I started playing rugby when I was a sophomore in high school, which is late for any sport. I didn’t start playing it because I necessarily wanted to. I didn’t know what it was past name recognition, and there wasn’t some huge coalition of rugby players at my school since we don’t have a team. However, one of my close friends who played on a team in a neighboring county recruited me when I decided to back out of running track in the spring of 2017. It was a big decision, and I was incredibly uncomfortable. I never attempted to play a sport where I didn’t even have a basic understanding of the rules.

West Shore at the CRCs in Philadelphia. (Me-Back Row: Six From Left)- Image by Author

The first entire year of playing, I had no clue what was going on. I had only been to four practices before I was thrown into a match. The rules of rugby are completely against every intuition one learns from playing typical American sports. For starters, rugby players aren’t allowed to pass the ball forward. A knock on results in loss of possession, and is a big momentum killer. That was one of the most difficult rules to master, not to mention learning the ability to tackle effectively and properly. Severe injuries can occur in rugby matches, and that component has a psychological effect. The rules and procedures made more sense after the first season, however, and things became fun.

The team I played for was the West Shore United Girls 15s team. The team was considered a high school team, though not affiliated with just one high school. I didn’t start my first season since I was a brand new player, but my second season I became a starting outside center. Centers are a part of the backline and the backline has a different purpose than the forwards. The forwards are generally slower, more difficult to tackle, and do a lot of the dirty work.

Me (#13) helping a teammate with a tackle- Image By Author

That season, we had a solid team with enough continuity to cover up the weaknesses of being relatively inexperienced. We had our flaws, but we were also playing for our coach who had gotten deployed ahead of the season. We had one loss in the regular season against Kiski Valley and our record earned us a berth into the state playoff. Our playoff schedule was exactly two games; one on Saturday, and possibly one on Sunday if we won the first. We beat the first team in a nail-biter. We scored a last-second goal to get ahead and win a spot in the championship game on Sunday. The excitement only grew later that night upon learning we would be facing off against Kiski in the state championship game. It was like a plot in a corny movie. We already felt like we were cheated out of our win against Kiski and this was our chance for revenge.

Receiving my state championship medal- Image by Author

Long story short, we won the championship game 26-20, and were able to get our deployed coach a win, as well as revenge on Kiski Valley. It was the perfect ending to a great season and really grew my love for the sport despite the numerous, large bruises, and pain each match entailed. If you’ve never watched a rugby match, I highly recommend it. It’s the best parts of football and soccer combined, and the professional players are absolute units.