The whistle blows, the ball is kicked off, and suddenly I find myself running full speed toward a girl twice my size as she, too, runs full speed toward me. I aim for her knees, drop my shoulder, and throw all my weight and momentum into her. Although she’s about 6 feet tall and 250 pounds, she topples easily and falls hard to the ground, leaving me free to secure the ball for my team.
It’s not as easy as it sounds. There is nothing more terrifying than having someone much larger than you charging at you like an enraged rhino, with nothing to protect you except a jersey and a mouthguard. A lot of people think that anyone who would want to play an aggressive, full-tackle sport without padding of any kind must surely be crazy.
And, as it turns out, rugby players are a little crazy. But as anyone who has played can tell you, there is no greater rush than making a fantastic tackle, or charging through a line of defenders to score a try (rugby’s equivalent of a goal), or hitting someone so hard that you knock them to the ground with your momentum alone. Once you feel it, you’re hooked.
I got into rugby the spring semester of my freshman year at Wash. U. There had been a men’s team at my high school and the sport intrigued me, but since there was no women’s team I had never gotten an opportunity to learn or play. So when I found out that a friend of mine played and that Wash. U. had a women’s club team, I jumped at the chance. I wasn’t very athletic and I didn’t run very fast, but I was strong and I was eager to learn.
Immediately, I was welcomed onto the team. Given the relative scarcity of rugby in the United States, especially women’s teams, it was not assumed that I had any prior knowledge of the sport.
As it turns out, the vast majority of girls who join the Wash. U. team have no experience playing the game and thus know nothing about the rules. The coaches and the team veterans took every opportunity to teach me the nuances of the sport and explain things to me as they came up.
Despite this help, it still took me that entire season to really understand how the game of rugby is played. Some of this may be because I was the only rookie that season and therefore less practice time was devoted to teaching the ins and outs of the game. But a large part of it was also due to the fact that the rules of rugby are incredibly confusing, especially if you’ve never played. Rugby is completely unlike any sport that most Americans have been exposed to. There are a lot of quirky rules and some plays that are just downright strange.
When I started, the entire game seemed completely foreign. The way the practices were structured, it was hard to see how everything I was learning came together to form an actual game. But as I played in games and was exposed more to the sport as a whole, everything began to make sense. Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with rugby.
While playing the game itself is a huge part of the reason I love rugby, there is a subculture among those who play the sport that is a vital part of making rugby what it is. Maybe it’s because it attracts a certain kind of personality, or maybe it’s simply because only people who have played truly understand the sport, but there is a universal solidarity among rugby players that I have not experienced in any other sport.
Despite the fact that rugby is an intense, incredibly aggressive sport, off the field rugby players are some of the classiest people I have ever encountered. Playing dirty is not tolerated, and once the final whistle blows, all the aggression from the game is dropped and the teams are as friendly as can be. In fact, rugby players throw some of the best parties I have ever been to.
Playing rugby is not, in any sense of the word, easy. Overcoming inhibitions, avoiding injury, and keeping in shape are just a few of the obstacles a rugby player faces every time she hits the field. But the feeling you get when you run off the pitch at the end of the game – aching slightly, feeling bruises developing, and knowing you just played your ass off – makes it worth the hard work and pain it took to get there. Much more than just a sport, rugby is an experience.