For nearly half a century, women have laced up their boots each fall and spring to play fifteen-a-side and sevens rugby in New Hampshire's Upper Valley. This site is an unofficial, fan-built archive that gathers what makes that tradition worth remembering: the story of the timber clubhouse that took twenty years to build, the driving directions that generations of visiting supporters have followed up Route 10, the community memorial run that grew out of the team's grief, and a plain-language guide to a game that still confuses first-time spectators.
A Club Sport, Run by Its Players
Unlike the varsity programs that fill most college athletic departments, this rugby tradition grew up as an independent, self-supporting club sport — organized, funded, and led by the students who play it. Team officers book the buses, balance the budget, recruit newcomers, and pass the institutional memory from one graduating class to the next. That do-it-yourself culture is a large part of why the club endured, and why its alumnae network remains unusually loyal decades after their last match.
Deep Roots, National Reach
Founded in the late 1970s, the women's side built a record that stands with the best in the country: multiple appearances in the national collegiate tournament, several New England and conference titles, and an annual touring tradition that has carried squads across North America and Europe since the 1980s. Players have gone on to earn All-American honors and national-team selection — a heritage explored on our honors and tradition page.
What You'll Find Here
- The Clubhouse & Pitches — the twenty-year story of a rugby home built into a New England hillside.
- Directions — how to find the pitch, the route visiting supporters have relied on for years.
- Rugby 101 — a field guide to the laws, positions, and flow of the game.
- Cully's Run — a community memorial run for mental-health and eating-disorder awareness.
- Club History and The Season — the record, the tours, and how a rugby year unfolds.
Rugby has always billed itself, in the words of one honorary coach, as a game "of the players, by the players, and for the players." This archive is offered in that same spirit — for the players who built the tradition, and for the spectators still learning to love it. If the game is new to you, start with Rugby 101; if you're headed to a match, our directions will get you there.