Eastern’s men’s rugby team will play rival University of Washington at home on Nov. 15 to start league play.

The match will be the second time the teams have met in the last month, and the third time this year with Eastern winning both previous matches against the nationally-ranked Huskies.

“We are peaking at the right time,” said veteran player Wes Silvey. “We’ve been talking about this match since the first practice.”

UW is the reigning D1-AA Varsity Cup champion and has been a perennial power in the rapidly growing U.S. rugby community. The Eagles pride themselves on their bruising style, which head coach David Ratcliff said he believes gives the Huskies fits.

“I don’t know what they have over there on the west side but over here, at Eastern, we have farm boys and former wrestlers,” said Ratcliff. “We want to play physical and tough style.”

This match will be the first 15s game for EWU this season in the Northwest Collegiate Rugby Club, but they defeated UW in a 7s match in October for the NCRC championship.

The Eagles’ previous victories over Washington have only been by a combined seven points with each game being a tightly-contested battle. The same is expected of this match, but “player” Kyle Hoch said feels EWU has the Huskies number.

“It is going to be really close, but with how physical this team is, I feel the game is in Eastern’s favor,” said Hoch.

Eastern’s team is looking to make a name for itself and define the future of the club with this match.

“It’s a developmental period for our team,” said Hoch. “There are plenty of guys who have only played for a month and they will start for us against UW.”

According to Hoch and Silvey, the Eagles feel they are not regarded as an elite squad and want to take this opportunity to prove they deserve to be considered top tier, especially with the added youth.

“The results will show we have a solid core here and it is only going to get better,” said Silvey. “This game will set the tone for the rest of the season and seasons to come.”