University Daily Kansan
Friday. October 12. 1973
9
Rugby-Mixture of Stamina and Teamwork
The bumper stickers are right: "It takes both balls to play ruby.
But after practicing three days with the University of Kansas Rugby Club and playing in a game, I found there was much more involved.
Kawan Staff Photo by CARL DAYAZ
The game itself is simple. Eight forwards on each team try to get the ball to seven backs. The backs then try to advance the ball by running, kicking and passing. The object is to down the ball beyond the opponents' goal line and score four points.
The ball may never be passed forward. All 15 players play both offense and defense, and there are no substitutions. The players wear no padded.
The game is played in two 30-minute halfts with a five minute break between them.
I GOT MY BAPTISM Saturday against St. Benedict College of Admission by playing "booker" in the ground, pushing mass on the floor to break a spider that can't decide which way to go.
When a scrum-down was called after a penalty, it was my job as the center of the first scrum book to "hook" or kick the ball from my second row, then to go into our backfires.
Players Practice Like They Play-Tough
It was also my job, when the ball went out of bounds, to form the KU scrum for a line-out. The line-out, if one stretches his imagination, is akin to a center jump in basketball. The ball is thrown in by an effort of the team that last touched the ball.
WICKED OFF TO S. Benedict, and the mayhem begin. High school football had been a regular fixture in the school.
been hit. But rugby has no huddles, no time-outs and no blocking.
St. Benedict was bigger than KU, and St. gained an advantage over us early. The size factor was especially telling in the scrum-downs.
The field was muddy and slippery, and we couldn't get enough grip to push them back off the ball. I was continually beaten by the St. Benedict "hooker."
Rugby appears to the casual observer to a completely individual spot. But on the touchdown, it is a defensive play.
THE HITTING WAS FIERCE and the continuous play wore me down. The contact took its toll on the players on both teams. But there was no let up.
The guys in our scrum gave me support on the scrums-down. When the ball got loose and the backs started down the field, the team had to move behind the backs to help move the ball.
On the line-outs, both teams wheeled to support the forward with the ball, sticking to it.
ST. BENEDICT BROKE through twice in first half and scored. We were down at 17.
The five-minute half-time break was a blessing. My neck ached from the head knocking in the scrum-downs. My legs felt like lead from running through the mud.
The team got together just before play resumed, and our field captain, Cliff Frazier, a 64" craggy-faced law student, tried to get the adrenaline flowing again. Adrenala was about all that most of us had left to go on.
THE HALF-TIME TALK helped somewhat, and our backs started moving the ball with consistency. But we couldn't reach it fast. The ball, the half, Frazier took a loose ball and
scored. That got us back up again, but time can out.
Then 30 bloody, muddy players who had tried to beat the hell out of each other for an hour forgot about the game. St. Benedict formed an anise and clapped KU off the
As we filed through the tunnel, we shook hands and thanked them for a good game. The handshakes were real, and the feeling wasn't phony. We repeated the procedure
I HAD PLAYED in and survived a rugby game. I was physically and emotionally drained. But I enjoyed it. I had been part of the team. I had made new friends. But I was
During the week before the game, I asked some members of the club to comment on my play.
Bill Mills, the lanky president of the club,
has made a matter of personal accom-
plishment.
"I'm a frustrated high school jock and I wanted to see if I could do it," he said.
RICK WHITSON, a forward on the "A" team, said that Tommy Oakson, former linebacker for the KU football team, came down to fight Craig crazed the first time he carried the ball.
"Everybody gets to carry the ball," Whitson said. "Everybody has a chance to win."
For Stan Menter, a back on both the "A" and Stan B'Tems, the game is an outlet for aggression. That was obvious in his hitting both in practice and in the game. Even so, he did the exercise and the enjoyment he gets out of playing are just as important to him.
IAN HENRY, who has been playing rugby once he was an eight-year-old in Scotland, is now a seven-year-old in England.
"It is a great gift of grace and power," he said. "It's a game played with mind as well as body. The individual's ability to improvise is very important and there is a great deal of free interpretation. There is a halfback, everybody can be a tackler."
It is this part of rugby that makes it a game of finesse and form as well as a game of brutality and strength. The game, essentially, is a combination of man's baset instincts of aggression and his ability skillfully to adapt to situations.
In a game as brutal as rugby, the injury rate should be high. But in the game in which I played, there wasn't one serious member. The members of the club say this is normal.
team will be forced to change from offense
to defense and back five times in five
seconds. And in a game that never stops,
stamina is a must.
"I'm little," he said, "and if someone takes a shot at me, my teammates willmitm
JACK FLUKER, a "hooker" who stands
alongside 57," said there were team policemen
Mills said that the referee also played a big part in keeping a game from erupting in a tight match.
"The ref can put tight controls on me,
and you said, 'He can make all the difference.'"
IN PRACTICE, Mills coaches the scrum and Henry the backs. But they are not final authorities. Everyone on the team comes prepared to question the situation to practice. They all help each other.
"It's the last sport in America where the players still truly run the game." Frazier
The fact that it is a club binds the players more closely. They are out there because they want to be. They don't have scholarships. And they have played with KU had has a rugby club since 1861.
THE PLAYERS SAV that to play this
music things needed:
alerts and stamina.
The nature of the game is such that a
2515 W. 6th Lawrence, Ks.
after the game, it's forgotten. You have a few songs to sing songs together and you've made nice music too.
Rubby is a brutal, skillful game played by men who enjoy the camaraderie as well as playing.
Rugby is called the gentleman's game in England, and the KU ruggers go along with that definition. The beer bust after each game is the symbol of that tradition.
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