Mess with these ladies and get trampled
Most of the girls who play rugby for the USU club team played sports in high school and are looking for a competitive sport to participate in, according to club president Brooke Lambert.
“As far as club sports go, they don’t have too many options outside of rugby and ballroom dancing,” Lambert said.
Returning player Ashley Wright, who originally started playing at the invite of a roommate, said she has some extra motivation for playing.
“I have older brothers who would always beat up on me, so it’s fun to beat up on them now,” Wright said.
Theresa Pitts-Singer, coach of the team, said that more than half of the team has never played before.
“I don’t care if they don’t know anything about rugby as long as they want to play,” she said.
If anyone is qualified to teach girls about rugby, it would be Pitts-Singer, who has been playing or involved in rugby for more than 20 years.
As a player in college and coach of multiple teams, she said she can teach the girls how to play. Pitts-Singer said fall semester is a perfect time for the girls to learn so they will be prepared for the spring semester, when the games count towards qualifying for regionals or nationals.
Pitts-Singer said her team is “improving a lot.” From the first game of the season to the tournament the team participated in on Saturday, Oct. 7, the team has improved every game, she said. So much so that they reached the championship game where they lost to a tough BYU team in Boise, Idaho.
In rugby, there is no offense or defense, just 15 players on each team running around the field in organized chaos. There are essentially two types of positions in rugby: backs and forwards.
The backs are the speed of the game and run down the field in a wing formation, much like the “flying v” from “Mighty Ducks.” This formation enables them to pass the ball backwards and move the ball toward the goal. In rugby, it is illegal to pass the ball forward unless the ball is kicked forward.
The second type of position is the forwards. They are the muscle of the team whose main responsibility is to tackle and to ruck and scrum.
The ruck is a formation that takes place after a player has been tackled. Once a player has been tackled, the ball is immediately set down and players from each team rush over the ball and interlock. Both teams try to push ahead of the ball so that another player, the scrum half, can pick the ball up and begin play.
“To put it in terms of football, the scrum half is like the quarterback in the fact they are responsible for getting the ball in motion,” said current Aggie scrum half Whitney Doe.
The scrum half is also responsible for putting the ball into play during the scrum. Unlike the ruck, the scrum is initialized when there is an illegal forward movement of the ball. The scrum half for the team who did not commit the forward violation rolls the ball from the side directly down the center of the scrum. The team that gets over the ball first kicks it back to the scrum half who is now behind the pile and she starts the ball in play by tossing it backwards to a back.
Scoring happens when a player runs across the try zone and touches the ball on the ground for a score, otherwise known as a try. After a try, the team has a kick attempt worth two points if they can kick it through the uprights. The game consist of two 40-minute halves and whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins.
The team practices every Tuesday and Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. and anyone who wants to play is invited to come, Lambert said.
“We are a fun, competitive club that everybody can enjoy,” Lambert said.
-samabry@cc.usu.edu