15th Annual Wild West Rugby Fest

15th Annual Wild West Rugby Fest

by LeeAnn Sharpe

Cave Creek Critters Rugby Club President Joe Freeman says, “We have another match on December 9th, the final fall warm-up match before our league season starts in January.”

In the 15th Annual Wild West Rugby Fest Dec 2nd at CAP Basin Sports Complex in Scottsdale, one of the larger tournaments in the valley, Cave Creek Critters Rugby Club won their game 7 to 3 against Pasadena Rugby Club out of California, but lost to Queen City Rugby Club out of Denver, CO, 24 to 12. “This was one of the toughest teams we will have this season,“ comments Freeman. Their most closely contested match was against valley rival, the Phoenix Rugby Club. They lost that one 17 to 12.

Rugby is a full contact sport that has been played in various forms in recorded history back to the 16th century. It’s “modern history” is primarily in the UK, with the first written rulebook in 1845. It’s been a bit more flexible than most organized sports in that teams can agree on what rules they will play by. Today in America, USA Rugby is made up of seven Territorial Unions (TUs) and 37 Local Area Unions (LAUs), and supports more than 50,000 members.

Cave Creek Critters Rugby Club is a member of the Arizona Rugby Union, which is a member of the USA and Pacific Coast Rugby Unions.

Brian Wall, Vice President of the Cave Creek Critters Rugby Club shares enthusiastically, "I love rugby because of the entire atmosphere of the game. A player plays defense and offense at any given time and the play continues constantly. It is a bit confusing at first, but the laws of the game come to you when you watch and play long enough. There is also a great deal of camaraderie with the team and opposition."

Wall goes on to say, “The perception that it’s a hard drinking wild party crowd is still out there somewhat, but the game has changed and become more professional. There are still some old school brothers out there. But mostly it’s become a more serious sport. We do go have a burger and beer with the other team. So the social function is there too. People become very passionate about the sport. It’s all amateur in America, you have to pay your own way.”

Dues are $150 a year and help to defray some of the cost of renting fields and paying for lights. Uniforms are generally a jersey and black shorts and red socks.

The ball is a little bigger than an American football. There are few other similarities. The game is constant action for the 2 halves of 40 minutes each. Terms like “try” or “scrum” or “line out” are unique to the sport. And everybody has to do everything, offensive and defensive play.

“It’s not a sport for everybody,” comments Dan Allen, Treasurer of Cave Creek Critters Rugby Club. “There’s not much padding and lots of contact, similar to wrestling so you can’t have hard equipment. We don’t wear helmets or shoulder pads. You can not pass the ball forwards, so players can gain ground only by running with the ball or by kicking it. In rugby the most important thing is to maintain possession of the football. The game stops when the ball goes out of bounds. Otherwise it keeps going. Our agenda is to play good rugby and win and have some fun.”

Allen agrees “The camaraderie is what attracted me to the game. The sport of rugby is growing fast at the high school and college levels. I’ll be 38 next month and have been playing over 15 years. Lots of guys start playing in college and play well into their thirties. Most of the guys are working professionals. Arizona is such a transient state we get a lot of international players.”

There are three divisions in this country. The Cave Creek Club plays in the social club union. We compete in the national 2nd and 3rd division. In Arizona we also created an associate division for those who don’t want to commit to a full union schedule. Schools like Thunderbird School, Embry Riddle, and others. There’s lots of practice or “friendly” games

Cave Creek has continually improved and won some matches last year. It’s a fun rivalry with the Phoenix Rugby club

Two of our strongest standout players are Jaco VanRensburg from South Africa is our team captain. James Hocksworth 24, went to Weaton College and has been selected to compete at a National level.