While most sports fans continue to follow baseball this summer or eagerly await the start of football season, there’s another sport that’s taking Morristown by storm … or scrum.
The game is rugby, and while some Americans may not be very familiar with it, the Morristown Youth Rugby League is blossoming into one of the most popular summer leagues in the area.
The six-week co-ed league has grown in popularity since its inception six years ago, registering over 150 players in 2011 who compete in four different age groups against teams from all over Morris County.
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Considering that league participation more than tripled in size from its first season, and that the league's popularity has grown so much that they’ve stopped advertising, it’s becoming more and more clear that rugby is continuing to make a name for itself in a place better known for hockey and lacrosse.
So what puts this regionally-obscure sport in such a high demand in Morristown?
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“I think that a lot of it stems from the fact that it’s for a wide group of ages, it’s co-ed, it’s non-contact, and the practices take place in the same place for all of the age groups,” said Program Administrator Carol Pruett, who has two children that play in the league. “So for anybody that has several kids in the program, they’re not going from one field to a different field for the different ages.”
This isn’t the typical rugby game that you may have seen on the International Channel or late night on ESPN2, though. Instead, these kids play an altered non-tackling version of rugby that gives participants a chance to learn about the intricacies of a sport that shares many of the skills learned in games like soccer, lacrosse and basketball.
“For kids playing flag football for example, it’s very much, 'this is your position on the team, you run this play, you do that,'” Program Manager Gordon Bailey explained. “Where as when we play games, it’s seven-on-seven and everyone gets to touch the ball, everyone gets to run with the ball, anyone can score a tri. It’s like lacrosse in that aspect; it’s running and kind of free flowing. I think the kids like that the best.”
Instead of playing what some know as “crash rugby,” in which teams drive through the opposition's defense, the Morristown Youth Rugby League teaches its athletes about a more finesse style of rugby, highlighted by passing and running between or around the defense.
Because score isn’t officially kept (although Bailey says the kids always have a sense of who’s got the lead) kids aren’t playing for a championship, but rather, the love of the game.
While there isn’t a title match to look forward to at seasons’ end, the season does culminate with an enormous festival that includes teams from all over Morris County playing in a round-robin tournament.
Just take a visit to Chester on July 23 and you’ll see just how popular this sport is getting in the area. In fact, just two years ago, the league set a Guinness World Record for the biggest flag rugby tournament in the world, a title previously held by a league in England.
“When I tell people that we’ve got 1,000 kids signed up [in Morris County], they can’t believe it,” Bailey said. “It’s growing like crazy. Morristown alone has grown from 50 or 60 kids just a few years ago, to 150 kids now.”
For more information, visit www.morristownrugby.com.
