Rugby might look down 'n' dirty, but this fast sport is worth a try

Neal Taflinger

August 20, 2008 by Neal Taflinger

0 votes

I do gnarly cross-training workouts, grapple and kickbox and ride my bike to work as often as possible -- but I am absolutely not in running shape. Which is a problem, considering that I'll be hoofing it in blazing hot weather for the next couple of hours.

It's just after 6 p.m. at the Lake Sullivan Sports Complex, which is a fancy name for the Major Taylor Velodrome, BMX track, skateboard park and rugby field at 38th Street and Cold Spring Road. I am warming up with the Indianapolis Impalas, the competition squad fielded by the Indianapolis Rugby Club. We're high-stepping, grape-vining and sprinting across the hard-packed sod.

After we get a sweat going the team circles up and stretches. Coach Carson Mouser sets up a series of cones and runs us through drills that emphasize coordinated running and throwing. It's difficult to synchronize accelerating and decelerating with three other guys but the drills are executed at a steady clip with few flubs, marked only by voices calling out "yeah ball."

I should have known better. The impala is a lighting-quick African antelope, and I am a lumbering North American Red Bear. There are other big guys on the field and they seem to be suffering, too, which provides a bit of solace. The season hasn't officially started but Coach Mouser seems intent on improving the squad's fitness.

He splits the team into forwards and backs. I go with the forwards, the "lineman" of rugby.

We make our way across the field to the scrum machine. The most iconic image in rugby, the scrum is where eight men from each squad crash together like two flesh-tanks, pushing against each other and kicking the ball backwards so that a back can pick it up and advance it to the other team's try-line -- what Americans would call the endzone.

The scrum machine is a "Mad Max"-style athletic training device, part football-blocking sled, part road-paver. I wrap my left arm around the "hooker" and grab hold of his waistband. The back on the hooker's left side does the same thing; we slide our shoulders in front of him as he wraps his arms around our shoulders. Two players behind us grab our legs, and three backs behind them push into the gaps.

"That's a whole lotta man in one place," someone says. We bend over and slam into the sled and I try to keep my neck rigid under the protective pad, thinking how much more unpleasant this would be if skulls and collarbones were crashing into me.

The forwards try to teach me some other things but my brain is fried from the heat, the running and the terminology. If I hear anything else about rucks, scrums, try-lines, or line-outs I may just run off the field screaming, "yeah ball, yeah ball, yeah ball!"

It looks chaotic, but rugby is a much faster and more graceful than a passing glance suggests, and it takes a lot of endurance. It's a great game, but I think the next time I'm this close to a rugby field, I'll bring a folding chair and an oil-can of Foster's.

Pittsburgh Rugby Football Club at Indianapolis Impalas

When: 1 p.m. Sept. 13.

Where: Lake Sullivan Sports Complex, 3649 Cold Spring Road.

Tickets: Free.

Info: www.indianapolisrugbyclub.com

Forum: Talk

Tags: 

b-team, rugby, Indianapolis Impalas

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2 comments

erob54
erob54, August 21
0 votes

Taffy would make a tremendous prop, even for a North American Red Bear

erob54
erob54, August 22
0 votes

Also free home game Saturday August 23rd vs. Chicago Condors 1pm!!!

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