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Miami club rugby learns from world-renowned coach in preparation for home-opener

The Miami club rugby team practices at Ditmer Field on Sept. 23
The Miami club rugby team practices at Ditmer Field on Sept. 23

One walk past Cook Field on a weekday night will reveal the importance of club sports at Miami University. 

With more than 50 club teams on campus, Miami students can compete in a wide range of sports, from the more popular ones like soccer and baseball to more niche activities like equestrianism and clay shooting.

Club sports are an important part of the Miami community. While they don’t get the funding that varsity sports do, they are still highly competitive and provide a step up from intramural competitions.

For the Miami club rugby team, competing at a high level is at the top of its priorities. This season, the RedHawks took their development a step further by inviting Grant Keenan, the director of the Crusaders International Academy and a former rugby coach from New Zealand, to coach the team from Sept. 22-26 in preparation for their home opener on Oct. 4.

The club rugby team has been around since 1968, when it was founded by an Englishman named Lionel Young. It is the oldest club sport on campus, and former players still support the team both financially and by attending matches. 

Second-year head coach Killan Mulkern said throughout the program’s history, the roster has consisted of players with an extensive history in rugby, as well as those who have never played the sport. 

“We have guys that have never played rugby before, join us the first couple weeks of school … and a couple have become starters on our team,” Mulkern said. “We have a good mixture. We have a lot of players that have played before, but also guys that are brand new. They all gel together very well.”

Team captain Mason Craddock, a senior marketing major, joined the team his freshman year after playing football all through high school. For him, rugby was much of the same: hitting people and getting a ball across the goal line. 

“That’s definitely what attracted me to the sport,” Craddock said. “I already do pretty much [all of this] in football. The big thing with football is you’re very tied to your position compared to rugby, where everyone can essentially be a running back. Everyone has the ball in their hand at some point.”

Not every player on the team has a background in football. Some joined after playing basketball and tennis before college, while others have never played a contact sport before. Despite that, the team works to get everyone adjusted to the physical demands involved with rugby. 

As with every team sport, unity is necessary with rugby: not just on the field, but off the field as well. Jack Kendall, the president of the team and a junior mechanical engineering major, said the team grows close at practice, but the players also spend time on campus connecting with each other.

“It’s a brotherhood,” Kendall said. “Every one of us knows that we can trust each other with everything, whatever information. If someone’s struggling mentally, physically, emotionally – we’re the kind of guys we reach out to. We all love each other”

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The 2024 season saw the RedHawks finish 3-2 during Mulkern’s first year at the helm. Miami’s wins include a 72-0 shutout against Eastern Kentucky University and a 26-17 win over Purdue University. Miami also won its Battle of the Bricks matchup against Ohio University 40-14.

This year, Mulkern said the roster turnover will benefit the RedHawks. Miami returns 13 out of 15 starters, losing two to graduation, while recruiting eight freshmen through MegaFair this fall. 

One of the new players this year is Marcus Allen Jr, a freshman biology major. He played rugby in high school before arriving in Oxford, and he set his sights on joining Miami’s team soon after he moved in. 

“It looks scary, but after you come to one practice, you’ll see how fun it is,” Allen said. “I had a friend that’s never played rugby before at all – he’s never even played a contact sport – and he came to one practice and was like, ‘Dude, I’m coming back every day.’”

For his second year as head coach, Mulkern said he wants to take the team’s development to the next level. Over the summer, he attended a coaching development course with the Crusaders, a professional rugby union team in Christchurch, New Zealand. 

“New Zealand is one of the top countries in the sport of rugby,” Mulkern said. “It was really cool to learn a lot of drills and technical stuff that I haven’t necessarily seen before or thought about. I was able to bring back all of that knowledge to [the United States] and to give all that knowledge back to the boys here.”

In the course, Mulkern learned new drills, techniques and playstyles that he hadn’t seen in the U.S. He also met Keenan, whom he would later invite to Miami for a week in September to instruct the RedHawks. 

Before he took the role as director of Crusaders Global, Keenan was an assistant on the New Zealand women’s national rugby team, the Black Ferns, helping them win the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2017.  That year, the Black Ferns became the first women’s rugby team to be named World Rugby Team of the Year. 

Keenan travels across the world coaching players, developing their skills and introducing a new perspective on the sport. 

“What I’ve seen from the boys is a real keenness to learn,” Keenan said. “The challenge that these boys have got, and the challenge for the game in [the U.S.], is that they start the game very late in their age. Some are lucky enough to start at middle school, some can start at a high school, but a lot of them tend to start in this university age, so they miss that natural upbringing within the game”

During the week with Keenan in town, the RedHawks attended coaching clinics and received feedback from him during practices. The extra help culminated in a 73-5 win over Saginaw Valley State University. 

This year is Miami’s first in the Great Lakes Conference. The other members of the conference are Calvin University, Central Michigan University, Ferris State University, Grand Valley State University and Saginaw Valley State University, all of which are in Michigan. 

The RedHawks are preparing for their home-opener against Grand Valley State on Oct. 4 at Ditmer Field. Miami is looking to continue its winning streak in the Great Lakes Conference.

“We have the talent, and it’s young talent, too,” Mulkern said. “The standards and expectations were high for this year. Even now, we only have four seniors this year. A lot of those guys that played last year are also here this year, and they’ll be here for the next two years. The future looks bright here in Miami.”

babukc2@miamioh.edu

smithat4@miamioh.edu

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