Saint Paul’s Rugby Wolves began their season with high intensity this past weekend with a 28-19 win over Warren Easton.

Even though the Wolves were outmatched by size in almost every position, they outplayed their opponents with speed and technique. Warren Easton’s strategy was primarily to crash the defensive line and try to make a break away. All of the work and repetition of running the plays had paid off. Some of the new players got into the action as well. For example, Saint Paul’s senior Grant Voyles, a first year starter, managed to score after a miscommunication. He took advantage of surprisingly getting the ball and broke the defensive line to score his first try. Aditionally, Saint Paul’s freshman Christopher Curtis also scored his first try when executing a successful play.

Aside from the opening win, Saint Paul’s Rugby Wolves have a lot to be excited about this year.

The Saint Paul’s Rugby Wolves is a club founded in 2014. Since then, the club has grown a little bit every year. The head coaches are Ricky Zimmer and Jay Cripple. The assistant coaches are Chip Curtis, Gabe Simpson, Gabe Emerson, Eric Orphys, and David Cuccia. The team practices three times a week for two hours or longer.

Last year’s Rugby Wolves only managed to win two games. However, many coaches, players, and fans of the team are more optimistic this season.

Assistant Coach Orphys is very excited about this upcoming season. “I think that this year, going into the season, there is a much better understanding of how defense should be played because we didn’t do a very good job on it last year. In addition to being better defensively, we have improved greatly on situational awareness.”

This year’s team captain is Saint Paul’s junior Connor Oquin, who plays inside center, which is a difficult position requiring a lot of endurance and strength. It’s essential to be strong because the inside center crashes the defense and gets hit often.

Some star players projected to have a great season are Saint Paul’s sophomore Luke Cuccia (scrum-half) and Saint Paul’s junior Culver Stone (fly-half). Some other players playing some key roles are Saint Paul’s sophomore Lane Hamaker (fullback) and Saint Paul’s junior Seth Fontenot (number 8).

Saint Paul’s Rugby Wolves starter Bryce Loisel thinks the team has a chance at winning state this year. “As a team, we have become more in sync and can run certain plays consistently. This will be a significant advantage over other teams because perfectly executed plays are difficult to run in rugby.”

It helps that Saint Paul’s is one of only a handful of teams that has an official Rugby club. Four of those teams qualify for state.

In fact, the only teams on the Wolves’ schedule are Brother Martin, Jesuit, Warren Easton, and East Jefferson. For this reason, occasionally a team will also travel from Texas or Mississippi to play the Wolves.

The Rugby Wolves have recently played their first scrimmage games on January 21, 2024 against Brother Martin, East Jefferson, and Jesuit. While each game only lasted 20 minutes, the Wolves battled hard in all three matches.

The first game of the day was against the Jesuit’s A side rugby team. After a long-fought game, the final score was Jesuit 7, Wolves 0. While this score seems bad, it represents improvement because the Wolves lost to the same team 7-35 last year. Therefore, all the hard work the team has put in throughout the off-season is paying off.

The second game was against East Jefferson, which was also a tough match, ending up in a 0-7 loss for the Wolves. However, there was some confusion with penalties, and the game was accidentally cut short by five minutes. Many fans and players believed that Wolves could have easily come back if they had a bit more time. They were in a position to score when the game ended.

The last game of the day was against Brother Martin. The game was full of excitement and immense energy on the sidelines; in the end, it finished in a tie. Exhausted and beaten up, the Rugby Wolves gathered around and shook hands with all the teams.

The scrimmages show that the Wolves are evenly matched with all of its opponents, so the competition for state will be intense.