March 26, 2009

ANNAPOLIS, Md.--The No.13 ranked Navy Men's Rugby Team (10-4) will play host to No. 8 Army (7-1-2) on Saturday, April 4 at 6 p.m. at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for youth under 18. Midshipmen and Cadets will be admitted free. There is also a $5 charge for parking at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

Tickets will be on sale day of the match at the stadium box office, which is located in the North End Zone of Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

Stadium gates will open at 5 p.m. and the match will be preceded by a Sevens exhibition match at 5:30 p.m. With only seven players per team playing on the same size pitch as the traditional 15-person-a-side match, Sevens rugby offers a spectacle of non-stop action where speed, skills, and athleticism rule the day.

Last year, Navy stormed back to beat rival Army, 19-17, in the first rugby match to ever be played in Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The large crowd witnessed a very spirited and fast-paced contest between these two nationally ranked teams. A non-league match, both teams will use the competition to prepare for the USA Rugby Collegiate Championships, which starts April 17 in Atlanta, Ga.

The Army-Navy match will be taped for a 9pm EDT April 14th broadcast on ESPNU as the National Guard Game of the Week, the last of three matches arranged this spring by USA Rugby, ESPNU, and the participating institutions to reach an unprecedented domestic audience for regular season collegiate rugby. The other matches in the series were British Columbia at California and Brigham Young at Utah.

Navy Rugby, established in 1963, fosters a warrior ethos that routinely produces young officers who go on to serve in the most demanding warfare communities in the Navy and Marine Corps.

The USA Rugby Collegiate Championship playoff system, which was established in 1980, brings together the best 16 teams in the nation as they vie for the national championship. Navy has been to the USA Rugby Championship semifinals 10 times since 1980.