By Jack BarrettThe Dartmouth StaffI sat down with Will Lehmann '12, Paul Jarvis '12, and Nate Brakeley '12 to talk about rugby's most recent success: yet another Ivy League championship.
So another win today, 53-6, another Ivy League title. How'd you feel about how it went today?
WL: It felt really good. It felt like the team as a whole really functioned today. Everyone really took ownership of their individual responsibilities.
PJ: It felt good to come out and stick to the plan we had. We really played physically and direct in the rainy weather, even though we couldn't do a lot of things we wanted to do, we still had a complete performance.
NB: People adapted to the bad conditions and it was a good way to go into the actual Northeast playoffs in two weeks.
What are the Northeast playoffs?
PJ: We have a week off, then we're the No. 2 seed in the Northeast playoffs. Then we have a game two weeks from now at home, most likely against some upstate-New York, steakhead team.
Who's the number-one seed?
NB: Army.
You guys have a lot of blowouts. How do you feel about the level of competition you face?
NB: It's not so much about what the scoreboard says as it is about us improving every game.
WL: Coach [Alex Magleby] has a very performance-oriented approach to the game. Even after the games where we post our apparently big scores, we still have a long review of how we played afterwards if we are unsatisfied with our performances.
What's it like to play a game like rugby in such bad weather like today?
WL: It depends on your positions and it varies a lot with your gameplan. For skill players, it makes life more difficult having to field the high balls in rain makes it tough, and there are a lot more handling errors.
Since rugby is a club sport, you guys can't explicitly recruit, but you guys came here knowing you wanted to play rugby. How's that work?
NB: Actually, I knew I wanted to go to Dartmouth independent of rugby. When I found out they had an awesome rugby team, it just worked out, really. When I came into high school I wasn't even planning to play, but then I got cut from baseball and it just worked.
PJ: I played rugby in high school because my freshman football coach was a rugby coach too and he wanted me to play. I knew in college that I wanted a combination of academics, social life, and athletics, and Dartmouth just fit the bill.
WL: As a prospective student, I came out [from England] and I trained and hung out with the rugby team. I already knew it was a fantastic institution and I already knew I wanted to come to a college in the States. But having a fantastic rugby side really set Dartmouth out for me.
What are your expectations for the rest of the season?
PJ: Last year, in the first round of nationals, we lost to [Brigham Young University], who went on to win the national championship. We really surprised a lot of people, I think, especially in the next round when we crushed Navy a lot of people didn't expect that. Right now, we are very focused on the Northeast and trying to beat Army, but hopefully if we make it to Nationals we can show that we are a consistently great program.
WL: Nationally, there's an opinion that the Northeast is weaker than a lot of the other divisions in rugby, and at the moment we're trying to correct that perception.
What do you credit your success to?
NB: We have a very strong culture that starts with alumni and a tradition of winning and excellence on and off the field, which is very unique because if you look at all the Ivy League schools, we aren't really that different from them but it's our culture that sets us apart. Part of that tradition is our coach.
WL: We are incredibly lucky to have a fantastic coach, Alexander Magleby. He has really helped advance the Dartmouth rugby program and has instilled a winning mentality and appreciation for the Dartmouth rugby culture.
What do you guys keep inside of that sweet clubhouse?
WL: Couches, rugby memorabilia and trophies, small animals, gingers and an old wooden boot.
PJ: The East Coast's largest collection of reggae LP's.
NB: The broken dreams of the rest of the Ivy League.
