Hold On To Your Scrum Caps

Every Sunday at 1PM, a group of 25 athletes assemble on Dawley’s overgrown field to play an under-attended, impressively agressive game of rugby. Because the sport comes from Europe, which has no varsity system, the Connecticut College rugby team is relegated to club sport status. along with its counterparts at colleges across the country.

But their games are more action-packed than most varsity events you’ll find on campus, full of concussions, broken limbs, sprains and spurting blood. This past Sunday, the rugby team played their first game of the season against Nichols College, which they narrowly lost 15-18. Tries were scored for Connecticut College by Dave Parsons and Henry Rossoff, with one kick for point by Chris King. They gave up their strong lead with only four minutes left of play.

After the game, five players sat down to describe the sport to an obvious rookie.

Please describe a scrum.

Nick Bright ’11: So you make a 3-2-1.
Andrew Smith ’11: It’s called a prop, hooker, prop, then the second row are the two locks, on the outside you have two flankers, and the person in back is the eight man.
Henry Rossoff ’12: I like to think of it as a phalanx.

A What?

Bright: Phalanx. A phalanx. The ancient military strategy. I think it was Alexander the Great. They basically would get into these giant squares with spears and would move forward like a unit. It was impenetrable.

What does it feel like to be in a scrum?

Keith Winking ’11: Painful. You got the weight of eight people, nine people…
Smith: Eight people.
Winking: …eight people as one unit coming together with all their strength from both sides, against another 8 people. It’s a lot of pressure, a lot of stress in the neck, but it’s also pretty fun when you do it right.

Do you know where your heads will fit when you surge at each other?

Bright: They interlock like fingers.
Smith: The two props, one’s called loosehead, one’s called tighthead. Tightheads are between the top prop and the other hooker. Heads go right between, his head’s on the right side.

What?

Bright: We can draw you a diagram if you want.
[Editor’s note: Diagram was never drawn.]

You often had the ball sitting underneath you, waiting to be picked up.

Smith: That’s called a ruck. When a person gets tackled they have to put the ball onto the ground, and the two teams build a ruck over the ball, and try to drive the other team away from the ball.
Bright: Play doesn’t stop when the ball goes down.

What’d you think of this game?

Winking: It was a good game, but our coach was just saying that it really got away from us. We had an amazing first half, a good lead going in, and we just let it get away in the second half, which was a little unfortunate.
Smith: Compared to our game against them from last year, we played a much, much better game.
Rossoff: They beat us 65-5 last year.
Bright: In some senses this was a moral victory, because we have a lot of new people, and we played really well.
Mike Natriello ’12: So once a ruck is won and we get possession, we get it to the backline, and the backline runs the plays. And that’s what progresses us forward. About half of them are freshmen. They’re great players. Really athletic guys.
Smith: Very good freshmen this year.

Can you explain your most painful injury?

Winking: I separated my shoulder 2 years ago. Someone fell on me from a blindside tackle. I was getting up from a tackle, and a guy dropped someone else on me. I fell on my shoulder bad.
Bright: Once I tackled someone, and as I was getting up to run toward the ball, my left foot was still caught underneath the guy I tackled. Someone else came and cleaned me out from behind. I sprained my ankle real bad. It swelled up.
Natriello: Stingers, a pinched nerve in your shoulder, are another issue. You drive your shoulder into someone and you hit it funny, and it feels like your arm’s about to explode.
Bright: In the first game I ever played my freshman year, Kevin Johannson, within the first 15 minutes, broke his nose and came off the field gushing blood.
Rossoff: In a big messy ruck, too, people just try to punch you in the face or gouge out your eyes.
Natriello: And they’ll definitely rake your hands with their cleats.
Smith: Also broken fingers are pretty common.
Natriello: Broken noses and broken fingers.
Smith: And concussions. We have lots of concussions.

Is this something you take pride in?

Smith: I mean, we try and avoid injuries, but…
Rossoff: Being afraid of injuries will only get you more hurt.
Winking: Yeah, you can’t think like that.

What are the hats for?

Bright: It’s called a scrum cap. I’m an eight man, I’m in the back, so Andy and Teddy, they kind of bond onto each other. I basically stick my head right between their asses, and then I pull it out. I didn’t play rugby with a scum cap last year, and I got really bad cauliflower ear. It got swelled and bubbled up. So it’s basically just for protection.
Natriello: Andy in the past has taped his ears to his head so they don’t get ripped off.
Smith: Supposedly the scrum cap is supposed to help with concussions, but the foam is so thin, it doesn’t do anything. It’s really just for keeping our ears on our heads.

What’s the lift called?

Natriello: It’s called a lineout

Does it hurt your balls?

Bright: No.
James Jackson ‘11: Is that a serious question?
Natriello: It hurts the lifter’s balls if they get hit in the nuts.
Bright: I’ve hit guys in the nuts a couple times, which I feel really bad about.
Rossoff: I have too…I’m sorry.

Do you have any nicknames?

Winking: Not really. Just Matty Ice and Cap7.

Best lyrics to a drinking song?

Jackson: Can we not say that?
Winking: We don’t talk about drinking songs.
Bright: Let’s just say we have a lively Rugby culture.

Anything else you want the school to know?

Natriello: We take this seriously and we want people to take us seriously.
Smith: We’ll take anyone, big or small, no experience necessary. Most of us only started playing rugby our freshman year.
Jackson: This is not just a club sport where we get together and play games. We’re a club sport that considers itself a varsity sport.
Bright: If you play football, if you wrestle, if you play lacrosse, if you’re looking for a fun sport that will help you stay in shape and help you feel like a badass, come play rugby.

The rugby team practices three days a week. Their next game is this Sunday, September 26 at Dawley field, against local Mitchell College. According to Rossoff, “We’re going to kill them. It’ll be a great game to come watch.”

Photo By: Julie McMahon