Mill Creek rugby club prepares for inaugural season

Over three million men and women of all ages regularly participate in rugby worldwide. While the sport is not widely followed in the United States, it is gaining in popularity at both the high school and college levels. In Georgia, there are currently 24 boys’ high school teams and 3 girls’ high school teams. Once 30 high school teams have formed, the Georgia High School Rugby Association (GHSRA) can apply for varsity sport status – a goal for the association and the Mill Creek club.

Team captain Jansen Arceneaux and player representative Patrick Mead decided to form the Mill Creek rugby club after playing for Oconee High School last year. Though both Arceneaux and Mead are Mill Creek students, Oconee High School needed players in order to have enough for their team. Arceneaux and Mead joined since there were no other local teams available to them.

While Mead and Arceneaux enjoyed their time with the Oconee team, they are looking forward to bringing rugby to Mill Creek High School.

“It’s going to be more interesting than football to watch,” Mead said. “It’s more intense. You don’t have to stop. Everybody is involved. In soccer, you’ll be standing there while the people down the field try to get it in the goal. Then, when it comes back to the defenders and the goalies, you have your time. In rugby, everybody is trying to accomplish the same goal 100 percent of the time. It’s the ultimate team sport.”

Arceneaux agrees and says the non-stop action makes rugby a better sport than football or soccer.

“It’s not football. There are no breaks,” said Arceneaux. “It separates the weaker from the stronger.”

INAGURAL SEASON

So far, 14 players have committed to play Mill Creek rugby this fall. The team will play both a fall and spring season.

Mill Creek will play other high school club teams such as Winder-Barrow, Oconee, Brookwood, Grayson and Parkview High Schools.

The fall season is primarily for beginning teams with the more competitive season occurring in the spring.

Mead said the fall season is an opportunity for new teams and new players to get some experience before facing rugby powerhouses such as Oconee and Grayson.

“It’s so you’re not [immediately] facing all the great teams with lots of experience,” he said. “That would just be demoralizing for everybody.”

COACHING STAFF

Mead’s father, Kevin, is one of the coaches for the Mill Creek team.

Coach Mead grew up in London and played rugby on his school and college teams. After graduation, Mead played for London Irish, a semi-professional team. More recently, Mead coached rugby at Oconee High School and is now coaching the Mill Creek team along with Robert Lukat.

Though his days of playing for London Irish may have passed, Coach Meade still has a passion for the sport of rugby.

“This is one of the few sports that people like me can still be competitive in,” he said. “Not competitive in that we’re going to set the world on fire. But we can be competitive in terms of we can go out there and have a good time.”

Coach Robert Lukat shares Mead’s enthusiasm for the sport.

Lukat began his rugby career as an exchange student in Argentina. When he returned to the states, there was no rugby team for him to join. Once he entered Georgia Tech, he joined the college rugby team and has stayed involved in the sport ever since.

“Once you see the game, it’s one of the most exciting games you are ever going to see,” he said. “It’s a combination of football and soccer which are two of the most popular sports in the world. It’s a fairly simple game to follow.”

HOW IT IS PLAYED

Rugby is played on a 100 meter long field. In high school, a game consists of two 35-minute periods. The object of the game is to score more points than the opponent by getting the ball across the goal line or kicking it through a set of goal posts.

Five points are awarded for a try, the rugby version of a touchdown. The difference is that the ball must be placed on the ground, not simply cross the plane. After a try, a team can earn two points on a conversion by kicking the ball through the goalposts. A goal kick, where the ball is kicked through the goalposts during play, is worth three points.

There are two different types of rugby: rugby league and rugby union. Mill Creek will play rugby union. Rugby union is a faster paced version. Unlike rugby league where a team has a certain number of attempts in which to gain territory, rugby union involves continuous play. Play does not stop unless there is an infringement or the ball goes out of bounds.

The team in possession of the ball attempts to move the ball down the field by kicking the ball forward, running with the ball or passing it backwards. Forward passes are not allowed.

The team not in possession tries to get the ball back by tackling the player with the ball. Once brought to the ground, the tackled player must release the ball by either placing it on the ground or passing it to a team mate.

Unlike football, a player may fall, trip or be knocked flat on the ground and still get back up and continue playing if not dragged to the ground by another player. A rugby tackle is only complete if a player is held all the way to the ground.

If the tackle is complete and a player is unable to pass the ball, the player must place the ball on the ground. Once on the ground, players from either side may attempt to get possession of the ball.

The team that has been tackled does not want to lose the ball and the team that did the tackling naturally wants to get the ball. When players from opposing sides attempt to get the ball and come in contact with each other, a ruck forms. The players use their feet to hook or ruck the ball back to one of their team mates.

If the ball does not come out of the ruck in five seconds, the referee will award a scrum to the team with the greatest forward momentum.

A scrum is also used to restart the play after a penalty. In a scrum, eight players from each side basically lock together and try to gain possession of the ball. A scrum is typically a 3-4-1 formation by each team. The players on the front row are the loosehead prop, the tighthead prop and the hooker. The second row has two locks and two flankers while the third row is the “8-man.”

The ball is fed into the middle of the scrum where the hookers will try to kick the ball back to their team mates while the rest of the pack tries to push the other team back in order to help their players get to the ball. Once the ball gets to the number 8 or the scrum half, normal play resumes.

The game is very physical and can be dangerous. Protective equipment is minimal. Players wear mouth guards and some of the players, such as the scrum players, wear a soft protective head cap to protect their ears.

Rugby games utilize only one referee. Penalties include high tackles, knock-ons (illegal forward movement) and other infringements such as poor sportsmanship.

GAINING FANS

The Mill Creek rugby players hope that people will enjoy watching the games this year and become fans of the sport. While the spectators may not be that familiar with the sport, several of the Mill Creek players are new to rugby as well.

Sawyer Dalton is one of the Mill Creek players with no previous rugby experience. After hearing about the Mill Creek team, he decided to give it a try. Dalton said he likes the sport.

“It’s non-stop tackling, non-stop running,” he said. “It’s smarter play because you have to know what to do without someone telling you what to do. It’s non-stop thinking. It’s basically just a huge battle.”

Coach Mead is optimistic that the rugby club will gain a number of fans and supporters because of the level of action involved in the game.

“There’s always movement. Everybody is always involved,” he said. “There are no people who sit on the bench like there might be in football. For friends, if they are coming out to see their friend play, their friend is going to be on the field. They are not going to be watching their friend sitting on the bench.”

The Mill Creek rugby team will begin play this September.