Rugby Team Study Interviewer: Madeleine Le Interviewee
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1 Project Title: Rugby Team Study 2 Interviewer: Madeleine Le 3 Interviewee: Lily (Alias), a current junior in college who has been on a women’s rugby team for 4 three years . Identifies as a woman (uses she/her pronouns) 5 Date and Time: October 22nd 2018, 11:00 to 11:30 6 Location: Sieg Hall, 4th floor outside of the student lounge 7 Interview #: RTIS01 8 Interview ID: 10_22_2018_RTS_Interview1 9 10 Madeleine: Okay, let’s get started. Can you explain rugby to me, from your perspective? 11 Lily: So, rugby is kind of like football, in that, you want to get the ball to the end of the field, into 12 what we call a try-zone, or what football calls an end-zone. The differences are that there is no 13 padding, it’s just a mouthguard, you have to pass the ball backwards, and we don’t stop the game as 14 many times as football does. Um… we have things called scrums which get called when there is like 15 a penalty or something. Scrums are when a bunch of people kind of mash into each other, that’s 16 something that I do. Every time – so there’s someone carrying the ball down the field – so every 17 time they get tackled, over them, after they get tackled and the tackler gets off of them, they place 18 the ball closer to their team and there’s two people that ruck over them – it’s hard to explain without 19 a visual, but it’s kind of like two people trying to tackle each other in a controlled manner. Um...and 20 so that happens multiple times until either there’s a team that gets a penalty, where they have to give 21 the ball to the other team, or somebody scores a try, like football, the team that scores a try, gets to 22 attempt to kick it between the two posts, and if they do they get an extra point. 23 Madeleine: Can you describe the different roles in rugby to me? 24 Lily: There’s two main different roles in rugby, forwards and backs. Backs tend to be people that run 25 more – or like, there’s this theory that I think has been disproven, but like, backs are people that can 26 run faster than they are strong, and forwards are people who are stronger and aren’t as speedy. Backs 27 are people that run more, they have the ball a little more, and they’re more likely to score a try. 28 Um… and they have different positions, they’re mainly like, where you are in regards to each other. 29 So, there are center backs which are in the center of this line of people, there are wings which are in 30 the very end. Forwards are very different, we tend to – I’m a forward – we tend to tackle more, 31 um… and we are in scrums, as I described earlier, and um… there’s also, when the ball goes off the 32 field – I can’t remember the name of it – but we lift players up, it’s kind of complicated, so forwards 33 do that as well, while backs are trying to help our team get the ball. Um… yeah, so there’s different 34 roles for forwards, depending where you are in the scrum, we have jumpers and lifters, when the ball 35 goes off the field, um… and I could describe a little more, but it would be really long. 36 Madeleine: Don’t worry, there is plenty of time, so you can definitely go into more detail. 37 Lily: Ok, so I can describe a little bit about the scrum. I’m either a second row, which is called a 38 lock, or I’m a flank, which is somebody that is off the side of a scrum. Once again, a scrum is like - 39 you’re kind of like - two teams are like going in at each other and um, one team basically – you’re – 40 well both teams separately – you’re grabbing onto each other and leaning forward a little bit and 41 once you’re connected, you’re basically leaning onto each other and once the ball is – once the sir, 42 which is the referee, will say that the ball can go in, the ball goes in the middle and what each team 43 is trying to do is push as hard as they can, so that they can get the ball to their side. Um… so I either 44 play a lock or a flank, and a lock is someone in the second row people in the scrum, they’re called a 45 lock because it’s basically like you’re kind of keeping the whole scrum together, you have three 46 people in front of you, one is called a hooker, they are in between these two people called props, 47 which tend to be much larger girls who are very, very strong. The lock kind of locks in between each 48 person – there’s two locks – they’re in between – and I have to put my head in between each 49 person’s knees and my arm, I have to put my arms between the props’ legs and grab their shorts and 50 we lock each hooker and the prop together and we also have the flanks on our sides which are 51 grabbing us and then we have the eight-man behind us. The eight man is – when the ball gets out, 52 either they grab it or the scrum half grabs it – that’s the person who’s running around who places the 53 ball and stuff. So, we’re locking the hooker and also the flank and the eight man, and we’re kind of 54 central. And yeah, once the sir says go ahead, we push the team as hard as we can. 55 Madeleine: So, in terms of equipment, what do you need in order to play rugby? 56 Lily: You need cleats and a mouthguard. Oh, and a ball! 57 Madeleine: What’s some key knowledge you need in order to play rugby? 58 Lily: Well, you need to know how to play the game, just generally. What our coach says, and I think 59 this rings true, is that you play for a year, like it takes like a year to really get the game, and after 60 that, you can kind of play. You need to know how the game works, how to pass a ball – we have 61 spinning passes – you need to know how to tackle someone and how to get tackled safely. Just a lot 62 of safety stuff too, like how to hold your head and where to tackle somebody, so that you don’t end 63 up hurting yourself. You need to know, unfortunately, rugby is the kind of game that for each 64 position, you don’t need to know a lot about it, but you need to get comfortable in it, especially if 65 you’re a forward. If you’re a back you can kind of play any role, but if you’re a forward, it’s like – I 66 can’t be a prop for sure, but I know how to lock. There’s other stuff that I’m probably forgetting, but 67 those are the main things. 68 Madeleine: How often do you practice, where are these located, and how long are these practices? 69 Lily: We practice two times a week – well we have two formal practices at a field that the IMA lets 70 us use. Then we have weight training two times a week, one of those we recommend you come with 71 others, the other we just say, make sure you do the exercises. 72 Madeleine: Can you explain to me what a typical practice looks like? 73 Lily: So, we start off with these warmups, we do these things called Auckland squares, where we 74 practice passing. Then we do some stretching, making sure we’re limber, and then we do some 75 different drills, mostly fitness where we do something as hard as we can, usually sprinting, so we do 76 that at some point during practice. Then we have other drills, which can be tackling or just other 77 passing drills, things with our offensive strategy. At the end of our practice, we usually play touch 78 rugby, or we play like a real game for like ten minutes. And then, sometimes we split into forwards 79 and backs and do different exercises. 80 Madeleine: Can you describe to me what a session of weight training looks like and how long do 81 those last? 82 Lily: We only do an hour of weight training, it’s all over the place. We normally have our coach set 83 out a number of exercises she wants us to do with weights. Then we split into pairs or groups of 84 three people and we just go do them, so that takes about an hour. 85 Madeleine: Can you explain to me how practicing and weight training tie together? 86 Lily: While practices is just like a lot of making sure that you have the knowledge to play the game 87 and have practiced it, weight training is purely athletic stuff and making sure that you’re using your 88 muscles as much as possible and you’re as strong as you can be.