Centuries after Europeans first tossed or kicked an oval ball down a field to score points, the sport of rugby found its way to America. Rugby enthusiasts in Wilmington gather at FlyTrap Downs on weekends, some donning the yellow and black Cape Fear Rugby Club jerseys to play and others merely spectating as the team makes its bid for the playoffs.
The team plays in a conference with Columbia, S.C., Camp Lejeune, Southern Pines and Charleston. It plays each team once during the fall and once during the spring, and the top two teams advance to playoffs. With only two games left in the spring season, Cape Fear Rugby Club holds first place in the standings.
If the team earns a spot in the playoffs and wins that game, it moves on to Nationals. Team captain Jason Gruner said they haven’t advanced that far in four or five years, but this year’s team is strong.
“We’ve got a good group of guys, all committed,” he said. “We’ve got about 30 guys that come out to practice.”
The players range in age from 19 to early 40’s, Gruber said, and it’s an eclectic mix of experience levels and backgrounds.
“I’d say it’s 80 percent of guys that come out and have played somewhere before,” Gruner said, “whether it was in college or high school, and we always get a decent amount of international guys. [One player is] from England, four guys from South Africa, and the other 20 percent are brand new players that either played football or wanted to come out and try it and fell in love with it.”
Cape Fear Rugby Club’s next match is Feb. 28 against Camp Lejeune and the following weekend the team takes on Columbia in the final game of the regular season.
