Upstate Franchise Rugby Club (UFRC)
Upstate Franchise Basketball Association is thrilled to announce that we have recently founded the Upstate Franchise Rugby Club (UFRC)!
Established in November 2024 by UFBA Founder and Coach Walter Kemp, along with Nazareth University Coaches Andrew Spencer and Rob Ruhland, our goal with UFRC is to offer programs for youth to belong to from all backgrounds and abilities. Rugby is an excellent opportunity to expand our reach and be at the forefront of bringing this sport to the younger generation of Rochester.
UFRC offers a free intro to rugby camp in the summer, free skills clinics over the winter, and aims to start a league in the spring.
Why Rugby?
Rugby is a sport for everyone
- Any body type
- Any athleticism
- Any sport experience or lack thereof (you don’t have to have played another sport to play rugby and have success)
- Everyone passes, catches, runs with the ball, tackles, etc.
- THERE IS A POSITION FOR EVERYONE
- THERE IS PLAYING TIME FOR EVERYONE
- Rugby is a competitive and social sport
- Teams socialize after their matches. Usually the home team hosts a post game social with food and drinks for the away team.
- A rugby player can go anywhere in the world and if there is a rugby club there, that club will host you, house you, let you stay for a night or two, help you find a job, give you an immediate friend group wherever you are, etc.
- On the field there is a high level of respect, off the field there is a high level of camaraderie
Rugby is a competitive and social sport
- Teams socialize after their matches. Usually the home team hosts a post game social with food and drinks for the away team.
- A rugby player can go anywhere in the world and if there is a rugby club there, that club will host you, house you, let you stay for a night or two, help you find a job, give you an immediate friend group wherever you are, etc.
- On the field there is a high level of respect, off the field there is a high level of camaraderie
Rugby is a safe sport
- Yes there are injuries, but there are rules and guidelines that are strictly enforced on the field and at practice to keep the game as safe as possible.
- Rugby teaches players how to engage in contact properly in a manner that protects their head and the rest of their body.
- It is a contact sport without the football pads, so players have an incentive to protect themselves on both offense and defense. We teach how to do that using proper body positioning, footwork, mentality, and technique
WHAT IS RUGBY & WHAT WILL PLAYERS LEARN WITH UFRC?
Types of Rugby
- Types of Rugby
- There are two types of rugby in the world. 1. Rugby Union 2. Rugby League.
- Both types of rugby have similarities and differences to each other.
- Rugby Union is the more popular version and is what most people see on TV and in the Olympics.
- Rugby Union is what we are going to teach with Upstate Franchise, and what most clubs in the United States and around the world play.
- There are two types of rugby in the world. 1. Rugby Union 2. Rugby League.
- Rugby Union
- There are also different versions of Rugby Union.
- The two most popular versions are 1. 15’s Rugby 2. 7’s Rugby.
- Rugby union is played on a field similar in size to a soccer field.
- There are very similar rules to both 15’s and 7’s rugby with some slight differences:
- 15’s Rugby
- Played in two 40 minute halves (game is 80 minutes total)
- 15 vs 15 (15 players on the field for each team)
- 15’s has a more complex strategy
- 7’s Rugby
- Played in two 7 minute halves (game is 14 minutes total)
- 7 vs 7 ( 7 players on the field for each team)
- Same size field as a 15’s field.
- Lots of space, lots of scoring, this version is much faster.
- 15’s Rugby
- Types of Rugby
Rugby basics, rules, and guidelines will be covered at UFRC camps and clinics. In the meantime, you can find more information about rugby at the following websites:
https://www.majorleague.rugby/
https://www.rochestercolonials.com/home
*YouTube is also a great source for learning videos and to watch full matches.