Men’s rugby team makes winning home debut against Coastal Carolina

By Arantxa Taberneiro

Triangle Contributing Writer

The new Wingate University men’s rugby team won its first home game Sept. 27 against Coastal Carolina, 20-17, at Jesse Helms Park.

In March 2025, Athletic Director Joe Reich announced that rugby would move from club status to varsity status beginning this academic year. The team is led by head coach Frank McKinney and is competing in the Southern Rugby Conference, a regional league organized by USA Rugby.

Before accepting the challenge of starting a program from scratch at Wingate, McKinney got the Queens University program off the ground in 2017. During his seven years at the Charlotte school, he turned the Royals into a national powerhouse, taking them last year to the National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) Division 1 National Championship Game, where Queens lost to Brown University.

“We are looking to build a monster,” McKinney told the Goff Rugby Report about his new job at Wingate. “I know what it takes to build a program to the D1 level. It takes more than players—it takes film study, it takes tracking, it takes strength, conditioning and fitness, and it takes playing a lot of tough games.”

The 18-man Wingate roster includes seven international players and, apparently, more are on the way.

“More are coming next semester,” said freshman player Troy Hargreaves, a Finance major from South Africa. “Most of us international students have been playing since we were 5 years old.”

The creation of the program makes Wingate a pioneer within the South Atlantic Conference, becoming the first institution in the league to add men’s rugby as a varsity sport and one of only two in the region, along with Lander University in Greenwood, S.C.

“The main goal [this season] is to set a good foundation to have a much more competitive team going into next year,” said freshman Jan Riba, a Communication major from Spain.

Future goals include moving up in competition, according to Wingate team captain Dylan Kay, a freshman Exercise Science major from England.

“We are pushing hard to compete in Rugby East next year, which is potentially the most competitive conference in [college] rugby,” said Kay, referring to Wingate’s anticipated move into the high-level NCR for 2026.

Wingate will play play four more regular-season matches this year against UNC Charlotte, N.C. State, Appalachian State and Lander. The Bulldogs will take on the Wolfpack (Oct. 18) and Lander (Nov. 8) at Jesse Helms Park.

Rugby is one of three new sports Wingate added for this year, along with men’s beach volleyball and women’s flag football. That expansion into more of the NCAA’s emerging sports now gives the university 29 intercollegiate athletic teams.