(Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part story on the St. Bonaventure men’s rugby team’s National Collegiate Rugby championship.)

Tui Osborne’s phone hasn’t gotten much rest since Saturday night.

As the seconds ticked down on a thrilling victory over Penn State in the National Collegiate Rugby Division I championship, the Bonnies’ coach was blown away by the response to a program-first breakthrough victory. The Bonnies’ men’s rugby team had an impressive crowd of supporters on hand at Houston’s Aveva Stadium and even more watching the live stream from The Rugby Network.

“The buzz has been great,” Osborne said Tuesday afternoon. “My phone has been blowing up ever since the final whistle blew; alumni emails, Facebook posts and Instagram posts for the guys. Everyone is ecstatic about this achievement, we’ve never done this before. The whole experience is such a great thing for the guys who put a lot of hard work into this.”

IN ITS first season since joining the NCR, along with the rest of the Bonnies’ Rugby East Conference, Bona went all the way to capture its first national championship in the sport.

Osborne described the win over PSU as a culmination of the longest season he’s had since arriving at Bona in 2015. The Bonnies played their first friendly match in late August and finished off their playoff run in the second week of December.

“It’s been a long season, probably the longest we’ve ever had playing into the playoffs and this new league,” Osborne said. “Just now getting home and waking up and seeing everything posted and we’ve got a plug in from Channel 2 (WGRZ) news (Tuesday) on the morning show, so it was great.”

After the euphoria of Saturday night’s victory, the rugby team spent most of Sunday traveling, with a flight from Houston to Pittsburgh and a bus ride back to campus from there. The Bonnies got a warm welcome at the dining hall Sunday night, being introduced during a late-night breakfast for the start of final examinations week.

“The past 48-72 hours have been full of excitement and travel sadly,” senior co-vice captain Cory Ratka said. “But we received a warm welcome home from our fellow students. I think since it’s finals week we are all more focused on our studies, but the excitement is still there.”

Still, Ratka admits, the finality of the Bonnies’ accomplishment hasn’t quite set in.

“For me personally I’m still riding high on that win,” the flanker from Kenmore said. “This was our goal way back in August when we showed up for preseason. It was a super long season with its ups and downs so I think guys will be riding high for a few days.”

LEADING 14-3 at halftime, Bona jumped out to a 19-3 lead early in the second half on a run by Ratka for a five-point try. But SBU found itself on the ropes as PSU nearly came all the way back with Bona a man down for long stretches due to penalties. The crucial, game-saving stand came in the closing seconds as senior Josh Smith held up a Nittany Lions runner and forced a turnover.

“Penn State gave us a real fight in the second half, but our defense played a pivotal role the whole game,” Ratka said. “It’s been a strong weapon for us this season and we don’t worry when we’re on that side of the ball. Our bench players, or ‘finishers’ as we call them, really did their part and came in at the end of that game and held their ground to secure that victory for us. It was a full team win … took all 23 of us on that roster.”

BONA displayed steady improvement under Osborne in years past, but took off to another level this year. SBU went 3-5 in a shortened fall season last year, but went 10-2 this fall, finishing on a six-game win streak. The Bonnies defeated schools they had lost to in previous seasons, such as Penn State and Kutztown, to capture the national D1 title.

“For us older players this national championship has been a four-year project,” Ratka said. “We have raised the standards for our program year after year and it finally paid off. As a senior I’m happy I can walk away from this season knowing I left this program in a better place, that the younger guys on the team bought into the new standards we implemented. And they will maintain them and even raise that bar higher and higher.”

Osborne credits the sizable Bona crowd for helping his team through a grueling night — with winds bearing down on the teams and fatigue setting in — against the Nittany Lions.

“You had families flying in on just a week’s notice after we won (over Kutztown) in Penn State Berks … people booking flights and making their way to Houston was huge for us,” Osborne said. “Just having that crowd, we have one of the best fanbases in the rugby world in college. So this was amazing and I think it boosted the confidence of the guys, hearing all the fans cheering them on Saturday night.

“It was a tight game and we needed that, our fans pushed them through, they gave everything that they had for that game, especially in the dying minutes when Penn State had a late surge to try and come back and beat us. The boys just hung on. It’s been a long season and it’s taken a toll on a lot of our guys’ bodies and it was just great to come away with a win and reward these guys for the hard work they’ve been putting in.”

(Salamanca Press sports editor and Olean Times Herald sports writer Sam Wilson may be contacted at swilson@oleantimesherald.com)