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SCSU rugby gets its time to shine
The All-Saints Tournament brought teams from all around the nation to SCSU
By Ben Birnell
Published:
Monday, April 26, 2004
Media Credit: Kim Bucholz
The All-Saints Tournament consisted of men´s and women´s rugby teams from across the nation. SCSU´s club teams take pride in participating in the event annually.
Media Credit: Kim Bucholz
Duluth and Nebraska went head on in Rugby Saturday at Selke.
Running down the "pitch" at full speed, a player decked out in a uniform resembling that of a soccer uniform quickly tosses an oblong-shaped ball sideways toward a teammate before getting mowed down to the ground by an opposing team member. The teammate has found an open hole down the sideline as the largely populated crowd cheers him on. He scores a "try" much to the happiness of his teammates.
Sounds a lot like football, except it is not. The sport here is known as rugby. On SCSU's campus, the men's and women's club teams are starting to generate a little bit of buzz around the hallowed hallways and fresh grasses. The men's club team, also known as the Fighting Carp, was created in 1976 and a few years after that (the exact date is not known) the women's club team, known as the Black Widow Spiders, was formed.
Unlike football and soccer, the sports in which rugby is modeled after, anyone - no matter their size, height, weight or ability - can play. The men's team touts 28 members, some of those players range from looking like a lineman on a football team to a jockey in a horse race. The women's club team has 30 players and touts members with such backgrounds as former hockey players, softball players and basketball players. Former cheerleaders, swimmers and dancers are also members of the Black Widow Spiders.
Senior Lindsay Keenan played soccer and basketball and was also a track athlete in high school. She said that rugby is a lot tougher than the sports she played a few years ago.
"It's by far one of the most physically demanding sports I've ever played and I like that," Keenan said. "It takes a certain kind of athlete to play rugby. It takes so many different components. It takes a crazy personality."
The sport itself is based on similar rules governed from sports like football and soccer. Like in soccer, players have the free reign to roam wherever they want on the pitch (the field) and like soccer, there are few stoppages of play. Also, no pads are worn and it is full contact. An average play in football could last 30 seconds, in rugby, an average play could last two minutes. Fifteen members of each team are on the field at one time, the ball that is used slightly resembles a football, except it's less pointed at the ends. The ball cannot be thrown forward, only to the side or backward to a waiting teammate. The ball can also be kicked to further advance the team down the field. When the ball is dropped or someone is tackled, the ball has to be dropped for a "scrum" to ensue. A scrum resembles a football huddle except with everyone jockeying for position, one teammate throws the ball into the middle of the scrum, and one team tries to force the other away from the ball to gain position. Another teammate picks it up and the action begins again.
"You get into the college level and it's like a way of life for us; it's very fun and it's intense. You get a huge rush from being out on the field running around," senior Nick "Scrappy" Nelson said.
Scoring is a little bit different than it is in soccer or football. A "try," which is like a touchdown is worth five points. The extra point (just like in football) is worth two points. A penalty kick is worth three points.
"It's a pretty intense sport," senior education major and Men's Rugby Club President Matt "Jester" Jarolimek said. "We practice all year round. We have three practices a week and all our guys usually lift at Halenbeck (Hall) or Eastman. We also ask that our guys run (two days a week)."
Senior Abby Tongen said one of the hardest aspects of the sport for the women's club is trying to teach the new crop of players when they don't know anything about the game of rugby.
"When I started, someone had to take me under their wing and help me out," Tongen said. "It's the same kind of thing every year; we'll get a few girls every year who've played in high school. But with some we have to step up to a higher level and teach them the game. That would probably be the hardest aspect I think."
Even though the sport is intense, there's also a huge social aspect of the game. Jarolimek said the team is close and the team as a whole is close socially with the rest of the teams in Minnesota.
"One of the biggest aspects of rugby is sportsmanship," Jarolimek said. "Everyone tries to get along after a match. You can go out and beat each other up on the field, but you can also go out and have fun together afterward. It's a pretty unique thing to rugby which I liked a lot."
Both club teams were in action on Saturday and Sunday in what is known as the All-Saints Tournament. The tournament is one of the largest and finest collegiate rugby tournaments in the Midwest. With the growing reputation, the tournament is also growing. Both club teams won their first matches against the University of North Dakota. The men tied against Winona State University in their second game and the women beat WSU in their second game Saturday.
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