Bruised, Broken, and Bloody
(Hello, World Post)
Alternate
Titles: The Third Half, The Coin Flip
I am a hooker, and a darn good one at that.
I've swiped more balls than I can count, enjoy getting down
and dirty, relish the feel of hands in my pants, and don't mind getting wedged
in between people so long as they're not too rough.
Ahhhh, rugby.
It's that sport that no one really knows, and if they do they
think it's some form of football or eccentric European sport that doesn't make
sense here in 'Murica. Well, it is my pleasure to introduce to you, valued
viewer, what rugby is through my own chronicles as a rugger.
Rugby is a fast-paced sport played in two 40-minute halves
with either 7 or 15 members on each side (in this case 15). It is a high-contact
sport, which makes it similar to football in this manner, but also demands the
endurance and stamina found in soccer. Basically, it's a really tiring game and
if you don't know what you're doing, you risk getting real hurt, real bad.
Now, I know that escalated very quickly but the realities of
this game are grave, and it only took one instance with a team member being
driven away in an ambulance that showed me how dangerous this sport is. With
recent news of professional athletes committing suicide, such as Junior Seau,
or suffering other long-term ailments as a result of their athletic career, I
got to thinking: how dangerous can rugby be and could I, or someone I know, end
up like them?
Every practice and every game, every ruck and
every scrum, I risk serious injury or even death. If it's not a broken bone,
then it's a torn ACL or paralysis. But it's rugby season now, and there's about
10 games I'm scheduled to play in, and I intend to play in every one. In fact,
with football season coming to a close, I'm even more anxious to play despite
seeing players like Dannell Ellerbe play with two broken thumbs, or Jahvid Best
remain on the PUP list for the second year due to a concussion.
Just like these players, I bear witness to fellow team
members playing with injuries, not caring about them so long as they get to
play, and have seen serious ramifications as a result of playing rugby, such as
ineligibility to compete in the Olympic Trials. However, I still lace up my
boots and take to the pitch, almost in denial of these possibilities and in
approval of my team doing the same.
As my season sets to begin, my blog aims to entertain you
with my accounts of playing rugby and its culture, but also determine why it is
that players risk their bodies and their lives in this game. Why do athletes
play in spite of injury, why do athletes play knowing well of the risks, and
why do athletes feel compelled to continue playing? All of these of which beg
the question, why does society continue to allow athletes to risk their lives
in a game at the expense of their own entertainment?
Little to none is done to advance protective gear for rugby
players, and minimal refereeing invites dangerous play at every blind side. Mix
in the high-level of amateurism and low education into the sport and we have
the perfect concoction for the highest possible number of player casualties!
Possibly in any sport! Congratulations rugby!
The IRB really has our back,
don’t they?
Because of its unfamiliarity, rugby is often dismissed or
brushed under the rug when it comes to changing the nature of the game,
especially by traditionalists who want to maintain the purity of the “spirit of
the game.”
But you know what, I’m tired of watching my players get punched
behind the ref’s back, and with so much attention geared towards athletic
injuries in today’s media, I think it’s about time rugby hit primetime.
Any team player
will tell you that getting to know the other members of your team is essential;
it allows you to know how well (or bad) they play, what ideologies they hold,
and if you can respect them enough to trust their opinion and their abilities.
The same goes
for blogging.
Who you decide to follow can help shape your ideals, expose you
to different opinions, and let’s be honest, affect your street cred. This week,
I’m going to show you ladies and gents some other rugby bloggers that I have
found to be interesting and can hopefully give you more insight on the world of
rugby.
Simply going by
“Dave,” the author shares very little, if any at all, about himself in his blog
“The Rugby Banter,” choosing rather to focus on his subject matter, rugby. Each
week, he shakes things up from talking about rugby law to rugby tournaments to
rugby in the community, which allows his readers to see the sport in a variety
of levels and contexts. His posts are scholarly enough to stir rugby debates and politics,
but are still sports-driven to amuse rugby enthusiasts.
However, his
blog seems to be from the point-of-view of a fan, rather than a player. So while his
blog post “Dear IRB, The Letter of the Law…” talks about the growing power of
referees, he is less concerned with the safety of the players than he is about
the continuity of the game, or in other words, how referees affect the
enjoyment of watching the game by continuously stopping it. He implores the IRB to
make changes as these multiple penalties/yellow cards are “starting to get us
fans worked up.”
Afterall, who’s
more important than the fans?
In another
post, “The Role of School Coaches,” Dave talks about the need for school
coaches to focus on individual skills and techniques rather than the schools’
win/loss record. This way, players can be the best they can be and start their
rugby careers with a better start and attitude. Rugby skill and knowledge
development start early on, and because of this, school coaches must instill in
players the right mentality. However, safety is not mentioned in the blog,
though anyone who has played rugby would agree that it is an essential
education for all rugby players. (I know, he got me all excited too. One of us?
SO close.) It seems that the “entertaining and success” of the game is most
important to Dave.
While this blog
also focuses on rugby, Dave seems to critique the sport from the eyes of a fan or
recruiter rather than in the best interest of the player. It is informative,
yes, and provides detailed accounts on the game, its laws, and practices
(certainly more than I even know), however it does not address the safety concerns
that my blog centers on. Perhaps because as a player, I'm more concerned with staying alive, while he is more concerned with staying entertained.
I’m not trying to excuse him, but this does make sense since I experience rugby
from the trenches, not the stands. Dave, from what I know, is just a fan. A
hardcore fan!...but a fan nonetheless.
