By Alex Goff

Reprinted from goffonrugby.com with permission of the author.

January 4, 2006 — In writing and talking about grand topics concerning rugby, whether it is how to get better results from our national team, expand the game into middle schools, or finding new coaches and new referees, it all comes down to this: getting more people involved in the game.

And inside my head this question follows: Why?

Why rugby? Why do we want more people playing? Why do we want more kids, more adults, more everybody playing, watching, and being a part of this sport?

A few thoughts:

Inner strength

The first thing I think of (and I remember discussing this very topic with USA Rugby’s Game Development Czar Rick Humm) is how rugby at its best cuts out the whiners.

I have been fortunate to spend a lot of time involved with kids as young as two and as old as 19 in various sporting arenas. So often I’ve noticed how kids are quick to complain, quick to claim a hurt that isn’t there.

Example:
There I am lightly bopping a bunch of four-year-olds on the head with a balloon; some would say "Ow!" upon being touched. "Ow!" is their natural reaction; claim the hurt before you know if it hurts or not. You get sympathy, the other person gets in trouble.

If you see the current Chronicles of Narnia movie you’ll see that attitude in action. Four children engage in a snowball fight. Three are pelting each other, having fun, and laughing. The fourth, a morose boy named Edmund, stands aside and when hit in the shoulder whines "Ow!" even though it’s clear the snowball didn’t hurt.

What does this have to do with rugby? You can’t afford to get caught up in the whining in rugby. If you do, the play is past and you’re down another five points. You have to shake it off. Now I’m not one to say we should be ignoring partially severed limbs or anything of that sort, but in this sue-first-ask-question-later world; in this world where every comment on the state of the globe, God, or littering is taken as a personal slight against those with differing views, perhaps a little shaking it off is exactly what we all need.

And we do that by starting with the young people. Does it really hurt? No? OK, quit yer griping and get on with it. When I think of sports that preach that, rugby and ice hockey (despite the moments to the contrary) come to mind immediately.

And of course, this attitude leads to the next:

Sportsmanship

I remember taking a small group of teenage girls to their first rugby game. They were making up the numbers on another team in a glorified scrimmage, and in doing so were of course invited to a sumptuous feast of pasta and garlic bread and the local Eagles Club.

In the van driving back I heard one of the kids give her report to her family. Had a good time, blah blah blah ... "Oh, and, best tradition ever! They have to feed you!"

Yes, yes they do. We all know and love this tradition. And while the post-match social was for a time bastardized into the post-match "drink-up," a term I have come to despise, the growth of college and youth rugby, combined with the growth of the number of family men involved in the game, has helped us all get back to what this was really about: competitors breaking bread together after hearty and sometimes heated competition.

It is still engrained in the sport how we aspire to (and don’t always reach) the ideals of treating our opponents and the officials with respect. USA Rugby’s involvement with the Positive Coaching Alliance is further evidence of that.

And again, the world could use more sportsmanship, couldn’t it?

The game itself

I love rugby as a game. It flows. It has an almost mathematical structure to it, but one that is often randomized by moments of great brilliance, or great ineptitude.

Rugby played at its highest level is still beautiful. The steady flow of phase to phase; the commitment to the moment, the power of the tackle, and brilliance of the passing all burn brightly. The same cannot be said of other sports.

Inclusiveness

My good friend Pete Sullivan was telling his kids one day early in their rugby lives about how much game time they would get. Most would play all game, but some would come on as subs. A few players groaned and then Pete explained it further.

Think about the best athlete at your school. The quarterback or running back on the football team. He’s on the field maybe 25 minutes a game. In a ten-game high school season that’s 250 minutes. If he plays two ways he might be on the field for 45 minutes. That’s 450 minutes in a season. On a high school rugby team a kid who comes on at halftime every game will play almost as much (the team in question played 13 games that season so a sub would have been on the field 455 minutes).

Inclusiveness goes further than that, of course. As we know, every player has to do everything, especially in these days of all skills all positions. Run with the ball, pass, tackle, ruck, lead. Athletes who never touched the football in gridiron find themselves running the ball eight times a game or more.

All body types are needed in rugby

From slim and quick to big and neckless to tall to short, we’ve got a place for all of them. And even as the game becomes more professional this still holds true. Our GoffonRugby 2005 Player of the Year is 5-9, 185. Not exactly a behemoth. The MVP of the NASC [a high-level rugby competition] was 5-9, 210.

At some levels, athletes who hardly got a look in other sports because of their body types suddenly find themselves picked first in rugby. Girls who struggle with their weight, when really they are just shaped a certain way, suddenly find out that not only is there a sport for them, there’s a position they can play; and in fact if no one plays that position, the game can’t go on.

Rugby is inclusive but expects you to do something to earn that inclusiveness: namely work hard, think, and be brave. Rugby encourages sportsmanship and discourages the victim’s mentality.

And finally, something I hear from rugby players on the national team, in U14 touch games, and all in between: Rugby is just plain a whole lot of fun.

That’s why rugby for me. It is fun, and it has value that ripples much farther afield than just one little sport. Why rugby for you?