United Rugby History
Locally and nationally the United Rugby Club has a long tradition at the youth and high school levels, but its roots began with the United Men’s Rugby Club in the 1980s. Current United Rugby Club head coach Colin Purriri led the former United Men’s team that included players like current BYU head coach David Smyth and former USA Eagle Mark Ormsby. Today, our program has grown to include a Girls High School team, a Varsity Boys team, a Boys 9th -10th grade team, two Middle School Boys teams, and last year we re-introduced our a United Men’s team.
As an organization, United is always looking for areas that we can contribute as club to grow the sport of Rugby both locally and nationally. So when we were approached by Rugby Utah about its inaugural Men’s Premier Division (MPD), we saw it as an opportunity to resurrect our United Men’s Rugby Club. Each of our current teams have earned state honors and we are confident that our Men’s team will soon do the same.
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Timeline:
1987: Ra Puriri founded United Rugby Club (Men's)
2002: United started it's first High School Boy's team
2004: United (U19) qualified for it's 1st National Tournament in Dallas, TX (finished 15th)
2007: United (U19) finished 11th in the National Tournament (Salt Lake City, UT)
2008: United started it's first 9/10th grade boys team
United (U19) finished 2nd in the National Tournament (Pittsburg, PA)
2009: United started it's first 7/8th grade boys team
United (U19) once again finished 2nd in the National Tournament (Pittsburg, PA)
2010: United started it's first Girl's Rugby team
United started Utah's first Youth Rugby Program for ages 8-14
United (U19) won it's 1st National Championship (Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT)
2011: USA Rugby got rid of the U19 Division
United's Youth Rugby Program grew to over 100 kids
United (Varsity Boys 15s) finished 2nd in the National Tournament (Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT)
2012: United Youth Rugby Program grew to a point where Utah Youth Rugby (a local Utah Rugby Organization) took over the running of the
Summer Youth Rugby Program and since has grown to almost 500 youth
United (Varsity Boys 15s) once finished 2nd in the National Tournament (Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT)
United has it's 1st club alumni (Maka Unufe) to represent USA Rugby on the USA’s National 7s team (recently played in the Rio Olympics)
2013: United (Varsity Boys 15s) won it's 2nd National Championship (Elkhart, IN)
2014: United started it's first 7/8th grade team for players under 135lbs
United (Varsity Boys 15s) finished 6th in the National Tournament
2015: United (Varsity Boys 15s) finished 3rd in the National Tournament
2016: United (Varsity Boys 15s) finished 3rd in the National Tournament
United (Varsity Boys 7s) finished 2nd in the State in the Fall 7s Series
United (Varsity Girls 15s) finished 3rd in the National Tournament
United (Varsity Girls 7s) won the Pink 7s Tournament
United (Varsity Girls 7s) won the State Championship in the Fall 7s Series
United Men's Rugby Club inaugural season in the Rugby Utah Men's Premier Division
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2017: More great things to come...
