DIA Rugby News
Life University’s men’s team kicks off its 2021 rugby season and of course there are all kinds of questions to answer.
The team that won the D1A National Championship in 2018 and 2019 is rebuilding a little bit.
“We’ve had a bit of a changing of the guard,” said Head Coach Colton Cariaga. “We have some new faces, but we also have some good leadership.”
D1A rugby has plans for a postseason this spring, but it’s going to look a little different from previous seasons.
Teams throughout the top level within the College Rugby Association of America have discussed where they are in terms of being ready to play, and what kind of season any type of play would look like.
In the first D1A game of the 2021 Lindenwood University rode a solid second half to beat Arkansas State 31-8 in Jonesboro, Ark.
The game was a Mid-South conference game and was a decent start for the Lions in what promises to be a season full of questions.
Arkansas State and Lindenwood have named their matchday 23s for the first major college clash of 2021.
The two will face off in a Mid-South Conference game Saturday in Jonesboro, Ark. Lindenwood will run out two first-time players on the starting 15 (Stephin Alberts and Shiven Dukande) plus four more on the bench.
There is going to be a major college rugby game this weekend.
That in and of itself is news, but the matchup is newsworthy for other reasons.
This is a conference game, the first one in almost 11 months. The teams involved, Lindenwood and Arkansas State, were ranked in the Top Ten of the D1A rankings (and also in GRR’s own ranking, which contributes to D1A’s Top 20).