A sport for the toughest of the tough, rugby combines elements of soccer and American football to make the sport played around the world.

At Northeastern, rugby has been around for awhile. The men’s team is currently in its 20th year, while the women have been a club sport since 1995.

Both teams began their spring season in March, returning after failed playoff attempts in the fall.

The men’s team went 7-1 in the regular season, ending with a 7-3 record after two playoff losses. The women went 5-2 in their season, losing in the first playoff round.

Despite their failure to move on in the playoffs, both teams considered the fall a great season.

“[The fall] was one of the team’s best seasons,” said co-captain of the men’s team Chris Wicken, a senior civil engineering major. “The team has gotten unbelievable. I’m very disappointed that it’s my last season.”

The captain of the girl’s team agreed.

“[This fall] was the first time we’ve made it to the playoffs in four years,” said co-captain of the women’s team Jennifer Jones, a senior management marketing major. “It was definitely a big accomplishment on our part.”

Out of the 15 players on the “pitch,” otherwise known as the rugby field, eight are considered “forwards,” and seven are “backs.” Wicken, a back player, said the difference in who plays what position depends on the player’s size.

“The backs tend to be the smaller guys,” Wicken said. The front players, he said, run the ball forward in attempts to make “tries,” a five-point score achieved when the ball is carried across the opposing team’s goal line and put on the ground. Unlike football, a tackle does not stop play. The player who has been tackled must immediately release the ball, and a “ruck” occurs when both teams scramble for possession of the ball.

“It’s a fast sport, that’s what’s best about it,” Wicken said.

Since the 15 players on the field wear no padding, misconceptions about the roughness of the sport are common, Wicken said. Assumptions are often made that rugby is a sport of many injuries, but Wicken said this isn’t necessarily true.

“Rugby is completely different than [American] football,” Wicken said. “I’ve heard there are even less injuries [in rugby than in football]. When you’re not wearing any pads you’re thinking more about how to tackle the guy [safely].”

Both teams are seeing a surge of new membership. The men’s team currently includes an A, B and C team with a total of 45-50 players, Wicken said. The women’s team has an A and a B team with about 35 members.

“The team has been growing every year,” said co-captain Marie Staley, a senior physical therapy major. “We’re bringing out more and more freshmen each year.”

The women’s team also cited the camaraderie between the members of the team as a reason for its success.

“We have a great group of girls, a very close network here,” Staley said.

The men’s team said close ties between competing teams also add to the enjoyment of the game.

“Rugby is one of those sports where you finish the game and hang out with the team you just played against,” Wicken said.

Both teams said new members are easy to come by, and anyone can join the team.

“Many people that play [rugby] in college started in college,” Sivak said. “Anyone can pick it up.”

Since club sports do not receive funding from the university, both teams have had to raise the money on their own. The men’s team credits their alumni with a great amount of financial support, and the women use fundraising to cover financial costs, which can range from about $2,000 for the fall season to up to $6,000 for the spring season, since the team travels to tournaments in the spring and must pay transportation and hotel costs.

The team has sold “everything from candy to magazines,” Staley said. Jones said the team relies heavily on its own earnings and is “definitely a self-run team.”

For the women, a sport with lots of competition but less commitment makes North-eastern rugby perfect.

“The big draw is that it’s not as much of a commitment [as a varsity sport] but the competition is still there,” Jones said. “The girls like being able to do what the guys do and play as hard as the guys do.”

Both teams look forward to continued success in the future.

“I’d like to see the team make the national tournament,” Sivak said. “It’s only going to get better.”