San Antonio Rugby began in 1972 and has been a pillar of rugby in Texas, and the premier rugby experience in South Texas since. Not only do we pride ourselves in accolades earned over five decades but it is our goal to promote a family friendly experience and to educate the community on the game of rugby.
In the past 10 years, San Antonio rugby boasts a near 80% W/L percentage, while winning the Red River Rugby Conference five (5) times and placing second four (4) times. All of these outcomes resulted in a Texas Rugby Union playoff appearance. In the club’s history we have also made five (5) national tournament appearances.
We understand that the success of rugby will depend on future generations and have invested heavily into academy teams at every age group. (Youth, U18, U23 and so on) If you or a family member is interested in learning the game or improving your rugby skills, please contact us directly!
Some fond memories from our Old Boys, a.k.a Los Viejos:
“In 1999, we went to Western Championships (which used to be the round of 64 teams left in the nation per division and would finish with 16 teams that moved on). It was also 3 days in a row, full 80 minutes match on Friday. Winners played on Saturday and Sunday. We beat Ft worth on Friday, and they were defending national champions that year. We lost to Springfield Missouri on Saturday in nail biting knock on in try zone finish at full time. On Sunday we beat Colorado Springs (just for seeding). So that year we finished Top 20 in nation for division - just missing the round of 16.”
“In 1999 we went to Boulder CO in 7s. This was a playoff round that we earned by placing in 3 other summer tournaments including Bloodfest in Austin. (They used to host it at Zilker park) We beat the Austin Blacks in the championship game and had to be in Boulder the next weekend. We hadn’t planned for a trip like that because we had to win Bloodfest to move on- so we got all kinds of last-minute flights, flight miles etc. donated. There were 16 teams in pools of 4. We went 1-2 in pool/3rd rank and didn’t make the Top 8. But we played the KC Blues 7- who were strong back then in 7s with like 3-4 Eagles and we were the only team beating them at halftime. They came back and smoked us 2nd half. Our win was a 21-19 comeback win. We were down 19-0 at half and Coach Geoff Wurts had us drink Night Train for 1 minute halftime. I scored the winning/last second Try to tie and Mike Wiener kicked the conversion for the win. The team- Joe Davis, Geoff Wurts, Mike Poole, Avery Ford, Tim Cone, Will Gunter, Mike Weiner and me. 8 players for a 12-man roster.”
“In 2001-02, we made the round of 16 in Rhode Island. We beat media Pennsylvania in day 1/Saturday in a double OT match. 10 minutes of OT. First OT was played to draw. 2nd OT was sudden death and we scored with maybe 2 minutes left on the clock. We played New Haven CT next day and we got beat like 32-15, we just didn’t have the legs/gas in the tank to keep up. They went on to win D2 national championship that year. We finished Top 8 but no seeding to know 5-8 ranks.”