The South Alabama rugby club won the bronze medal at the Alabama Sports Festival, a tournament played at Spain Park High School in Hoover that brought together five men’s club teams and five collegiate teams.
The Jaguars lost only to the eventual gold and silver medalists and closed the tournament with a 12-0 victory over Alabama in the third-place match.
Pool Play
South Alabama was placed in Pool A with Birmingham 1, Montgomery and North Alabama. A top-two finish in the pool was needed to reach the medal round.
- South Alabama 24, Montgomery 0: The Jaguars opened with a shutout of the Montgomery men’s club. “Our boys came out strong, jumped on the much bigger men’s team and never let up,” coach Darwin said in a team release.
- Birmingham 1 14, South Alabama 7: Birmingham 1, a men’s side playing at home and the eventual gold medalist, handed South Alabama its first loss.
- South Alabama 10, North Alabama 0: The win over the University of North Alabama, played in the midday heat, sent the Jaguars into the medal round.
Semifinal Against Battleship
South Alabama fell 24-5 to Mobile’s Battleship club in the semifinals. Darwin said the Jaguars had to use their entire bench to finish the match against a team they knew well.
Bronze Medal Match
The Jaguars blanked Alabama 12-0 to claim third place. Darwin noted that the win came against a team that had beaten South Alabama late in the spring.
“Bronze medal match, and the Jaguars weren’t coming away empty handed,” Darwin said.
