Northwestern Rugby: Back from the Brink

[nat sound of rugby]

That’s the sound of rugby, the sport that is sweeping the nation. or, at least, it’s the fastest growing sport in America, according to one of Northwestern’s club rugby coaches, Jim Hebson. 

But what exactly is the sport from across the pond?

[ARYAPUTRA] American football, but you can only pass backwards and it’s better.

That was Fauzan Naufal Aryaputra, who is currently a student coach and captain for the men’s club rugby team. He elaborated on why he thinks rugby is superior to other, similar sports. 

[ARYAPUTRA] Rugby is suitable for any kind of body type or athlete type, you know, like you can have you can, you don’t have to be the fastest you just, you don’t have to be the strongest, right? Like, there’s, there’s a position for you anywhere on the field. I feel like everyone has to be able to think as well. It’s not like, “Okay, you just run your route, and the quarterback makes all the decisions.” You know what I mean? Everyone has to understand the game situation. They have to be on the same page.

Rugby often gets compared to “American” football, but it differs from that game in a lot of ways.  Notably, there’s a lack of heavy padding and a whole host of game-specific situations and positions, which come with their own set of vocabulary words. Here’s women’s rugby team player Kathrin Salame describing what’s known as a “scrum,” in which players closely surround the ball on the field. 

[KS] [describing a scrum] You throw the ball in the middle, and you push each other. And the person in the middle is called the hooker. Yeah, and so that person– it’s literally the name— And then you have two props. It’s really on this side, and on this side. And when it’s a fifteens game, it’s like an eight person Scrum. So like, There’s people behind you pushing as well. And the person in the middle supposed to like hook the ball. That’s why they’re called the hook.

Another unique part of rugby is the specific move in which one or two players lift another into the air, reminiscent of sports like gymnastics or cheerleading. Here’s women’s rugby player Zofia Muller-Hinnant describing the move. 

[ZMH] Every time the ball goes out, I think as far as I understand it, you have to one of the teams has throw the ball back in and both of the teams lift up one of their players and whoever catches the ball gets it. It’s called a line-out.  

Along with the typical lack of helmets, rugby has also garnered a reputation for being a game that doesn’t shy away from aggression or direct contact. 

[KS] I’m not a big fan of physical contact, but literally when you’re scrumming, everybody’s pushing you everywhere. There’s literally somebody like here in between the legs, and then there’s somebody grabbing you from here [upper thigh] or from the crotch, literally, and then there’s, and you’re grabbing somebody from like from the other side, and you’re supposed to be super tight, right? And then you go in and you’re supposed to lock with the person in front of you. So it’s a lot of contact everywhere.

But Hebson pushed back against the notion that rugby is more violent or dangerous than other contact sports. 

[JH] Yes, we have no pads. But you play differently. When you have pads, you know, you feel invincible, you know, rugby, you don’t quite feel that. And so the tackling style is completely different. In fact, American football is kind of adopting rugby style tackling because it’s safer.

He offered up a slightly more flattering saying about rugby, and compared it to another popular global sport. 

[JH] They always say that soccer is— I’m sure you’ve heard this before— But soccer is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans. And then rugby is a hooligans game played by gentlemen. 

[Chip by The Real McKenzies]

The Northwestern men’s rugby team, established in 1972, is one of the oldest continuing club sports at NU. They’ve recently recovered from the effects of the pandemic, when covid risks made it difficult to practice or play. 

[HEBSON] Yeah, we had some pretty grim years there where we couldn’t get a field and get an opponent or anything like that. But somehow we kept it together. Yeah, that’s a tribute to the seniors really. All these guys kept it going, even when there was no real play and like no future in sight, so you gotta hand it to them.

In fact, the team has done more than simply survive to play for another season. In a game that determined who would get a spot in the division playoffs, the team pulled off an upset victory. 

[FA] Our conference is really, really strong. We have a North and South division in our conference. And the North Division, the first the first season, the North Division is ranked, I think, third nationally, and then the first season our South Division was also ranked fourth nationally, but then in the last game of the regular season, we beat them. So now we’re ranked 17th, nationally, and we dropped them to 10th nationally, which is pretty sick.

Hebson credits the victory to Aryputra’s strategizing. 

[JH] He (Aryaputra) convinced us to kind of try to introduce them to the game at a higher level. And that has actually paid off big time he was, he was absolutely right. So we were playing a little more sophisticated rugby than we would have.

Aryaputra says the key to winning lies in creating a community within a club team and not treating it as a professional sport, as well as playing intelligently against other teams. 

[FA] We build around like the athletes that we do have and then we exploit weaknesses we see on the other team like our scouting has been pretty good this year as well, understanding where the weaknesses on another team. 

He says the recent win against Loyola has become one of his favorite stories to tell, as his team won despite the deck being stacked against them. 

[FA] They train like a professional team, they have the personnel they have, they have guys. That for me is like my most favorite rugby story just because, like we gameplanned properly against them. We figured out their weaknesses and we just played really really well.

The fall rugby season is over for now, but after a recruiting season that brought in a lot of talent and a quarter that saw an upset victory, Aryaputra sees a lot of potential. 

[FA] Our team is really really young. And we have a really bright future ahead of us.

