Saturday, May 14, 2016

Scrimmage

Rugby is said to have been first played in 1823 and is thought to have spun off into
both soccer and American football...but I could be wrong. All I know is that I played
some high school football, in pads from helmet to cleat and played quite a lot of sandlot
tackle and flag football. I thought long and hard before trying out for Rugby. It is a game
seemingly more barbaric than football, due to the lack of pads, but I've found out that
it's actually the other way around with American football the more brutal because of the
"anything goes" field etiquette. Rugby, with longer periods and no substitutions is
rough by anyone standards, but the rules of engagement are more controlled with no
tackling while in the air, above the shoulders or at the knees.

I had an opportunity to catch a scrimmage with our local high school level team yesterday 
before they headed of to a tournament in the big city today. I was surprised to find out that we
had a high school level rugby team here in town, and even more surprise to find out that
the cleaned everyones clock last year and this. The were state champs last year, besting
all of the well funded city teams here in Colorado.

I ended up having about 45 minutes with the young men and here's what happened. 

 










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