The history of the Diablo Gaels Rugby Club (formerly Olde Gaels Athletic Club) was a result of the merger of two separate clubs known as Peacock Gap and Piedmont Rugby Clubs in 1971. St. Mary's College Rugby Coach
Patrick Vincent, former Captain of the 1956 New Zealand All Blacks, suggested that his graduating seniors join the club. In so doing, the name Olde Gaels was selected as the college athletes joining the club were no longer young Gaels.
The club has competed in Northern California Rugby Football Union since 1971. We have competed continuously for the past 39 seasons in Northern California. Diablo Gaels Rugby is now privileged to have players from from various Colleges and Universities throughout the United States as well as overseas.
Our club has grown in both membership as well as depth in talent. Our U/23 Development program continues to grow, this allows the talented local area graduating high school players to compete in the Norcal Mens DIII. In previous years this team played in the collegiate leagues however the testament to the strength of this program is that the DII College teams would rather not play us.
Our mission is to build on the local talent and hopefully create an Eagles nursery of our own rather than import players at playoff stages. This prevents us from creating a false impression of what Norcal Rugby has to offer and also prevents stunting local talented players abilities to aspire to the next level.
This level being to represent the USA Eagles in the World Cup.
In 2005 we excelled from a bottom of the log Division II Club to top of Division I in second slot. In 2006 we maintain our standard made silly mistakes which kept us in second slot for a second year running.
2007 was a annus horribilus for the Diablo Gaels! We started strongly and our main accomplishment was beating San Mateo but at a price. We would suffer severely with 12 of our Top 15 out due to injury. A year of growth and creating depth was forced upon us and we managed to strengthen with each game we played. We ended the season with the 1st side's average age of 21 years. This side was mostly made up of our newly formed U23 side, who had finished there first year schedule and four of our Veterans from previous years one of whom was only 20 years of age.
The 2008 season after a drop to DII saw the rebirth of the club with us consistently having 50+ players out to practice. This resulted in a massive improvement in attitude both on and off the field with the Gaels becoming a true Rugby Club again. The season far exceeded our planning and expectations with the Gaels finishing 3rd on the log on points differential. We lost in the second round of the Pacific Coast playoffs but the seeds of success have been well planted and we look forward to improving this year with an eye to returning to DI in the 2010/2011 season.
RUGBY TODAY:
Rugby is currently the third largest sport in the world, it is also one of the fastest growing sports in the USA.
The United States national team competed in the 2007 World Cup in France and despite their difficult pool draw
(South Africa, England, Samoa and Tonga) performed well and earned the respect of not only many USA rugby families but also created international interest.
Over the past years we have seen the National sides of other countries tour the USA where the view point of most was the USA found it difficult to compete against traditional Rugby countries, Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand.
While it has been difficult in past years to promote or encourage playing of the game, we hope to see a rebirth and a renewed surge after this years US Eagles performance at the World Cup in France.
At the college level, football programs are being questioned and some colleges no longer have a program available due to the enormous budget one requires to run such a program. A rugby program however, is a sport that is relatively inexpensive and it is a known fact that this sport is a true team sport that can be played by players of all abilities for many years.
Rugby is a fast spectacular sport that attracts many spectators to games at all levels.
As a sport that promotes Teamwork, Fitness, Character and Enjoyment, rugby is without parallel. Add this to the fact that Rugby by far has less injuries than football, it can easily be seen why Americans are starting to embrace the game of Rugby Football in large numbers.
ROLL ON WORLD CUP 2011 IN NEW ZEALAND.
