Speaking Strine

You all laughed when I first talked about discovering a love for rugby. Well here I am, during what we American collegiate basketball fans call “March Madness,” with my favorite team in the running for a national championship and all I can think about is union rugby.

As silly as the idea of a hospitality and management school rugby team sounds, I am consistently impressed by the organization, interest and high standards set by the dependable trio of our de facto general manager, coach and team captain. Three weeks into any real club development, they’ve displayed a real understanding of how to motivate and raise expectations. I can’t say that the college administration has been completely won over, but once we sign our club contracts and take a shot at the Student Representative Council’s support, we’ll have made more than enough headway for them to respect our organization. (We’ll be playing rugby anyway, so who cares?) Honestly though, outside of a cursory interest in the sport, it was their management that hooked me initially. It was the opportunity to spearhead the logo and jersey design that caught my graphic illustrator interest. Back home, I get a chance nearly every week to produce illustrations and graphics for our college newspaper and numerous other organizations. Here, creative work has been scarce.

Back on topic, that much involvement, a professional match and a couple pick-up touch games in the school’s backyard were the extent of my “rugby experience.” Tonight, everything changed. We grouped up and headed out to the field in Melwood for a night of practice. With twenty-four players (we expect thirty when it’s all said and done) we immediately picked up a game of touch, familiarizing the newbies like myself and more than a dozen others with some of the basic strategies and rules. It was exhilarating. Forgiving friends that they are, I received more tosses and runs than anyone at my skill level should have gotten.

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