Rugby - Landon

Rugby at Landon is all about competing together, growing thoughtfully, and building real toughness.

We see these values every day in practices and games.

The boys are learning and playing a sport that demands outstanding teamwork in an extreme competitive environment. The sport requires so much more of them intellectually and cognitively than most sports they have played and requires a kind of grit and determination and toughness than they have ever had to embody.

We expect our athletes to commit to the tenets of our team ethos, including:

Players will communicate, win or lose together, get better every day together;
Players will play hard, play disciplined, play smart;
Players will demonstrate physical and mental toughness, putting opponents under constant pressure;
Players will be the best at things that “require no talent.”

Athletes who participate in rugby can expect great teammates – to love and support each other, to be positive and encouraging, to find ways to give energy rather than take it away, and to help each other turn their weaknesses into strengths and make their strengths stronger.

If each player strives every day to be a great teammate, the team can expect to grow in skill and knowledge of the game, through the support of novice players by those with more experience, so that hard work and technical knowledge in practice will translate into success on the field of competition.

The full schedule for this team will be available closer to the start of the season.

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Rugby at Landon

Upcoming Events

The full schedule for this team will be available closer to the start of the season.

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Program Overview

Our Varsity Program

Coaches strive to teach players to be complete human beings: caring, confident, thoughtful, respectful men who are good teammates and great rugby players and athletes. They will accomplish this by being positive and encouraging coaches rather than negative, and should a negative interaction occur, we will model repair and appropriate follow-up. Relatedly, coaches will communicate expectations and instructions clearly: if players make a mistake, we will walk them through every part of the technique, skill, tactic, etc.

On the field, coaches will emphasize the proper technical skills and technique, followed by tactics and strategy, game-speed processing, and competitive mindset. Practices are planned deliberately to maximize the number of touches per drill and to minimize down time, emphasizing pace. The majority of coaching comes during practice so that during games, coaches can focus on players’ mental state and approach, the game plan, and tactical and strategic choices.

Rugby is a relatively unknown sport in America and the area, and yet this area produces some of the best high school teams in the country, and collegiate rosters are full of DC-Maryland-Virginia born players. We guide students to learning the sport, knowing that most of our athletes are beginners, thereby taking complete novices and producing high level collegiate rugby players within one to four years. If we can produce that level of player with true novices, then we can produce collegiate stars and prospective professionals with more experienced or knowledgeable players. We have two former professional players on our coaching staff, and over 200 years of playing and coaching experience on our staff as a whole.

Program Leadership

Head Coach Aaron Beguelin '14 has been coaching at Landon since 2024 and teaching since 2025.

He became head coach in 2026 after supporting the team as an assistant coach. Although he did not play rugby while attending Landon, Aaron played at Hamilton College, earning Rookie of the Year during his freshman season and team MVP during his senior season. He continued to play after college for the Gotham Knights while living in New York. In addition to his rugby responsibilities, Aaron teaches Upper School science and coaches JV hockey.

Accomplishments

Graduates of our program go on to play at the collegiate level (both DI and DIII)

Participation at the collegiate level includes the following programs: St. Mary's College of California, University of California, Los Angeles, Penn State University, Dartmouth College, Claremont McKenna College, Babson College, Georgetown University, Boston College, Indiana University, Hamilton College, the University of Pennsylvania, Purdue University, Colorado College, and the University of Massachusetts.

MAVRC Champions: 2016, 2017, 2022, 2023, 2024

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