It’s Cheap Entertainment Rugby Slow To Catch On In Spokane, But Coach Says Sport Offers Many Of The Thrills Of Football And Soccer

For a sport that is developing into one of the most popular in the nation, Spokane Rugby Club’s new head coach Bud Gunderson doesn’t know why it’s been so hard to field a team.

“I can’t understand why there aren’t enough young people playing,” he said.

Gunderson has tried everything from word of mouth, to asking his players to talk to their friends, and even tried to recruit potential players at the supermarket.

He does know, however, why they are not trying out. He believes many people may not know about the sport, having only caught glimpses of it on TV while surfing through the channels.

Although Spokane’s team has been alive for 23 years, but it’s hardly kicking.

One of the founding members of the Inland International Rugby Union - which includes teams from British Columbia, Canada, Montana, Idaho and Washington - Spokane is struggling to field a team.

Gunderson believes many athletes are fed up with organized sports, while others just can’t find the time.

But Gunderson hopes athletes check out rugby. Unlike so many of today’s sports, rugby is one of the few truly inexpensive recreational sports, he says.

“The only money they have to put up, for us anyway, is to buy the shorts and socks from us,” said Gunderson.

If you have a shirt and cleats, you can play. In fact, Spokane Rugby has supplied new jerseys for the rest of this season and the spring. Despite the setbacks, Gunderson, who has been playing rugby since 1965, is very pleased with his team’s progress.

According to Gunderson, rugby is not a difficult game to learn.

“It would probably take them a season to learn the rules,” he said. The rest comes with experience.

Rugby is a mixture of soccer and American football. In fact, most of football’s roots are based in rugby. It is the only all-amateur sport in the world and players do not receive any money.

Rugby, says Gunderson, is as pure a sport as one could possibly hope for, with different positions to suit anyone’s tastes. The object is to have the most points scored at the end of two 40-minute halves. A “try,” or touchdown, is worth five points and the kick-after is worth two points. Once a player crosses the goal line, he must touch the ball down to the ground.

There are also three-point drop kicks that must go between the posts at either end of the regulation field. Penalty kicks are awarded by the referee and are also worth three points.

Like soccer, there are no timeouts except when the ball is out of bounds, when a penalty has been called or when there is an injury. Halftime is generally 5 minutes long, dependant upon the discretion of the referee.

There are 15 people to a side and eight in a “pack.” A pack has one hooker, two “props,” two “flankers” or “loose forwards,” and a “number 8,” or quarterback. There are also two center positions outside the pack, a “fly half,” and a “fullback.”

Generating interest in Spokane has been difficult, says Gunderson, but the sport has been a hit around the rest of the nation.

Teams have been playing for decades along the East Coast and new teams are springing up in Texas, New Mexico, California, the Midwest and the South.

“UC Berkeley (rugby) is sponsored by the school and the alumni,” Gunderson said. In fact, the team receives so much support that it travels first class, the alumni buy their uniforms and they have their own playing field, he said.

Rugby can be played by anyone with very little cost to the individual, even if you’ve never played on a team.

So, if you happen to be shopping at your local supermarket and a man walks up and asks if you want to play rugby, give it a try.

Don’t worry, it’s just Bud Gunderson.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo