Wayne State Rugby heads to nationals aiming to claim 11th national championship

WAYNE, NE - 

The Wayne State women’s rugby team hit the road for Georgia on Wednesday. Its a trip that has become familiar to the team as they try to win their 11th national title.

"That's the most comforting thing about it," head coach Darrin Barner said. "Everybody knows what is going on. We leave here Wednesday and don't get back until Monday. The full itinerary is planned to the T and we're stress free."

Barner says his team is feeling good as it enters the Final Four, but to defend their championship from a year ago, the team will have to get past a three other teams that Barner says are much improved from last year.

"Never overlooking anybody and we're prepared," Barner said. "It's going to be a knife fight in a phone booth down there."

Barner says to earn championship 11, the team will need a strong showing from the thing that famously is known to win championships: defense.

"Defense causes turnovers, it gets us the ball back, short yardage to score when we have a turnover and get the ball back," Barner said. "Defense is definitely our strong point and it has been for numerous years. We take really good pride in that, and we're looking to count on defense to win us another one."

Wayne State will play Minnesota State Moorehead, who won it all in 2015, in the semifinals at 10:00 am on Saturday, December 7th. If they win, they will play for the championship at noon on Sunday the eighth.

The games can be watched on the National Small College Rugby Organization's YouTube channel. You can click here to go to their page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVk-w_Eqwtq_bg0LDWPgPxA