Rugby has a reputation for being a physical and aggressive sport. The NIU men’s rugby team lives up to that reputation.

With a 51-0 victory over DePaul, the Huskies remain undefeated in their conference and made a further push for the playoffs.

“The first half we played very well and got off to a very big lead,” said NIU men’s rugby president Al Collins. “We got comfortable in the second half and played a little sloppy.”

Daron Flory was the Man of the Match for the Huskies. Big games by Dan Joda, Alex Binetti and Chris Graever added to the victory.

NIU will wrap up the regular season on Saturday at the University of Chicago. A win will keep the Huskies undefeated in the Chicago Area Rugby Union after a 3-2 season in 2007.

One reason for the improvement has been the number of players at practices and at games for the Huskies, along with developing rivalries with the top conference teams.

“We’ve had a lot of new guys come in. We have strong numbers at practices and we’ve showed up to games with numbers,” Collins said. “In practice we had a few outside influences with rivals but we’ve been practicing hard and we scrimmage in practice.”

Collins said the team has improved not only in numbers but in physical and all-around play, which has led them to a season full of big wins.

“Each position we’ve gotten stronger at and are playing at a higher level,” Collins said. “We’re playing more physical. In the first few minutes it’s kind of hard and takes the other team out of the game early. We just really stress that we want to come out physical and set the tone for the game.”

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