June 11, 2016
Courtesy/Philadelphia Fight
The Philadelphia Fight play their home opener Saturday night Garthwaite Stadium in Conshohocken
During weekdays, some of them are environmental engineers, mechanical engineers, real estate agents and attorneys. During summer, on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and on Saturdays, they are rugby players.
Certainly you’ve heard of the game. Thirteen guys who can pass the ball laterally or backwards try and move the ball against 13 other guys. Mostly big guys. Guys with thick legs, thick necks. And wearing no equipment.
Mouthpieces are allowed. Taped angles are allowed. But no padding. No helmets.
The Philadelphia Fight, members of the USA Rugby League (USARL), opened the season Saturday by crushing the D.C. Slayers, 72-0. They play their home opener tonight at 5 p.m. against White Plains, N.Y., at Garthwaite Stadium in Conshohocken. The regular season will run through June and July, prior to playoffs in August.
"A Scot once told me, ‘Rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen.’ We’ll grab a beer with the team we just played directly after the game. Who else does that? Guys in this are a different breed.’’
The games last 80 non-stop minutes, with the USARL website noting there are more than 300 collisions during a game.
There are two schools of thought here: You gotta have heart, or you gotta have a screw loose.
“I mean, doesn’t everybody?’’ offers 30-year-old Tristan Sylk, a fourth-year player who has a MBA from Columbia University. “It’s just, which screw do you have loose? Do you think someone who plays ‘Call of Duty’ and sits in front of a computer screen for 10 hours and day, does that guy have a screw loose?
“The guy who goes to the gym every single day at 6 a.m. just to look better in a suit and in a bathing suit for a few weeks, does that guy have a screw loose? Yeah, he’s got a screw loose.’’
Rich Henson, a 29-year old geologist, began playing the game in high school. The player/coach continued playing at West Chester State University. He’s been with the team during their three championship seasons, the last of which was two years ago.
Asked if the game is a human version of colliding bumper cars, Henson, 5-foot-7, 185 pounds, smiled and said, “There’s obviously a physicality to the game you have to think about. But the idea that all we do is bash and crash into each other is a bit harsh. But in saying that it’s not completely false, either.’’
Their biggest player is 6-5, 265.
“I broke my wrist in two places on the opening play of one game and stayed on the field for 60 more minutes until I was concussed and forced off. But sitting here and listening to myself talk, I’m thinking, ‘Geez, why the heck would I do that?’’’
Good question.
One answer comes from 22-year-old Australian Jesse Fogg. He is here for the summer on a holiday visa. Basically that means he can’t work while he’s in the states but he can play rugby. Aside from Tuesday and Thursday night practices, he and countryman Josh Vaartjes, also 22, spend their days at the Jersey Shore, taking in the sites in Philly or working out at a gym. They rent an apartment in Conshohocken.
Joe Henson of the Philadelphia Fight gets up close and personal with a USA Rugby League opponent.
The league allows each team to have three “imports’’ on their rosters.
“There’s a bond,’’ Fogg offered about what seduces players to the game and keeps them loyal. “You have that mateship. You play for each other. The same as when we play back home in South Wales. It’s all about the mates. I play for the mates.’’
They certainly don’t play for the money. They do not get paid. So that means sometimes paying for airline tickets to games in Jacksonville, Atlanta or Tampa. Sometimes sponsors chip in. Games closer to home are accessed by van, renting a school bus or carpooling.
The Fight are among 14 teams in two divisions, with franchises extending from Boston to Central Florida. The Bucks County Sharks joined the league just last year, previously members of the now defunct National Rugby League. They play their home games at Falls Township Community Park in Levittown.
Henson said their home games draw an average of a few hundred people, but a game in Jacksonville two years ago drew a couple of thousand.
“The core of our team has been together since 2009,’’ he said, “and we’ve been in the playoffs every year since.’’
Player/coach Fraser Stirling is a transplant from Scotland who lives in Bryn Mawr. He is married and has three children. Now 36, he’s played rugby since age five. This is his second season with the Fight.
“The thing I like about rugby is that if things aren’t going your way you can always try harder. You can always get better,’’ he said. “I also golf – if you’re from Scotland you have to golf; I think it’s a law – but the harder I try the worse I get. That’s what I like about Rugby. You get better, you help the team.’’
And sometimes … you get hurt.
Stirling has broken his fingers, his nose, his wrist and a leg, and has cut his head open a few times. “Nothing serious,’’ he said with a straight face.
He is hardly alone. Fogg has dislocated an elbow – “But I scored a touchdown doing it so it was worth it,’’ he quickly added. He’s had a couple of concussions and stitches on an eyebrow. Mike Timpano, 28, of Audubon, has torn cartilage on his thumb, separated his sternum, separated a shoulder, had a gash on his head – “just once’’ – and, “Had a couple of concussions here and there. But I love it. It’s an Adrenalin rush like no other.’’
Vaartjes has suffered a few dislocations on his hand, was out six weeks with an ankle injury and had surgery on a torn meniscus.
“It’s much more about playing for the guy next to you,’’ Sylk emphasized. “We love what we do and we take it very serious because we love it. A Scot once told me, ‘Rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen.’ We’ll grab a beer with the team we just played directly after the game. Who else does that? Guys in this are a different breed.’’
Added Stirling, “A couple of things define me. My family is one of them, and rugby is the other. I’ve played a long time and have represented my country. Probably next year will be my last. But I have to admit, every time I think about it I get a bit emotional.’’
