Madison Hughes juggles time between Dartmouth, U.S. rugby team

The perception is that rugby players spend their nights drinking copious amounts of alcohol. The reality for U.S. team captain Madison Hughes is that he has spent many evenings on the Sevens World Series circuit studying.

A senior at Dartmouth College, Hughes is juggling his Ivy League studies and his leadership role on the rugby pitch in his first full season for the Eagles — who tied South Africa 19-19 and beat Canada 20-0 on Saturday to advance to their first Cup semifinal since 2010 at the USA Sevens rugby tournament at Sam Boyd Stadium.

The surging Americans, backed by a boisterous home crowd of 34,593, will play New Zealand at 12:54 p.m. today. The All Blacks have dominated the World Series since its inception in 1999, winning 12 of the 15 titles, including the past four.

“We’ve gotten better and better as the season’s gone and the tournament’s gone, but we need to take it to a whole other level (today) if we’re going to go as far as we want to,” Hughes said. “New Zealand is as good as it gets in rugby sevens.”

While in Australia for a week in October for the season-opening Gold Coast Sevens, Hughes wrote a 10-page paper Wednesday night, took a two-hour midterm exam remotely Thursday night and read a book Friday night for a discussion section the following Tuesday at Dartmouth.

Hughes then played matches for the Eagles on Saturday and Sunday before making the long trek back to New Hampshire.

“I had to work out an agreement with my professors to miss classes,” Hughes said. “It worked out pretty well in the fall. I was able to get through it. I’m almost there.”

Hughes took the winter semester off to focus on rugby sevens, which will make its Olympic debut at the 2016 Rio Games. He’ll return to Dartmouth for the spring semester and is on track to graduate in June with a bachelor’s degree in history.

“I don’t know exactly what to do with it at this stage,” Hughes said. “At the moment, I’m just pursuing my rugby dream. The Olympics is the pinnacle of sports, and it’s definitely something I’m aiming for and hoping to achieve.”

While the top four finishers in the series earn automatic berths to the Olympics, the best chance for the eighth-place Americans probably will be to beat Canada again at a regional qualifier in June.

The Eagles dominated the first half against Canada, taking a 15-0 lead on tries by Danny Barrett, Folau Niua and Zack Test. Carlin Isles added a try in the second half.

Hughes — the smallest player on the squad at 5 feet 8 inches and 170 pounds — was named U.S. captain by first-year coach Mike Friday despite being the team’s youngest player, 22 years old.

“I didn’t realize he was the youngest guy on the team. That’s how much age means to me,” Friday said. “Age is just a number. It’s about the qualities he has as a man, the way he leads, communicates and carries himself.

“Some say leaders are born, not made. He commands the respect of the players around him, and he gives respect back, and his work ethic is second to none.”

So is his intelligence. For a little light reading, Hughes brought the book “The Origins of Totalitarianism” to Las Vegas.

“He’s too smart for me,” Friday said with a laugh. “You always worry when you pick a captain who’s smarter than the coach. His nickname is ‘There’s nothing that Madison doesn’t know.’

“We’re always trying to catch him with questions. We haven’t achieved that at the moment.”

Hughes — who lives in London but is a U.S. citizen because his mother is from Boston — is the undisputed team champion in “Trivia Crack.” Despite dominating his teammates and coaches in the trivia game app, Hughes remains humble.

“While I may know more than them about geography or history, they’ve got a lot to teach me about rugby,” he said.

The only Dartmouth junior to be named rugby captain in the school’s 246-year history, Hughes has embraced his leadership role with the Eagles.

“It confirmed what I’ve tried to do as a member of the team — to try to be a team player and work for my teammates,” he said. “At the end of the day, rugby’s all about the team.”

■ NOTES — The U.S. went 2-0-1 in pool play, but settled for second place by virtue of South Africa’s four-point edge in point differential. ... The Blitzbokke scored off a turnover to take a 14-7 halftime lead over the U.S., which rallied for a 19-14 edge on tries by Andrew Durutalo and Maka Unufe and a conversion kick by Hughes. South Africa tied the score at 19 on a late try by Warrick Gelant before Cecil Afrika missed the conversion kick.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354. Follow him on Twitter: @tdewey33.