Coming up this Friday, the CWU men’s rugby team will be hosting a matchup with Washington State University (WSU).

Men’s rugby center Jack Wendling explained why he isn’t intimidated at all by their division I opponent.

“It’s these smaller schools that have the big programs,” Wendling said. “St. Mary’s, Cal, Lindenwood, smaller schools like here.”

A definitive difference between WSU’s team and CWU’s team is that at WSU it’s a club team, while at CWU it’s a varsity sport. This allows for greater funds to be injected into the CWU Rugby team.

Right now, CWU is ranked 13 in the country. A big reason for this is that 52 percent of the roster is from out of state. This includes eight international players from places like Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Ireland and England.

Head coach Todd Thornley has been in charge of the CWU Rugby team since 2016. Thornley expressed his thoughts on their upcoming matchup with the Cougars.

“They’ve got a good coach down there,” Thornley said. “They make the best of what they’ve got.”

The men’s rugby team started off with a road trip to California this season, then they had to cancel a matchup against UW and most recently they beat California Polytechnic State University.

Thornley said that they had to cancel their matchup against the Huskies because UW simply didn’t have enough players to compete.

It goes to show the interest level differences between schools. A varsity program like CWU is able to outdraw a club program like UW.

Team Captain Cole Zarcone is a player to look out for on the pitch. The Vancouver native has been a multi-year starter and believes that the team can compete for a national title this year.

When asked how he contributes to the team, Zarcone was quick to deflect the attention onto his teammates.

“I think that Noah Christie is doing really well,” Zarcone said. “He’s a forward that’s really stepped up for us, especially with injuries.”

This matchup against WSU will be the first regular season rugby game played in the new Tomlinson Stadium. While there is a fall season for the men’s rugby team, they are treated more as exhibition matchups and don’t have any playoff implications come the regular season. This means that this Friday’s match-up against WSU will count towards CWU’s regular season record.

“We’re just trying to be relentless,” Wendling said. “No matter what, we just want to smack them in the mouth.”