[The Boys Are Back by the Dropkick Murphys]

[background music] 

Since the theme of this broadcast is Touching Grass, we asked both the men’s and women’s rugby teams for their opinions on a perennial debate in sports: turf or grass? 

[FA] Turf? Why? Traction. Nah, I grew up playing turf in high school, so I’m just used to it. Traction, easier to step faster on it.

[KS] Grass gets all over your cleats and you have to clean it. It’s annoying because it also gets everywhere.

Some were in favor of the turf, but many threw their lot in with touching grass, for one very relevant reason. 

[MM] Grass is like a blanket to fall on 

[AT] Turf is painful. Grass is a lot nicer to fall on. It hurts a lot less and you don’t get turf burn as much.

[JH] Back in my day, we even played on Ryan field a couple of times. It was like a parking lot with carpeting on it. It was so hard, no wonder those guys all got injured. 

Regardless of the outcome, players were passionate about their choice. 

[Olatunji Osho-Williams] “So, turf, you don’t like playing on turf for a couple of reasons. One, when it’s cold, you’re already more likely to tear a ligament or something like that because your body needs to warm up more you cool down quicker. When it’s turf and you’re playing and it’s cold. Like what happened to me in Chicago I partially tore my toke something called turf toe. So do hyperextend up here’s Katrina it’s really hyperextend something it’s like when you hyperextend like a ligament under a new toe and it makes it hard to walk I’m healed now it’s like like three weeks but you don’t like playing in the on turf because there’s less give it’s like harder to when you fall it’s not as soft as grass. 

VERY passionate. 

The grass will absorb it the tertiary like bounces right back off of tea and same thing with like a ball. When a ball bounces on grass. You can kind of know the pattern when it bounces on turf. It’s more bouncy, it’s more erratic. And that’s like the same thing if your head hit grass versus turf. The only time I’ve been concussed is on turf. Three grass just looks nicer turf is nice. But I just like grass like the feel of it like the look of it. You get muddy I don’t necessarily like that as part of the game”

[music]

Across the turf field, the Northwestern women’s rugby team is also experiencing a revival. 

[Nat sound of rugby team practicing]

[music] 

This fall season is the first time they’ve played competitively with a full team of 15 players in four years. The previous women’s team disbanded in 2019,  and COVID-19 prevented any further play.

That was the state of the women’s rugby team when third year McCormick student and co-captain, Maura Madden first came to campus.

[Maura Madden] I showed up and there were no women tabling at the org fair. I showed up to 30 men at practice, like at practice, and I was like where is the women’s team?

By her second year, Madden had had enough. She decided to reform the team and start reaching out to fellow players, one of whom was current co-captain Natalie Hill.

[Natalie Hill] I got a text from Maura at like let’s start the very end of fall quarter, I guess. Yeah. That was like like I have your number from somebody last year. Do you play rugby? And I was like, yes. Yes, I would love to join. 

Despite having to build their team up from two members, make space for a grassroots sport on campus and student coach new recruits, Madden and Hill have eagerly stayed with it. In part, Hill says, because of the rugby community. 

[NH] “The community thing is genuinely unlike any other sport I’ve ever played… Even at home like rugby is not culturally a significant thing at home. But our coaches who had played rugby carried over the traditions of when you play another team and it’s a home game you give them food after. Like that’s a thing. You order like 20 pizzas and you have like a social after. You get to know your competitors.”

Some might think it paradoxical that such an aggressive and tackle-heavy sport could foster such tight-knot bonds. However, as Hill explains, the contact aspect of rugby is what makes community so important. 

[NH] I would never say that rugby is violent because you respect each other so that you can play that hard against each other

Tackling and hitting also builds something within individual players, Madden says. 

[MM] What I really like about it (rugby) is like with a lot of women or people that start playing, they don’t understand how powerful or confident they are until they get into the game. And maybe they hit lighter at the start, but then realize ‘oh, my body can be used as the powerful machine that it is and not just an aesthetic. 

The women’s team has grown significantly since its start last November – from just 12 names on the roster to 45 interested players at practice. Madden and Hill give their thanks to their volunteer staff, including coach Jim Hebson.

[NH] WE LOVE JIM. WRITE THAT DOWN.

Hebson says it’s the support within the rugby community that has kept this sport alive. 

[JH] that’s a really strong grassroots level. And I think that’s kept it going, you know, internationally, but it also kept going here in the States. This is My Neighbor, Neil, who I recruited. He’s Irish. He played he knows a ton about roaming and things. This other guy who just showed up, Jake, he’s from New York, and he’s moved to Chicago and lives in Evanston. He’s like, looking for a team and a health coach. So it was it was a really good camaraderie and spirit to it

Through the strength of both old and new players, rugby continues to grow at Northwestern. If you’re hoping to catch a glimpse of play, the men’s and women’s teams gather at Ryan Fieldhouse to practice every Thursday – sometimes in costume. 

[KS] “So we usually have themes. Yeah, like every Thursday we have Thursday themes. And so today’s theme as you can see is like costume even though most people didn’t dress up when you see Gale as our sexy ref.” 

For WNUR News, we’re Mika Ellison and Michelle Hwang