“Football is a gentleman’s game played by ruffians, and rugby is a ruffian’s game played by gentlement,” according to an old British saying.
Rugby players from three Catholic colleges faced off at Christendom College in Front Royal April 1 in the first Frassati Invitational Rugby Tournament, named for Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, a Third Order Dominican whom St. John Paul II called “a man of the beatitudes.”
The Christendom Crusaders emerged victorious in the round-robin tournament against rivals Ave Maria University of Florida and Franciscan University of Steubenville. Each match featured two 35-minute fast and furious halves in which 15 rugby players took to the pitch to run, pass, kick, tackle and score — without equipment.
Photos by Joe Cashwell for the Catholic Herald.
Buy pictures from the tournament at catholicherald.smugmug.com.