Raucous rugby is thrilling

By Brian Betz

Saturday's a rugby day! Or so their song goes.

Last Saturday, I ventured out to UC Santa Cruz to support our Santa Clara University Touring Side (SCUTS). Head throbbing, dry-mouthed from the night before, I watched some of the toughest athletes around.

Standing just feet from the chalk that surrounds the field, man did I get my money's worth. Except, these matches are free of charge, which is too bad because I'd pay top dollar if I were guaranteed the same intensity I witnessed in the Banana Slugs match. Sure it's a foreign sport. Its rules are difficult to grasp, but just the sheer brutality of it all is mesmerizing. These guys redefine what it means to "leave everything on the field."

Senior forward Caleb Offer, a prop who plays in the front row of the scrum, remembers playing games his freshman year with two sprained ankles.

"I was on crutches off the field. I'd put weight on whichever foot felt better that day."

If you've never seen a rugby field, its size is relative to a football field's. Almost too vast considering there's a tendency for play to get stuck in one area of the field if the game gets sloppy and numerous rucks occur. Standing at the end of the field where the SCUTS pressed the entire second half trailing 15-7, I had a front row seat.

Junior back Pat McCarthy plays wing, a position that requires speed and the ability to score. McCarthy possesses both and isn't shy to admit that that's what separates him from being just an ordinary player.

In one instance, McCarthy got his wind knocked out only to return some 30 seconds later.

"I wanted to kill that guy," McCarthy quipped.

Then there's junior forward Adam Saucedo, who returned from summer surgery that repaired a torn ligament in his shoulder. He made a devastating hit, added a few choice words, got up and spit blood from a cut in his mouth and kept playing.

The SCUTS pressured to score until the final whistle, but the Slugs made a valiant stand to preserve the win. Dejected and exhausted, our "ruggers" walked away with a loss.

But they won the utmost respect from this writer whose acknowledgement of their competitiveness is long overdue.

I'd love it if everyday were a rugby day. Something tells me the "ruggers" may beg to differ.

û Contact Brian Betz at (408) 554-4852 or bbetz@scu.edu.