My daughter Michon is a rugby player. She is a junior in high school and this is her first year. Yesterday I went to my first rugby game. Michon has been explaining the game to me and it really was as much fun as she said.
Michon is tenatious, so she is good at it.
As I was watching the match I thought that if the Emerging Church effort was to have an official game it would ought to be rugby. (And if you have followed earlier posts, it would be played by the Geico Cavemen).
Here is my thinking.
First, rugby is not football, but it is kind of like football. You run with a ball and tackle. You form clusters of people, but not to talk about what you are going to but to actually do it.
And it is not soccer. The field is like soccer, and you do kick the ball, but it is not the same game. I like the idea that rugby is similar, but not the same as the games more familiar – to the people I know at least.
Second, the rules are kept to a minimum. But an important one is that you cannot do something to intentionally hurt another player. Like in Michon’s game a girl was called for “Not wrapping” (Oh, the rules also have descriptive names not code words, this alone should be enough – so it is “not wrapping” as opposed to clipping). This meant that the tackler used her shoulder to knock the girl down instead of her arms. In other words you can’t launch into the air to hit someone. Other than that the rules are a minimum. There are agreements on how to play but the game goes with very little referee interruption.
Third, there is a custom in rugby to play really hard, and to go all out. In this people do get hurt but it is not on purpose. Even with the game being extremely intense the game ends with cheers for the other team.
In the game I watch yesterday Michon’s team lost bad but after the last whistle the other team circled up and started a series of cheers. For their coach, for the Referee (might be a different word) and for the other team. The cheers went something like, Three cheers for Edina hip, hip hurray, hip, hip hurray, hip, hip hurray.
Fourth, there is a custom that the home team provides a meal for both teams. Not only do they cheer for their opponents but they eat with them.
If baseball is America’s game, and Soccer/Football is the worlds game, Rugby is Emergent’s game.
