New Jersey’s Women Ruggers
There is an old British saying that football (by which they mean soccer) is a gentlemen’s game played by ruffians, while rugby is a ruffian’s game played by gentlemen.
Nowadays, though, rugby is also played by women. And members of New Jersey’s two women’s rugby clubs, Morris and Monmouth, will tell you they uphold the sport’s traditions of rugged play on the pitch followed by the camaraderie of a “drink-up” after the game.
Click the video player on NJ My Way to watch a clip of the Morris-Monmouth match on Saturday. Morris wears red shirts, Monmouth blue.
Playing rugby, says Morris president and player Mandy Crothers, “is one of the only ways women can act in an aggressive manner and not have a stigma attached.” In the game on Saturday, both teams hit hard. The women pushed in the scrum and tackled in the open field. No helmets or shoulder pads.
After games, rugby tradition expects the host club to throw a party for the visiting team. The Morris women hold theirs at the Rattlesnake Café in Denville. “We sing rugby songs and choose the two players who did an outstanding job,” Crothers says. The winners get to wear red and black boas at the bar.
The 35 members of the Morris club range in age from 18 to 45. “We have scientists, engineers, teachers,” Crothers says. Some played rugby in college — the club includes six Rutgers alumnae.
Morris-Monmouth is a big rivalry. Morris has had the upper hand the past few years, but this season they stand at 1-1. Both also play clubs from New York City, Albany, Connecticut. “We have people who have been playing for ten years, and the other teams as well. So you form a good relationship with women on other teams,” Crothers says.
The Morris women’s club was founded in 1992 under the auspices of the Morris Rugby Union Club. The Monmouth women’s club was founded in 1978, and became affiliated with the Monmouth Rugby Football Club in the early 1980s.
The Saturday game was part of a tournament to help new teams that do not have enough players to field a full-strength side. Morris is also helping to sponsor the girl’s rugby team at Elizabeth High School, which, also last weekend, played in the national finals tournament in Pittsburgh. They did not win. But at a practice last week the Morris women unveiled a banner in support of their little sisters, part of the future of the sport.
Tags: Denville | Rutgers University | Morris County | Monmouth County | rugby | Morris Rugby Union Club | Monmouth Rugby Football
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