University of Virginia Library

Rugby: 'Game For Hooligans'

Virginia Scrummers
Host Weekend Play

It takes something extra to play
Rugby. Ever since that idyllic day
on the playing field of Rugby
School when William Webb Ellis,
with fine disregard for the rules of
football, or soccer as it is known
here, picked up the ball and ran
with it, Rugby has been the most
exciting and punishing sport of the
leather ball.

It is often referred to as a sport
for hooligans played by gentlemen.
Perhaps the English have strange
notions of what gentlemen are,
judging by the ever-present cauliflower
cars, broken noses and
scarred faces found in pubs frequented
by past and present rugby
players.

Most Americans have enough
sense to stop playing tackle without
equipment when they reach the age
of puberty. But the English always
seem to have something to prove
anyway.

Rugby is permeated with fine
old traditions, not the least of
which is the post-game party. It is
one of the more notorious aspects
of the game that alcohol is served
before, during, and after the combat.

This serves the three-fold purpose
of providing Dutch courage
beforehand, counteracting dehydration
during the proceedings, and
healing the wounds thereafter.

Perhaps the inexorable party
after the game is why Rugby is
indeed a game played by gentlemen
(soccer is considered a game for
gentlemen played by hooligans).

For at the party wounds are
healed, grudges are forgotten, and
new tricks and plays learned in an
atmosphere of camaraderie and alcohol.
There are no bad losers in
rugby, only bad drinkers.

Ruggers do other things besides
drink. Every good rugger spends
some of his time on the pitch
(field) engaged in a match (game).
The match is divided into two forty
minute halves, with a five minute
rest period, in a continuum of
scrums, rucks, lineouts, and now
and then a try (touchdown).

A try counts three points, but
the ball must be touched down in
the try zone (end zone) before it
counts. A conversion after a try
counts two points and is taken
from a position on the field parallel
with where the ball was touched
down. A drop kick counts three
points and are often made from as
far as fifty yards from the uprights.

Rugby here in Virginia is organized
informally but played fiercely.
The Club has no coach, no
compulsory practice and often has
difficulty getting some of its
members to play with even a
minimal degree of sobriety. Yet the
Club has won 70 per cent of its
matches since its inception in 1962,
and this year, in an off-season, has a
combined fall and spring record of
12-5.

The Cavalier scrummers will
host the annual Commonwealth
Cup with play beginning this
Saturday morning.

Tomorrow, a preview of the
Commonwealth Cup and a look
at Virginia's personnel.

Eventual Winner Old Blue Kicks Off Against Virginia In Last Year's Commonwealth Cup Action

Annual Event Will Begin With Saturday Morning Games With Championship Being Decided Sunday