It’s
unfortunate in this way, but because our audiences are the same, in
that we both target the rugby community, I’m still glad that we both can drive
home some aspect of the game that otherwise went unnoticed or is undermined.
Dave has over 3,000 followers, so between him and my impressive 1, together we
can spread more awareness despite our differing focuses.
Some exposure
is better than no exposure, so Dave gets to star in this week’s blog since his blog is
still a great source of rugby news. I’ll certainly be reading in, gaining as
much news on the current state of rugby from his blog as I can (I’ve already learned so
much!), and so should you. So go ahead and read his weekly blogs, maybe you’ll
learn something, maybe not, but just remember…read mine first.
Scared you a lil’ bit? Good. As with all blog
posts, authors need to GRAB their reader’s attention, and today I’m going to show you how the already aggressive rugger displays voice in blogs. “Voice,” simply, is
the means that authors use to convey their personality by their choice of
diction, phrasing, and content. All authors have voice (some more amusing than
others) but no two are ever the same.
A fellow rugby
blogger I’m following is a great example.
Tim O’Connor is
a barrister, and now that his playing days are over, he fills this void with
his blog titled simply, “Rugby Law” where he explores rugby and the laws that
govern it. After reading through his posts, it is clear that Tim had much rugby
experience and that I am not the first to question the safety of rugby,
especially in the scrums (beat me to the punch!).
He first lets
readers know about the amount of pressure first-row players endure during a
scrum in his post, “Legal Liability and Scrums” by comparing it to having cars
fall on your shoulders.
“Take
a small car - this being rugby, let's say a French one, a Citroen C4. In fact,
take two. Suspend one 15 centimetres - six inches - over each of your
shoulders.
Now let them drop.
That's what it is each member for a professional
front row to take the hit of a modern scrum…3kN of an impact. Ten or fifteen
times a game.”
With
this, his metaphor of the weight of cars to the impact of scrums is very
effective in showing the dangers that burden every front-row player. His
continual use of these metaphors throughout his post allow him to illustrate this
clearly to his readers, who often can’t imagine it when just technically
explained (hell, non-front-row players can’t even understand it). This allows
him to emphasize how dangerous the scrum can be and
that though they are often overlooked, the risks can be as dangerous as a car
falling on someone.
The
isolation of the sentence “Now let them drop” also reminds me of the initial shock
and quickness of the scrum engagement for props and hookers (the front-row
players). Both teams face each other, ready for battle, and when the ref is
done with the cadence of “Crouch! Touch! Set!” the engagement is so quick and
sometimes so powerful that if you’re not ready, you’re in serious trouble. Unsuspecting
players, like those not ready for a small car to drop on them, immediately feel
the pain in their necks and shoulders, and this parallel of his metaphor with the
actual mechanics of a scrum engagement allows Tim to connect
with all of his front-row readers (like me!).
He
continues to stress these dangers by his concise, simple statements that help
convey that there is nothing complex about the issue at hand. He states simply,
“The
net result has been more dangerous scrums, more resets, worse scrummaging and
more dangerous scrummaging: bad rugby, and dangerous rugby…And there is no
excuse for it.”
By getting straight
to the point and stating the negative results of the laws that govern scrums, his
frustration is clear and the line “And there is no excuse for it” illustrates
his passion for much needed change, especially from someone who used to be a
prop. With this credibility, the audience is more likely to accept his claims,
and he is able to pull in sympathy from the audience by his anecdote of when he
had to hold his hooker’s neck immobile after a bad scrum.
Even more
powerful than this is his courage to stand against the IRB, despite his
deep-rooted connection to rugby and his love for the game.
“I love
scrummaging. I have played as a prop, as has every male member of my family for
the last three generations at some stage. Scrummaging has risks, and always
will. I know the risks, and have accepted them, as has every other prop. But it
is NOT acceptable to make those risks greater by ignoring the Laws of the game.”
Rugby is more
than just a game to him, it is clear, and because he cherishes the game, he
does not shy away from exposing the increasing risk front-row players are put
under and fearlessly places the blame on the IRB.
In another post, his angry voice towards the IRB is again heard
in the concisely titled “Concussion – Fatality.” Short and to the point, he
tells readers about a 14-year old boy that died on the pitch because he was
left alone after receiving a concussion.
“I've written before, on this blog and elsewhere, about the
failure to deal properly with concussion,” he states,
exemplifying his dismay that there are cases where concussions still go
untreated, and because he refuses to comment until the verdict on the case is
made, this shows his own anguish on the event and perhaps his realization that sadly this is ultimately up to the courts as to what will happen, not the
players or community.
The title itself also shows his growing anger and even sadness
at the growing links of concussions and fatalities in rugby. With just a dash
to separate “concussion” and “fatality,” Tim not only shows how fast an injury
can seriously harm a player if untreated, but also his own inability to relate
the two as a single event. At the same time, the simplicity of the two words
show that the issue at hand is not complicated and that there are no excuses—literally—that
can come in between a concussion and a fatality.
Between these two blog posts, Tim shows himself to be a lover of
the game of rugby, but like myself, cannot bear to see players continue to be
injured by laws meant to promote player safety with the IRB sitting idly aside,
watching. His passion is evident by his anecdotal stories and his anger clear
towards the IRB. Like me, he understands that change must start with the IRB, and
until they amend rugby law, players are subjected to the laws of the game, no
matter how dangerous.
