by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
Though the Jaguars didn’t make it to the National Football League playoffs, Jacksonville’s other football team did — the City’s rugby football team, that is.
Even though most people in the area don’t know they exist, the Jacksonville Rugby Football Club is the top Division III men’s rugby team in Florida and, after last weekend’s 27-12 win over Hilton Head, is headed to the Division III championships for the South Region of USA Rugby.
It’s one of the world’s most roughest sports, with big men battering each other without much more protection than a flimsy helmet and light shoulder pads.
Jacksonville has the best record in its bracket this spring season, going 6-1-1. Though a member of the Florida Rugby Union, a subdivision of USA Rugby, Jacksonville was placed in a bracket with teams from all over the Southeast, playing two matches each against Savannah, Augusta, Columbia and Hilton Head.
Now that Jacksonville has dominated its regular season opponents, the team will pack into personal cars and rented vans and is head to the South Region quarterfinals in Greensboro this weekend where it will face Triad RFC, a team of players from Greensboro and Winston-Salem. If victorious in Greensboro, Jacksonville will travel to Danville, Va. for championship rounds.
If all goes well in Virginia, the team will advance to the final 16 in the nation and will travel to California for the National Senior Men’s Division III Championship.
Jacksonville coach Chris Cassells said he especially proud of the team’s success this year because a plague of injuries, retirements from the sport and military deployments severely cut the team’s number of seasoned players going into the season.
“Jacksonville Rugby Club is a small but very successful club,” Cassells said. “We have a small but committed playing membership. The club has excelled this year under the strong leadership of our captain Jeff Giese and everyone has pulled together as a team to attain the successes we have achieved on and off the field.”
But even with the team’s success this year and more than 30 years of championship level rugby having been played here on the First Coast, virtually nobody knows that rugby exists in Jacksonville. Much like soccer was 15 or 20 years ago, rugby is a worldwide sport with very little exposure in the U.S.
One reason rugby hasn’t gained widespread appeal in the U.S. is due to the stereotypes and stigmas that tend to follow the sport. Though most people have never seen a match, many tend to think of rugby as an unorganized violent brawl involving a ball, a field and 30 or so drunken, overweight, toothless thugs fighting over what looks like an overstuffed football.
Actually, the game is quite organized and the players are in better shape and more behaved on the field than most professional athletes.
Regular season games are 80 minutes long and are officiated by a USA Rugby licensed and trained referee. Fifteen of the 20 or so players are on the field at one time and all players must be registered with USA Rugby because both teams’ rosters are verified before each match.
The game is reasonably similar to American football: the object is to score by crossing the opponents’ goal line and players must work as a team to move the ball downfield. The defense has the same goal, too: tackle the man with the ball.
Points also can be scored by kicking.
Unlike football, you can’t pass the ball forward, there is no blocking and play doesn’t stop after a tackle has been made.
While there is the occasional fight, brawling individuals are severely penalized by either being placed in a “sin bin” for a certain time or even ejected from the game.
As far as the players being overweight thugs, most teams practice two or three times per week before, during and after the official season.
Rugby players have to be in good shape because only six substitutions are allowed per game and that’s usually only in the case of an injury. Once a player is taken out, he can’t return.
Injuries which don’t happen as often as most people think despite the brutal nature of the sport. Because ruggers wear little padding, they tend to take better care of themselves on the field.
The traditional rugby social is another area of myth and confusion regarding the game. Traditionally, after each match, the home team throws a party for the other team no matter the outcome of the match. There is always drinking and revelry at the social but all hard feelings from the match are dropped at the door and traded with jokes, stories and lies.
Often, the visiting team has traveled several hours to get to the match so the social is a way for the home team to meet the opponents and feed them before they head home.
Unlike most sports in the U.S., rugby has no professional league here. While baseball, football, soccer — even lacrosse — have professional leagues, our city’s rugby players have to pay to play the game. One exception: members of the national Eagles team.
From buying their own equipment to paying for club dues and travel arrangements, the local ruggers do it all on their own. They pay dues which cover expenses, such as hiring referees, and raise more money by working the Outback food stand during Jaguar games. Another source of income goes with their size: the big boys make excellent security guards at stadium and arena events.
With members ranging in age from 21 to the 40s and 50s, Jacksonville’s team consists of fence salesmen, tree doctors, journalists, engineers and dock workers from the U.S., England, Africa and Australia.
They practice at various fields around town and home games are played — always on Saturdays — at Davis Park off Palm Valley Road in northern St. Johns County.
And if all goes well in the coming weeks, Jacksonville’s other football team will add some more metal to its trophy shelf with a national championship but for now Cassells said he is simply looking forward to this weekend’s match.
“Now that the regular season is behind us, we are looking forward to competing against the other teams who have made it to the playoffs,” he said. “We intend to be as prepared and competitive as possible and to acquit ourselves well in the forthcoming matches.”