Yale University at Oxford
We caught up with Head Coach Craig Wilson from Yale this week while on the UK and Ireland Tour. It was great to hear more about the recent developments in the IVY league school rugby program.
Oxford played host in what started as a highly competitive fixture. A few mid field errors and Oxford began to assume a healthy lead and finish victorious. Yale having played Cambridge earlier in the week and heading to Dublin to play Trinity college next week are certainly making the most of their tour.
Coach Wilson explained that while they have a number of talented individuals, many of whom are internationals, there were also a lot of U.S players playing with only 10 games experience.
Yale has played rugby for well over 130 years and was the home of the Father of American Football - Walter Camp. Camp witnessed his class mates (mainly expatriates from UK/Australia) playing this strange and brutal game which gave him the inspiration to go on and develop American Football.
Yale in particular went through a 50 year period when rugby was not allowed to be played on campus. Now the IVY league schools as well as many more tier 1 academic institutions in the northeast such as Syracuse, Rutgers, Columbia, run successful programs filled with international rugby scholars.
