Rugby ‘makes football look for little babies’

The Rugby World Cup is being played right now in Japan. You are forgiven if you didn’t know; rugby occupies one of the lower rungs of American sports consciousness, somewhere below soccer but above cricket.

Rugby is also being played right now in Chicago, including a daylong celebration on the West Side last Saturday, as the Chicago Lions Charitable Association — the Lions have played rugby in Chicago since 1964 — unveiled its new J. Tyke Nollman Field at Chicago Hope Academy.

The action began shortly after 8 a.m., with younger players — organized rugby starts at age 4 — gathering to practice on the special shock-absorbing artificial turf.

Among them, Keandre Bates, 14, from West Garfield Park, who has played rugby for four years.

“It’s a challenge at most times. Rugby is really tough,” said Bates. “It just makes football look for little babies. You have to pass backward.”

“It’s the greatest game out there,” agreed Mike Inman, of North Center, who brought his son Sullivan, 10. “For somebody like Sullivan, loves to be active, to be out there, tackle, and run, and do it all, this is a great sport for him. At this level, they’re just kids running around being kids.”

Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun Times

Kids put through strenuous drills involving them carrying each other on their backs and hopping on one foot.

“Hop hop hop!” cried Andy Rose, director of the CLCA youth rugby, leading drills. “A slow hop, once you get to the middle line, you’re going to change feet. What do you think that’s working on? Balance. In rugby you’ve got to be balanced. Keep going.”

The field’s first official game pitted the Lions high school squad against the Arlington Heights Stallions.

“All three of my sons play rugby, from middle school to high school,” said Jennifer Vesely. “What they learn in rugby transcends to everyday life. Showing up. Doing the work. It’s a brotherhood. It’s a team sport. No one player can win the game. You really do have to work as a team in getting that win, so you learn that skill.”

Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun Times

After the Lions vs. Stallions game — the suburbanites won, 36 to 21 — there was a women’s game, between the Chicago Lions and the Minnesota Valkyries.

“There’s no differences,” said Lions player Allie Movrich. “It’s one of the only sports out there where play is exactly the same, men or women.”

As a game, rugby represents a developmental stage between soccer and American football (the drop kick is a remnant of rugby, where players can drop kick at any time). Plays that might seem random to the new observer actually have a careful order — the scrum, for instance, is not a chaotic mass of players fighting for the ball, but comparable to a football scrimmage line — a set way to get the ball in play. In a scrum’s first line, a pair of “props” support a “hooker,” who hooks the ball back, ideally, to “locks” in the second row, supported by “flankers” in the third.

There is much less stopping-and-starting than in football or, God knows, baseball. Action does not cease just because a player is tackled.

Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun Times

“Because it’s a continuous, open sport, there’s a lot of problem-solving; decision-making comes from the players,” said Dave Clancy, director of CLCA rugby. “Not like football, where there’s a quarterback. Every player in their respective role and position, like in a corporate organization, has decision-making roles. That’s a really important aspect of rugby.”

The game of course is more complicated than can be outlined here. There are 7-person teams and 15-person teams, for instance. A goal is called a “try” and is worth 5 points.

Why build the field here?

“Because we are partners with Chicago Hope Academy,” said Jeff Simon, president of the Chicago Lions Charitable Association. The school, at 2189 W. Bowler St., is just west of the Illinois Medical District, near Homan Square and North Lawndale.

Neil Steinberg/Sun-Times

“We built this because this is our home and we wanted to give something to the North Lawndale community,” Simon added. “Something for us and something for the community.”

Given that, I wondered, where are all the black players? There were only a handful. One board member called that “a problem,” one they’re actively working to correct.

“For us, it’s always been about an integration model, where we’ve gone out over the past year or two and gone out to local schools,” said Clancy. “Got them hooked on rugby, made relationships with community members, made them see this as something for them.”

City kids have the same ignorance of rugby, but not as many options as suburban kids.

“They’re unaware of it,” said Clancy. “It’s not a mainstream sport. It’s unknown to them. The reality is, when we go out to these schools, to the Park District, and run rugby camps, it’s rugby or nothing. These kids don’t have anything. Their playgrounds are overrun with junkies and homeless people. They don’t have much of a choice.”

Neil Steinberg/Sun-Times

The Lions for Hope Sports Complex is only partially completed; private donations have included over $1 million from Mark Kaufman, who founded the Athletico physical therapy centers in Chicago in 1991. Rugby was important to his success; his first two clients were the Frances Parker School and the Chicago Lions.

“They get hurt a lot,” Kaufman said of rugby players. “I enjoyed being around them.”

He finds rugby and the Lions program immensely fulfilling.

“The Chicago Alliance is one of the great joys of my life,” he said. “Personally, I wanted to do something, to build this complex. It does a number of things: touches rugby, touches Chicago, also touches the kids at Hope. I think it would be a great venue for Chicago.

“Hands down, rugby is one of the best team sports there is. It’s a fantastic game of strategy. There are 15 players on each side, and adults of all sizes can effectively play. You give me 15 great athletes versus a team of 15 guys playing really well together, and that team will win every time.”

Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun Times