Off Topic for an Off Day – Rugby and Boxing

As part of my continuing series on alternative sporting events I somehow find myself attending, Saturday night I went to go see rugby for the first time.  

USA vs. Japan as part of the 2025 Pacific Nations Cup.

Nothing like dropping into a world for an evening. 

Decent sized crowd. Very enthusiastic. Lots of Rugby Bros who are clearly, a breed apart.  

The Bros appear shorter at first than they actually are because they are all broad shouldered, mega buffed people. They look like how I picture the dwarves in Lord of The Rings. Sans beards. Like they should have been carrying pick axes and going into tunnels.  

They were very physical with each other. Nature of the game I guess. Golfers don’t grab and wrestle with each other in greeting.

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I very much enjoyed talking to the fans, many of whom were players from rugby programs throughout country and who were in to see the match. One of the best conversations I had was with a woman who plays for Cal Berkley.

There are a few top ruby schools in America and surprisingly, the Cal Berkley is one of them. Especially the women’s team.

“Cal Women's Rugby has a long history of developing young women into elite athletes and global leaders. Routinely advances to the Pacific Coast playoffs with players named to the USA Rugby Women's Junior and Collegiate All American squads.”

She had an interesting role on the team. 

For those of you who don’t know the game, and I include my self in that group, when a ball goes out of bounds it gets thrown in from the side line as a kind of jump ball/face off.

The inbounding team is allowed to throw/lift up a player to gain a height advantage. It looks something like what cheerleaders do on the sideline when they stand on each other and hold the light one up. But no one is light. 

It’s even weirder than it sounds.  

The girl I was talking to is the person they toss on the Cal Berkley team.  

I asked what she loved about the game, and believe me they all LOVE the game, and she said the joy in bringing someone down in the open field.

I knew a woman from South Africa who played rugby as well and she described the feeling the same way except she said it’s like taking down a wildebeest on the Veldt. Seriously, that's a direct quote. 

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Also spoke to one of the top coaches in the country. Got a lot of insight about the challenges of getting kids interested in playing. He said concussions were a problem. There are no pads. No helmets. No protections whatsoever. Kind of thing that gives parents pause.

I asked if they considered helmets. I said, after all, catchers and goalies used to play without masks. He sort of laughed. I wasn’t sure if it was wistful or disdainful and thought it was best not to pursue it.

The other thing he said that resonated was that rugby has trouble getting kids interested because, “It’s a LOT of work.” More than other sports.

You have to be in shape to run continuously, like soccer, but everyone is going full out all the time. Then you are tackling and getting tackled so it’s like being a two-way player in football but no huddles, and no time outs.

Plus, even if you’re great, there’s no real payoff other than the self-satisfaction of it. 

A breed apart. 

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The US team got destroyed. Turns out that the Japanese National Team gets to play together year round while the USA team is comprised of players from different programs and clubs and don't get the time or the financial support to play together a lot.  

It reminded me a bit of the deal with the Olympics back in the day when the teams from the USSR were all in the “Army” and the American teams were just really talented college kids.

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Being there was interesting, but the game itself?  Yeeesh.

No disrespect, and I mean that, rugby is a very tough game for very tough people, but I see why someone took a look at rugby and said, this game is kinda lame, a bit like team, "Cream the Ball Carrier" and then came up with football. 

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The match was over by nine PM which seemed early so my friend and I went from there to a nearby bar/amusement center to watch the Northern California "Battle of the Badges", a night of boxing pitting fighters from various correctional facilities against each other.

That’s right, prison guards fighting prison guards.

The Longest Yard meets Rocky. 

Not a lot of subtlety or gentlemanly fisticuffs. These were brawls. Controlled fury. I didn’t want to think about how they trained for the fight.

This crowd was interesting too, although to be fair, I didn’t do a lot of interacting. Didn’t want to get into a conversation with the wrong woman or say the wrong thing to, basically, anyone, if you can understand that.

My favorite moment was when an inebriated woman in her 70’s jumped into the ring in-between rounds and took the round number card from the ring girl and began parading around the ring with it much to the delight and hoots from the crowd. 

I was sitting ringside and yelled, “Hey be nice. That’s my Mom!” and one of the prison guards in the crowd yelled back, “And a BE-U-TI-FUL woman she is too!” and we all cracked up.

Then I got out of Dodge.