The Sports Coliseum is home to the Washtenaw Rugby Football Club. The building has little or no air conditioning on an 82 degree day. Nonetheless, around 35 high school students show up to practice each Tuesday. The team starts out by trying to see who can do the most sit-ups and push-ups in an hour. After that they do running drills. This takes about 30 minutes. Then, they play rugby.
Rugby originated at Rugby College in 1823 during a game of soccer. William Webb Ellis picked up the soccer ball and ran across the field and placed the ball in between the goalposts. The players on the opposite team were confused and asked him, “What is that?” Ellis responded, calling it “Rugby football,” coining the name for the sport that has blossomed to an international level.
Rugby has even grown to become a college sport in America. At the collegiate level, rugby is played in two nonstop 40 minute halves with a 10 minute intermission. “[In rugby there are] two basic rules: no forward pass, and you must release the ball when tackled,” said David Perpich, the former University of Michigan Women’s and Men’s rugby team coach and current coach of the Women’s Washtenaw Rugby Club. “[Rugby] is much more physically demanding [than football], because over the course of a game you run between four to six miles, and if you are not running, you are getting tackled or tackling.” Perpich emphasized that you have to be extremely fit to play rugby, however, “there is a position for every body type.”
In America, rugby is often overlooked in favor of other sports. According to Perpich, this is not true outside of the United States “Rugby is one of the most popular sports in the world. It’s extremely popular in the British Isles, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Africa and South America.” The game’s following and participation continues to grow in the United States, particularly among girls. For women’s sports in college, rugby is the fastest growing sport in America.
Evidence of this growth can be found right here at Community High School. CHS senior Katelyn Tanner is the driving force and founding member of the Women’s Washtenaw Rugby Club. “There are 15 girls on each team, but right now any girl can come out and play. This year we got a lot of new juniors, which is good, but we always want more players,” said Tanner. The growth is not unique to women. There are now 28 high school boys rugby clubs in Michigan, including the Washtenaw Rugby Football Club, founded in 1997.
“What can I say? It’s fun,” said Tanner. “On a rugby field you have a lot of freedom; it is really exciting.” Tanner and other girls from Ann Arbor Public Schools started the club last year, and plan on having their second year when the season starts back up this month. Players are attracted by the chance of taking their anger out through this rough sport. “A lot of girls’ sports aren’t as physical as the boys’ sports. Rugby is just as physical, boy or girl,” Tanner said.
Fellow member of the Women’s Washtenaw Rugby Club, Sarah Spaid, agrees with Tanner. “As a female, we do not get to play many contact sports. I stopped playing lacrosse this year because it is just a very divided sport between girls and guys,” the Pioneer senior said. “For guys you have all this contact and for girls any physical interaction [is penalized] and you can’t do anything. I’ve been wanting to get a chance to lay someone out.”
In addition to the roughness, rugby also brings people together. Every Tuesday, the Washtenaw Boys’ club meets to practice, and every Tuesday, the Michigan team voluntarily comes to help them out. The college students give the high school players pointers and teach them tricks. They joke around with them, and are not seen as coaches telling them what to do, but as players helping them as peers. On a rugby field, everyone is equal.
Rugby can be seen as a very aggressive sport. However, in reality, rugby players get injured less than football players and also know how to stop when the final whistle blows. The game is often referred to as a game of “elegant violence,” in which finesse and technique are combined with brute force to create a truly special game. After the game, both teams attend a party hosted by the home team, further strengthening the rugby bond.
“Once the whistle blows, the game is over. You shake hands with the opposition. You fight for the first two halves, and the third half is social.” Perpich said. The ‘third half’ is something entirely unique to rugby; it is universal and every home team will throw one. The elegant violence of rugby is put on a hold for a few hours after the game.
Rugby is a combination of all the things you want in a sport: it’s social, rough, fun, unique, and is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country right now. Anyone can play rugby—all you need is a ball and 29 friends.
