Female players use rugby to redefine image
By Matthew P. Moll
Michelle Sanders’ preferred weekend activity requires a mouth guard. Rather than taking park strolls she takes down other women and reaps the benefits of banged-up knees and potential concussions.
By Monday, Sanders swivels in her desk chair at a Manhattan publishing house, occasionally donning a short skirt to better display her rugby bruises, or “badges of honor.”
While the rough-and-tumble game can lead to an emergency room visit, many women of the Brooklyn Women Rugby Football Club said the sport has changed their self-image. Rugby has empowered them, changed their view of femininity and broken the monotonous work grind.
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Photo: Yian Huang/NYC24
Players from the Brooklyn Women's Rugby
Football Club
fight for
possession during a drill. |
Some players who hold jobs as teachers, consultants, librarians and attorneys have learned what it means to scrum, while others return to the sport after a hiatus.
Rugby traditionally consists of 30 players on the field at a time with 15 on each side. Teams must “play the ball” so there is no blocking and no tackling other than at the point of the ball. The ball can be advanced only by kicking it forward or by throwing it backwards. The players' only protection from one another are their thick jerseys and rubber mouth pieces.
Christine Pallotta, who has taught ninth grade science in Brooklyn for the last five years, found rugby’s tackling and hitting to be an empowering release of the workweek’s frustration.  Rugby changes Pallotta (Video: 3:25).
At work, Pallotta said, she’s carried herself differently now that her students have acknowledged her rugby prowess and “are a little afraid” of her.
“Overall I am more confident now that I have rugby,” said Pallotta. “You doubt yourself so often as a teacher; you never know how much you are actually making a difference.”
“Rugby is a tangible real way of knowing you are doing something well and that affects other parts of my life.”
Pallotta said rugby has had a positive impact on her personal life, too.
“I used to think rugby was really rough, especially for women,” Pallotta said. “But now when I walk home I think to myself ‘if someone tried to attack me I could tackle them and get away.’”
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Photo: Yian Huang/NYC24
Devorah Brumberger tackles captain Meghan Burke during practice. |
Her team is one of three in the Metropolitan New York Rugby Union – the governing body for rugby teams in the region – and the first women’s team in Brooklyn.
The New York Women’s Rugby Club was the first team in the area and began in 1987. The club boasts upwards of 55 women between its two teams.  Timeline of women's rugby in New York
Team captain Annie Collier said many of the players come from rugby backgrounds, but previous experience in the sport is not a prerequisite. Collier, who is an emergency room doctor, said that the required commitment is practice three times a week.
The Village Lions established their women’s team in 2000. The Lions compete in the same division as the Brooklyn women’s team and have up to 40 players on their roster.
The Brooklyn women are in their first full season as a certified Division II team. Last February the team placed an ad on Craigslist, and now has a core group of about 15 players and a full schedule of tournaments and matches throughout the summer.
The players on the team view it as a safe place for silliness, camaraderie and language not meant for the prudish. Also, the players find the atmosphere to be a safe place to explore themselves.
Self-proclaimed tomboy Andrea ("Andy") Joseph said rugby helped her to discover another side of herself. She used to dress in her brother’s hand-me-downs and shied away from showing interest in the opposite sex. But after joining her first organized sport – one known for its full contact and lack of pads – Joseph discovered she had a more feminine side.
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Photo: Yian Huang/NYC24
Andy Joseph proudly displays her drama tattoo. |
Joseph, an elementary school drama teacher, said the relaxed environment allowed her to discover her own femininity. While she still doesn’t consider herself a convert to all ways girly, Joseph occasionally exchanges her baggy pants and oversized hooded sweatshirt for red fingernails and high heels.
“I thought people would judge me if I ever changed,” Joseph said. “But with this group of girls I don’t have to worry about that.”
Even rugby veterans have found new ways to use the sport to redefine their self-image.
Sanders, who work in publishing sales, said the structures at work and her repetitive New York social life began to wear on her. When she decided she needed a fresh experience she turned to something she could rely on.
“I’m new at work so I always feel like I don’t know anything,” Sanders said. “On the rugby field I get to feel like an expert and be a teacher.”
Rugby has taken on a new role in Sanders’ life. In college it was something she did socially and was never at the center of her life. Now it is what she brings up at cocktail parties as a point of pride to set her apart.
“People look at me when I tell them I play rugby and say ‘wow you must be tough.’” Sanders said. “I think 'yeah that’s me, I am tough.’ I really identify with it.”
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