What a load of rugby

Today Alex came home bruised and battered after Rach had watched over his first game for the Melbourne Harlequins Rugby Football Club. Having played rugby at school Alex had been wanting to get back into the game after a bit of a dry spell at uni and so ended up looking for clubs local to us in Melbourne. There really weren’t all that many as the main sports in Oz, especially in the Southern states, are Aussie Rules and Rugby League. Still the Harlequins stood out and luckily he managed to make it along just before the season started. It was only this Tuesday that he turned up to the training session to try out for one of the Quins teams.

So surrounded by giants, Alex set out to prove that he had some mettle and got immediately flattened, however as the training session wore on he managed to find himself out in front of the pack and was told to turn up to show for the side for the pre-season friendly. The Quins played Powerhouse who were a formidable team with a massive (read fat) front row. Their raw power in the front row meant that the Quins side let through an early try, but we kept on going and the Quins stamina (and less fatty frames) won out the day with the team winning 52-12. It was a brilliant game and Alex had a good time of it being out on the field for all but five minutes immediately after the start of the second half. Rach watching from the sidelines could hear the thumps as various hard body parts (heads, shoulders, etc) thundered into slightly softer body parts (stomachs, legs and on one occasion groin – ouch!). She had a good time although didn’t really understand the rules of the game but could see the grin on Alex’s face from the other side of the pitch as he played in his favourite position as number seven.

One thing that can be commented on should anyone ever go searching for a club in Melbourne is the professionalism of the clubs in Australia. Even smaller league clubs have extensive support and coaching and it really is on a completely different level to club rugby in the UK. It still does however maintain the friendly feel of clubs and definitely still keeps to the tradition of a drop or two of alcohol after a game. Rugby in Australia really does have the best of both worlds.

Rex’s Rules of the Road

• If you are coming over to Oz for a while (or anywhere for that matter) sports are a great way to meet people and stay fit at the same time.

• If you do want to play rugby union in Australia you can find it and it is still relatively big but AFL and RL do come in first place to it.