Commentary: The Ultimate Border Sport
Wednesday, 16 February 2011 17:04
While you were enjoying a much needed warmer Old Pueblo weekend, an army of rowdy and drink-starved individuals from all over the world were storming the Las Vegas Strip. I know–this happens every weekend but this past weekend was different. Club, college and international teams from all corners of the world made the trek to this arid desert to play, watch, and consume the global, and what I believe to be the ultimate border sport– rugby.
So of course, the big question is and always will be–what is rugby?
It is hard to say because it is so many things. For the sake of a short explanation, it is like football in that it is contact and it is similar to soccer because play is non-stop.
It is played with different numbers of players–15, 10 or seven, all which have the same rules just differently timed halves.
It is not like other sports in that you can only lateral, or throw the ball backwards and you don't wear padding or safety equipment, unless you are so inclined to wear a mouthguard–which is highly recommended.
I made the trip last weekend both to play in the Las Vegas Sevens Invitational with a traveling club team, as well as watch IRB Sevens, an international and professional tournament that has taken place in San Diego in past years.
After my weekend spent around rugby players and rugby fans, I couldn't help but notice that, like the border space we live in– it is an evolving, growing and changing sport that brings together cultures, countries and peoples.
Take the 2016 Olympics. Rugby will return in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil after a 92 year absence. If this isn't proof that the sport itself is constantly changing and evolving, I don't know what is. The fact is that within these 92 years, it has functioned independently in the world.
Play never stopped from its creation but only now is it making its return to the global spotlight. Twenty years ago, consider the news coverage of border issues. Consider coverage one year ago. It evolves and changes constantly.
To say the border between the United States and Mexico is purely comprised of Americans and Mexicans is overly simplistic and just plain wrong. It was a native space before either country became established, and now is home to everyone from midwestern transplants to Honduran migrants.
Contrary to popular belief, rugby is not a sport for large, stocky or especially quick individuals. There is a place for all body types, all levels of athleticism, all heights. It can be, and is, played by all people.
Rugby belongs in Tucson because it belongs everywhere. It exists because the human need to smash into each other has always existed. The border is a geography and a wall–but it also is a space within our minds. It will endure because it has always been there. These concepts of existence and change are what meld the two and make them one in the same, or at least comparable.
Written by Emily Bowen You are reading Commentary: The Ultimate Border Sport articles
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