Rugby Youth

Mitchell Woll is a High School student and blogger south of Denver. His blogsite and journalism aspirations are listed below. Rugby was my sport in younger years in fact a lot of them, so I have replied with a comment. Mitchell writs:

“According to ThunderRidge rugby players, Jon Hand and Steve Murlowski, rugby is a very underrated sport in the United States. Both doubt it will ever become popular because of sports like football. "Like the metric system," said Steve, a high school senior, "no one will except its better in the long run." Steve and Jon have been playing rugby for two years on the ThunderRidge Mountain Vista combined rugby team. The team is concluding its third season. "We're getting better each year," said Jon Hand, 16, "and the number of players is increasing." Rugby was described as a soccer and football mixture. "The way rugby came about makes me proud. An angry soccer player picked up the ball and put it down in the net," said Steve. "We're much more B.A. than football," He then added. "We have to plan our plays while we're playing," said Jon, "and the violence; it's fun. It's that first contact in the 'scrum.' The initial 'engage.'" Rugby has been referred to as a gentlemen's' sport; yet Jon and Steve disagree. When asked about sportsmanship Jon said, "there is none." He described the "ruck" as a "good opportunity to play dirty." "There's always the 'hip-hip-hooray' and congratulatory cheers, but it gets awkward, especially if there was a fight," said Steve, "there is such passion you put in the game as soon as someone plays dirty there is a domino effect that manifests to someone getting punched in the face." "My first impression of rugby was it looked like a giant organized game of smear-the queer," said Steve. "I was scared because I was next to Steve," commented Jon. Steve is six feet tall and weighs 250 pounds. Jon is five feet, seven inches tall and weighs 200 pounds. In the sport of rugby injuries are common. "There's always lesser injuries," said Steve, "but during a girls game I saw two 'full backs' run at each other full speed. It was a bad tackle. The girl tackled her neck and broke her spine." "Steve broke a guy's collar bone," added Jon. "There is no way to promote rugby, every mom freaks out," commented Steve. "Steve's mom freaks out when I fall down," said Jon. "Rugby's appeal is the exertion of stress through pummeling," said Steve, "younger kids should play. It's a very active, high intensity, developmentally thinking game." Both Jon and Steve agree they are "absolutely" in better shape than before playing rugby.”
Mitchell,

I see you are a journalism major. Good luck at UNC. Your blog seems a good start. I take it that you do not play rugby but only interviewed the boys. My comment is about the attitude of these young players. Rugby is indeed an elegant sport and the players ultimately learn sportsmanship and become gentlemen of sorts. Such tends to become the case due to the exposure and constancy of the matches, not to mention the interaction with an international fraternity of rugby players and their families.

Rugby internationally is much more widely played than football; indeed, it rivals soccer. Halstead, a famous Boston surgeon of an earlier era said: “Morphine makes gentlemen of slobs and cocaine makes slobs of gentlemen.” Much the same can be said of rugby as compared with soccer. The complexity of the game is such that concentrating on the cheap shot detracts from the focus of the game to an extent as to give the advantage to the other side. The roughness of the game demands self discipline in protecting yourself and giving consideration to worthy opponents.

These high school players obviously have not yet learned the true spirit of the game. They surely will in time.

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