I play rugby. I'm also 5'10," 135. Now, I don't know if you've seen a lot of rugby players, but most are a little--or a lot--bigger than I am, weight-wise. I did not at all anticipate being a rugby player. But I am nonetheless.
I like rugby. Someone once told me my masculinity is secure because I play rugby. They were kidding, but if people look at masculinity by sheer physical force, rugby is a good measure. There's something profoundly awesome about driving your shoulder, no pads, into the opposing wing and laying him out. We had our first game Saturday, and some of the guys on our team actually pushed back four or five of the opposing players during their runs. One of the unspoken rules of rugby, the vice president of our club explained, only mostly joking, is, "Regardless, hit somebody." It's a violent sport (sorry, Mom).
The other team and our team were both at the field an hour early. For the first thirty minutes of warm-up, they were running plays, in their uniforms, looking pretty official. We were...passing a ball back and forth in street clothes. I'd heard they weren't too good and we didn't have much to worry about, but there was a nagging what if feeling. What if they're actually really good? Now, they had about only one really big player, and we have several, so that was reassuring. I, however, am still smaller than most of their team.
I didn't know what to expect, really. We run drills, but we have eighteen total players, and most aren't able to be at every practice. I'd never done full-contact fifteens (a full team) before.
I played the whole first half and a majority of the second. The first half was a little more rough. We came out of that one with a score of 10-5; we were winning, but we had some noticeable problems with the way we were running plays. People were running sideways when they should run forward, things like that. The other team had scored because we'd missed three tackles in a row. That was, needless to say, not good.
The second half was a blowout. The final score was 37-5. I'm the right-side wing. The left-side wing got a try (which is what a score is called, if you don't know) by being in exactly the right place at the right time and just running with it. There was a lot of that.
Nobody on our whole team got hurt throughout the whole game. Four of the opposing players were sidelined for some reason or other in the second half. One guy possibly had a concussion and said he wanted to get back in the game, but the medic wouldn't let him. Probably a good call on the medic's part.
At the end of the day, AU Rugby is now 1-0. I'm ready for more.
