Standing on the sideline, the game is experienced in a different dimension, bodies are streaking by, kicking up grass in an organized chaos. Smack! The collision reverberates into the crowd and the volume settles to an American River College Beavers player who’s barely conscious—helped up by his teammates he is subbed off as the referee restarts play.
Because this is a rugby game, these events are common and with a championship at stake teams want to fight for each other’s victory.
“Energy! it’s all about energy, we got to have positive energy,” said Juju Volovolo, ARC rugby’s No. 2, speaking on the sense of community that the team has.
The NorCal Championship game finished in a 45-21 victory for the ARC Rugby Club against San Jose State on March 29.
For the Beavers this season, going from defense to attack has been their strength and during this undefeated season, many of the wins have come in dominantly with the biggest margin of victory being a 97-0 score against San Francisco State. And the two previous games against SJSU showed the same, ending 64-17 and 85-21 respectively.
Despite these previous losses, SJSU did not show up to the NorCal Championship discouraged, making ARC work for a hard-fought game.
Although the championship score shows a large gap, in rugby it doesn’t always tell the full story of a game. With a “try” having a value of 5 points and a subsequent 2 points if the player makes the kick, scores rapidly grow in short bursts and 90% of this match was everything but a blowout win.
The start of the match was a back-and-forth trudge, with no team seeming to have the upper hand. And was marked by an early injury to Nio Vaea who was clotheslined in a tackle and subsequently taken off.
This seemed to have shaken the ARC team and soon following they lost the tie and went into the second half down 2 points.
The situation that the Beavers found themselves in was uncommon, and a great test for what they could see further down the season.
Despite being up by two, SJSU was not able to further its lead in the second half. Mostly due to the great effort and scheming of ARC’s defensive fronts, creating a wall and making it a struggle for SJSU to finish a try.
During this game of attrition, ARC was able to find their energy and use quick counterattacks from the defensive stops the team made to take back the lead and quickly build 45 points in the last couple of minutes.
“Playoffs are a different animal. You’re going to get a close game no matter who you play in the playoffs,” said Zach Swithenbank, ARC rugby coach. “And San Jose State came out and they battled, and they showed their heart, but at the end of the day, I’m super proud of my guys.”
With this win and the level of play that they have shown so far this season, ARC has cemented themselves to compete for the State Championship in San Diego, the number one team in the nation.
“When you get games where you have to battle and stress, then practice next week is all that more sweet. Because now guys know, it’s no joke, we beat these guys by 60 earlier this year,” Swithenbank said.
Swithenbach added more on the mentality that they are going into training for the upcoming match against San Diego.
“They know this is a different level, we got to put more in, and we’ll just be ready for San Diego and see what happens next week.”
And depending on the outcome, they can potentially compete for a national championship, which would mean a large amount of travel, that also means a sizable financial strain.
Because of this the team has created a GoFundMe page for anybody interested in helping the team financially in their pursuit for trophies.
