge, a lot of people came up to me and said ‘you know it’s going to be really hard’ and I’m thinking ‘yeah, that’s the whole point of it!’” Picard laughed. “We’re really excited, it’s going to be a lot of fun, and it’s going to make us work really hard every week”
While the result of the Syracuse game is an indicator that for yet another year, the men’s rugby club will be a tough team to beat, there are still some high priority games that the team is gearing up for, no matter how far down the road they are.
“Things obviously went very well, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a lot to work on before we start facing some of the other teams in the new division,” Picard commented. “Our first league game is at the end of the month against Army. Syracuse was a scrimmage and this is a non-league match, so right now we are just taking it one week at a time.”
Having executed a blow-out game against Syracuse this weekend, some of the rookie players got to enter the match to stretch their legs. Greg Delaney, Joe Vazquez, Seamus Halt, and Alex Alonso all debuted their skills in their first Bonaventure A-side scrimmage.
With a seasoned 15 starters, and a B-side squad full of talented rookies, the new Rugby East conference is a perfect fit for our Bonaventure Men’s Club.
“We want to hold our own. We think there are some games we could win that maybe we won’t be favored to win. But at the same time, we’re not going out on a limb, saying ‘we’re definitely going to beat these guys!’ We’re just going to go through the season and see how it goes,” Picard said.
The Bonnies have had their tune up scrimmage against Syracuse, and have one last non-league match this weekend before the bearing down begins.
Bonaventure will take on Iona on their own new turf field this Saturday, following the Women’s Rugby match against Niagara.
