IN THE NEWS: Mari Wallace

Rugby Ready

Training for the Women's Rugby World Cup, Friedman School student Maurin Wallace reflects on the challenges and advantages of being the underdog.

Boston [08.18.10] Some days, Maurin Wallace (N'11) feels like she is living the story of David and Goliath. Truth is she wouldn't want it any other way.


As a frontline defensive player for the U.S. Women's National Rugby team, Wallace, a second-year student in the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, says she appreciates the team's underdog status as they head into the World Cup on August 20 in London. The inaugural Women's Rugby World Cup was held in Cardiff in 1991, and since 1994, the tournament has been held every four years, similar to soccer's World Cup.
"We are up against countries where rugby is the national sport, so while my team grew up watching basketball and baseball, theirs grew up emulating famous rugby players," Wallace laughs. "These are also countries that are much smaller geographically than us, so they can get together and train a lot easier than we can here in the U.S.
"I'm excited, though, because I feel like this year we are putting a team out there that is up to par."

A Change in Plans
For most of Wallace's life, the California native was a devout soccer player, spending her entire high school career in the mindset that the sport would play a big role in her undergraduate college selection.
"My senior year of high school I got a back injury that put me out of soccer for many months prior to the walk-on trials at University of California, San Diego, so I didn't make the team," she says. "After that, I just happened to see a flyer for rugby and thought, 'tackling, running around, everything I think I wished soccer was,'-I was immediately hooked."
Since then, Wallace says she has tried to get as much rugby action as possible, playing for San Diego club teams and working her way to the national team through her performance in regional competitions. Eventually, she was among a pool of 25 to 30 players to compete internationally.

Having competed in her first World Cup in 2006, Wallace says she feels this year's team is truly up for the challenge.

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