What professional sport combines towering six-foot-something beasts with respect and discipline? Rugby, a sport that arose in English private schools in the mid 1800’s, that has in some way stuck to its roots. In many parts of the world, you can see many teams formed through or around private schools. Private schools having more resources are more likely to develop teams due to needing more resources than the average sport. More importantly though some schools being all male push the toxic masculinity stereotypes, excluding groups like the LGBTQ community. Rugby being exclusive is what some would argue is one of the biggest hurdles that it still must overcome. I would counter this by showcasing the example of Folau and say that Rugby has already changed and is much more inclusive than most would set it up to be.
Wallabies, the Australian National Rugby team, has had lots of star players throughout the years. One of which is Israel Folau, the fourth highest scoring player in the Wallabies history. In late 2019 he made a post about his religious values which go very much to the extreme. These values although religious were homophobic and it brought much back lash towards Folau. His contract both with his club team and the wallabies were terminated, ending his Australian rugby career. Having what many would consider the best player in the world kicked out of rugby is something unprecedented. It shows that the community respects these groups, so much so that it doesn’t tolerate even its star players having discriminatory views against them.
In a recent op-ed that discusses traditions in rugby, a controversial issue was brought up about the inclusiveness that rugby has in some parts of the country; intentional or not. On one hand some argue that opposing weight classes onto the sport at an early age, where size difference can be more drastic, could help more kids stick with the sport, making it more inclusive. In the words of “Josh Williams,” one of this view’s main proponents, “offering open and weight-limited divisions [will allow] players that are smaller have the opportunity to learn the game without being bowled over by larger players.” According to this view, kids that do not have the same push to play rugby as those in private schools, where the sport is tied to the school's culture, might be more likely to stick with the sport. On the other hand, some argue that weight classes would provide more kids with only a fraction of the values that traditional rugby offers. My uncle, an avid rugby fan who has coaches his local youth team in Argentina said, “I think rugby taught me many valuable life lessons throughout my years at private school in Argentina: Teamwork, Discipline and Respect. I don’t know if it would have been the same without the tackling or mauls against the bigger guys.” In sum, the issue is whether weight classes would make the rugby community more inclusive.
My own view is that those who propose making rugby a more inclusive sport through weight classes would not necessarily reap the benefits from the changes. Though I concede that as a teenager who was below average in weight, I might have purposefully missed some tackles, something I am not proud to admit. I still learned to manage the physical side of rugby and the tackles that I did not coward out of ended up teaching me to toughen up. I did have friends and family to support and push me though the times that I did not want to be playing rugby, in part due to my smaller size, some might argue that not everyone has this support system, to which I would reply that looking back, I would have rather committed to another sport that I enjoyed more than play rugby if it wasn't teaching me to toughen up. The issue is important because even though no one would argue that making rugby a more widespread sport is positive for the sport, it is not if it is at the expense of core rugby values.
Spread out programs, another idea that Josh Williams had to increase the outreach that Rugby has is a better way to reach out to more kids without putting at risks the values that we are trying to teach to more children. Setting up community teams who are not focused on the completeness of their program is a good first step. They can look to place programs in those that lack a team instead of looking to place it where the biggest and fastest kids go to school. This strategy not only succeeds in keeping all of rugby's values intact, but it has the opposite effect. Allowing more kids from more communities goes with the positive values that Rugby indorses. These programs might even surprise some and can lead to teams that are competitive at top divisions. I can vouch for this having been part of one of these programs. Greenwich, CT the town that I lived in had amassed a decent Argentine community about two decades ago. With us we brought our passion for Rugby but there were few places to practice it, since the closest club was in New York. One Argentine family started a program which had instant success across the Argentine community as well as other locals. It inspired others and as more kids passed through the program eventually carried over into the public high school which had all these players with lots of previous experience. This jump started my local high schools' team which would go on to play at nationals every year until this day. This program had two-year divisions which kept kids size even, with the few exceptions: there was this one kid at least twice my size that once gave me a purple toe just by stepping on my foot. If this method were sought out in different parts of the country, there could be similar results.
Forcing more inclusiveness through proposals like weight classes, will have a net negative effect by subtracting from the sports values. While traditional rugby values were discriminatory like many things at its time, it has done great strides to actively be more inclusive.