Philadelphia Whitemarsh Rugby Football Club Continues A Long Tradition

Bob Haller is used to the strange looks at work by now. They usually came after another arduous weekend, when he would carry the badge of his passion on his face. His co-workers knew well enough the black eye wasn’t the result of a bar fight.

It came from something a little more manly than that--a rugby match. More specifically, it resulted from a match for the Philadelphia Rugby Football Club (PWRFC), which carries a long and storied past having been in existence for over four decades.

Haller, a Conestoga graduate, is one of those rare members who plays for both PWRFC’s 15s, which plays in the fall, and the 7s, which is playing right now during the summer.

Haller and roughly about 20 members of the PWRFC’s play in the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union (or MARFU), an 11-team league where Philadelphia Whitemarsh sits around sixth place. This is an important time in the season for Philadelphia Whitemarsh, which had been stung by a rash of injuries early this season.

PWRFC practices twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and plays qualifying tournaments over the weekend. The next tournament Philadelphia Whitemarsh will be competing in is at Rocky Gorge, Maryland on July 9. The aim is to reach the MARFU finals on July 23.

Rugby sevens is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players aside, instead of the usual 15, with shorter matches. Originated in Melrose, Scotland, the game is popular at all levels, with amateur and club tournaments generally held in the summer.

Sevens has become one of the most well distributed forms of rugby, and is popular in parts of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, especially in the South Pacific, and will be an Olympic sport in 2016.

It’s one of the most-physically demanding sports in the world, though really a lifestyle that spurs a zeal for the game that continually needs to be fed. For players like Haller, a 24-year-old public accountant, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“People that get involved with the sport love it,” said Haller, who was introduced to the sport in high school and who played in college. “Rugby is a lifestyle. It’s the only sport I know where you beat the hell out of each other and then go to the bar with opposing team afterwards. There is a camaraderie in rugby you don’t see in other sports.”

Haller, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound prop, or forward, feels Philadelphia Whitemarsh is turning its season around after a slow beginning. Most of the players are roughly the same age as Haller, in their early to mid-20s.

“We’re a very young team, but we are getting healthy,” said Philadelphia Whitemarsh sevens coach Biddy Boyle. “We lost three players in two minutes in the Lehigh Valley tournament in June With sevens, June is like the pre-season. We have to play well in July. I have to be patient, the guys have to be patient.

“The next week or two will determine how we’ll do in the MARFU’s championship. There are some good teams out there, but we can regroup and do something. I really believe that. This is a growing experience. We have a great coaching staff and trying groom all these young guys together. It will come around.”