The Women’s Rugby World Cup is the premier competition for female rugby players. This year’s competition features two Penn State alumnae, Claudia Knudsen-Braymer (2002) and Kim Magrini (2004), on a United States team that has seen success in prior years.

The United States won the first of what is now six Women’s Rugby World Cups. The team finished runner-up in the second and third installments of the competition, which is held every four years.

Knudsen-Braymer and Magrini are scrum-halves, an important position on the field that links the forwards and the backs.

This year’s team started off with success by beating Kazakhstan 51-0. The win, however, was followed by losses to Ireland 22-12 and England 37-10. The United States has another game against Ireland today in the fifth place semifinal. A win over Ireland would pit the US against the winner of Canada-Scotland in the fifth place game. A loss would mean playing the loser of the other game for seventh place.

With fifth place on the line, let’s hope that the our alumnae, and the United States, play well and win their remaining two matches.