Vail Rugby Club set for season opener against Queen City RFC at Ford Park

The Vail Rugby Club is set to open the 2025 season against Queen City RFC at Ford Park on Saturday at 4 p.m. After holding its first three full practices, second-year head coach Joe Lippert is feeling good about the slightly revamped roster.

“We’re really happy with what we’ve got going the first two weeks of practice and we’re looking forward to these two home games coming up,” he said.

Lippert, a Wisconsin native who has coached collegiately in Iowa the last several years, used his Midwest connections to lure several prominent NCAA athletes to the mountains for the summer. Wayne State’s Trent Draper and University of Minnesota-Duluth product Matt Carda are expected to play key roles alongside three returners and three newcomers from Principia College. Those athletes — along with locals Noah Champion and Michael Harlan — will help fill the gaps left by two key departures in last year’s forward of the year, Matt Surles-Davis, and South African stud Riis du Plessis.

“We’re going to miss them a lot but we really like the group we’ve brought in,” Lippert said.

The coach’s first season was highlighted by a 4-0 start which included a 38-5 season-opening win over Boulder as well as victories against Grand Junction and Steamboat Springs. Then the Gentlemen of Aspen handed Vail three-straight mid-season losses. Lippert said one lesson highlighted by the Gents’ dominance was the need to develop unity and chemistry in his group early in the calendar.

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“I think some of the games where we did struggle last year was because we were playing quality opponents who play together all year round,” he explained. “We’ve really targeted (at) these first few practice sessions some areas of the game that get us playing with each other, in compliment to one another and in a creative but collaborative way.”

Vail Rugby Club president Chris Chantler said he was impressed with how Lippert immediately fostered a healthy culture during his first campaign.

“I thought it was something we’d been missing,” Chantler said.

“Joe brings an awful lot of experience in developing certain plays and really getting the best out of the talent we have and growing the players. I was really excited to see that last year,” he continued. “From watching our first match against Aspen, getting closer (in the next two) and then our final match when we played them — we really commanded that game.”

In the Mountain League finale on Aug. 3, Vail cruised to a 35-24 win over their Roaring Fork rivals. The victory was made all the more impressive by what the Gents — who wouldn’t lose for another nine months — did afterwards.

“We reached a really high level and Aspen continued on and really put the Mountain Rugby back on the map,” Chantler said.

In its first season back in USA Rugby Division II in more than a decade, Aspen came a win away from the national semifinals. After winning the Rocky Mountain Rugby Union championship last fall over Salt Lake City’s Haggis RFC, the Gents defeated Indianapolis in the Division II Club Northern Super Regional on May 3 before falling to Kansas City RFC in the national round of eight the following day.

This July Fourth weekend, Vail travels to Aspen for what could be its biggest test of the year.

“That’s one we certainly have marked on the calendar,” Lippert said. “That’s going to be really the measuring stick of the season after we get a few games in.”

Lippert said while new players will inevitably adjust to his system, he’s also constantly looking for opportunities to tweak it in order to highlight strengths, personnel or specific game strategy. He expects this squad to play a similar brand of rugby as last year’s, albeit with maybe a bit more firepower in the backline.

“Hopefully we can put even more points on the board,” he added.

While pieces of the schedule are still being chiseled out, Chantler said he already knows Steamboat Springs will come to town on June 7 and Vail will travel to Santa Fe and Salt Lake City for games later this summer. Chantler said both the collegiate recruiting and increased travel to face better competition reflect his vision for the club.

“Historically, we would bring in ringers and players from across the world and then they would leave,” he explained. “I started to see that there’s a definite opportunity here for Vail to be more of an academy environment where we want to attract a lot of American players — college players — and really give them the opportunity to develop their game.”

He’s also excited about the emergence of the Vail women’s rugby club, which Lippert’s wife, Grace, has helped to push forward. Chantler said both squads welcome rookies and veterans to join their practices, held Tuesday and Thursday nights at 6 p.m. at the Vail Athletic Fields.

“This is as much an opportunity to develop existing players as it is to introduce new players to the game,” he said. “There’s been some tremendous rugby played on the Vail pitch over its 53-year history. And I think we’re back on top (and) really making a name for ourselves.”