The Saint Vincent College Women’s Rugby Team formed just last year with only five girls on the team. With so few girls and a lack of connections, they couldn’t do much in the way of participating in any events or playing in official games. They didn’t just sit around during that first season, though. They practiced with Saint Vincent’s Men’s Rugby Team to develop and hone their skills, going to practices and playing in inter-team scrimmages.
When the fall season came, their efforts to recruit more girls to the team were not fruitless, myself being one of them. Since the team was still so new, and with how stigmatized the sport is for being hyper-aggressive and serious injuries being unavoidable, few girls from the initial recruiting actually stuck with the team. Those who stayed were able to learn about the sport outside of its stereotypes and develop as a key player. With the addition of an amazing coach, we were able to better refine what we’d already learned practicing with the men’s team and weekly toss-arounds, where we would get together for an hour and work on a specific set of skills. With a no-girl-left-behind attitude, the Saint Vincent Women’s Rugby Team has done everything it can to support its members both on and off the field. Be it giving tips about performance and offering extra help throughout the week, or letting team members know that we are all here for them if they’re struggling with academics or other issues; we have all come to be like family to each other.
Our nerves are at an all-time high with the coming of our first tournament together, as well as our first ever official games. It is an ambitious debut, but, as a team who has the tendency to ‘hit the ground running’, we couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to show what we’ve learned over these past months. Relentless weekly practices and fun activities on the side have prepared us for this tournament. And with the addition of a fourth game to an otherwise three-game tournament, we will gain worthwhile experience on the pitch and a treasure chest of memories along with it.
While it is important to win, we also stress the importance of fun too. Being a new team puts us at a particular disadvantage that the other teams don’t have. They have game time experience; they know what to expect when they step onto the pitch. Our only playing experience is in inter-team scrimmages during and after practices. This lack of experience does present the possibility of impressive mishaps to happen on the pitch, which can be discouraging. If we walk onto the pitch with the thought we’re going to lose from the start, then we will. But, as Zaza Kassachevili, manager for the Georgian rugby team, said when asked how he thought about their opener against England will go, “Whatever happens to us will be positive. It’s like having a baby – before you have it, you don’t know what it will look like. We are hoping the baby will be beautiful.” Rugby being the incredibly mental sport that is promotes positive thinking before and during games. The fact that we are a new team makes us unpredictable. There are also the charms of beginner’s luck in our deck of cards to play. Knowing the other teams expect nothing of us when we step onto the pitch is a relief, in the sense that it means we get the chance to surprise them. If expectations are made, then they already have a plan of attack, as well as a counterattack against us. But since the highest their expectations go is that they’ll utterly dominate us, which can still happen, doesn’t mean that we won’t be able to make a name for ourselves. With the combination of confidence, teamwork, and the smallest dash of recklessness, there isn’t anything we won’t be able to do come Saturday. Go, Scrumcats!
