While Lindenwood University’s men’s 1st 15 won’t play full-contact games until the New Year, that doesn’t mean they are complete idle, as the Lions look to shake up college rugby tradition and try something new - touch rugby.

Both Lindenwood Head Coach JD Stephenson and his 7s coach, Camron Wyper, are Australian, and in Australia, touch rugby is very, very serious business. Many athletes like to play it, and in fact the 2009 winners of the Women’s Rugby World Cup 7s, Australia, was a team made up of players raised on touch rugby.

So this fall Lindenwood will send a team to the USA National Touch Rugby Championships at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla. October 9-11.

“Since the 1st team wasn’t traveling anywhere in the fall, we had some funds saved up,” said Stephenson. “And we went to the school administration and suggested this. Touch rugby is a great way to develop skills, and it’s a lot of fun.”

Since the touch championships are a club competition, the coaches might actually get a run. But for the most part this is about getting the players in a different, new, and challenging rugby environment.

“It will be a new experience,” said Stephenson. “We’ll take 14 guys and we can use all of them. So it will be need full participation from all of the players.”

The Lindenwood players have been working on their strength and conditioning this semester, and the touch championships will be a little bit of a competition reward for some. But Stephenson is also excited about the idea that this is something new for college rugby as a whole.

“Just as college rugby teams didn’t really play 7s until a few years ago, college rugby teams don’t play touch,” said the Lions coach. “So we can be the pioneers. Maybe it grows into something. Maybe we develop players who go on to the Touch World Cup. It’s a pathway to being a Touch Eagle. The school is really behind it and we’re excited to participate.”

Lindenwood won the 2015 USA Rugby College 7s Championships in the men's DI bracket.