The Penn State Women’s Rugby team kicked off their Tour of Italy with an intra-squad match, called the War of the Roses. The match was hosted by the US Army Base in Vicenza and was attended with several hundred servicemen and civilians who were seeing their first ever rugby game. The Red Roses of Lancaster overcame the White Roses of York 21-14 in a physical and free flowing match that was a great advertisement for the game of rugby and a particularly for women’s rugby.
The War of the Roses is the traditional intra-squad match the team plays on tour. Inspired 7 years ago after a game was canceled on a tour of England, the idea came from the famous civil war in England in the 15th century. The War of the Roses was between the House or York, symbolized by a white rose, and the House of Lancaster and at the end of the war the houses came together and created the Tudor Rose, which is a combination of both. The players are assigned to either York or Lancaster and they stay on those teams for the remainder of their Penn State career. There is one game a year, the opening scrimmage of the tour and it is always a very intense game. This years result means that the Red Roses lead the series 3-2-2.
The Penn State women’s team has been on tour to Europe for the last 10 years, but it is their first tour to Italy. Mark Juliano, the athletic director for the Vicenza Army base, has been an amazing host and has given the team access to top-notch facilities for the week. The team has had double days in preparation for 6 matches against some of the top women’s club teams in Italy. The War of Roses match was publicized on the base with posters and announcements on the base newspaper. Over the last 2 days many people we met have asked us about the kick-off time.
With a large crowd in the bleachers, the teams stood for the Italian and USA National anthems and the game got going. The game did not disappoint the crowd. It was a game that flowed well with big hits and good runs. The quality of rugby was very high and it was impressive that it remained high no matter who was on the pitch. There was gasps and cheers from the fans as they began to understand the game and it was a great demonstration of women’s rugby.
After the game the players went over to the bleachers to thank the spectators for come and in particular to thank the soldiers for their service to our country. The servicemen were invited down to the pitch to join the players for a picture and then the players spent some time talking to them about the game and their lives. The base wants to start a rugby team, and over 40 soldiers signed up to learn the game for the first time at the event.
Next up for the team are two games on Monday night. One team will play Rugby Rivera in the town of Mira near Venice, while the other team will play Valsugana Rugby in the town of Padova. While they are both division 1 teams, Rugby Rivera is one of the elite teams in Italy having won the Italian Championship last year.
Check the blog in the next couple of days for pictures from the War of the Roses and a link to the Armed Forces Network which was there to do a feature on the game.
