About Gators Rugby

Short version: catch ball, run forward, score try. Longer version: a full-contact sport played on a 100m x 50m field, where the goal is to score more than the other team. Think American football crossed with soccer, with a lot more running and a lot less stoppage. Off the pitch, rugby is about community, and about being an open and welcoming environment that encourages everyone to be part of something bigger than themselves.

Cleats and a mouth guard. The type of cleats don't matter, just make sure they don't have the toe spike (so no baseball cleats, please). Don't have cleats? No worries! Don't let that stop you from coming out and learning in sneakers, if you love it (you will), then we can work with you from there to get properly equipped.

Nope. Smart rugby is safe rugby, so once you're properly trained to fall and tackle, it's easier to avoid injury than you'd think.

Yes, and most of our players started that way. A good share of every roster had never touched a rugby ball before arriving at UF. Coaches teach the game from the ground up, starting with how to fall and tackle safely, and nobody is thrown into a match before they are ready.

Fill out the player interest form and a coach will get back to you. You can also just turn up to a practice. Men train Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings at Hume Field, and women train Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Both teams take new players throughout the year, not just at the start of a season.

Gators Rugby competes in the Florida Collegiate Conference under the governance of USA Rugby, the national governing body for collegiate rugby. The men's side competes in CRAA Division 1AA within the Florida Conference and in NCR sevens competition.

Gators Rugby plays sevens in the fall and fifteens in the spring. Sevens is the Olympic format: seven players a side, seven-minute halves, a fast open game. Fifteens is traditional rugby union: fifteen players a side, forty-minute halves, with scrums and lineouts contested by eight forwards.

The University of Florida Rugby Football Club was founded in 1969, after two Australians decided at a cricket match in March of that year that UF needed a rugby club. The first match was played on November 7, 1969 against a newly formed Georgia side, and Florida won 15–3.

The University of Florida women's rugby football club began in 1975, six years after the men's club. Over five decades it has become a competitive collegiate side and a space for women and gender nonconforming athletes at the university. The team are back-to-back Florida State Champions and 2026 CRC D1AA Shield Champions.

Ken Simmons is Director of Rugby for Gators Rugby, guiding the growth of both the men's and women's programs. He served eighteen years as men's head coach from 2007 to 2025 before moving into the director role in 2026. He was inducted into the University of Florida Alumni Rugby Hall of Fame in 2019.

Gators Rugby competes across both semesters: sevens in the fall and fifteens in the spring.

Gators Rugby operates as a Sport Club under the University of Florida's Department of Recreational Sports, with student officers alongside a Director of Rugby and coaching staff.

You must be enrolled at the University of Florida. Both clubs compete as Sport Clubs under UF's Department of Recreational Sports, so enrollment comes first. Anyone still deciding on UF should submit the player interest form anyway — a coach will talk through what the path looks like.

A rugby fifteens team has eight forwards and seven backs. Forwards — props, hookers, locks, flankers and the number eight — contest scrums, lineouts and rucks. Backs — scrum-half, fly-half, centres, wings and fullback — handle distribution and running attack. Gators Rugby coaches place new players by build, speed and preference, so nobody needs to arrive knowing their position.

Both Gators Rugby clubs compete as Sport Clubs under the University of Florida's Department of Recreational Sports. GatorsRugby.com is separately published by the University of Florida Rugby Alumni Association, an independent nonprofit that is not an official unit of the university and is distinct from the UF Athletic Association.