Rugby—the full-contact often known for being the more violent version of American football.
But rugby is more than just padless tackling. Rugby is one of few sports that allows for true diversity on the pitch. To be successful in basketball, it is often best to be tall. To be successful in football, it is often best to be big and muscular. In rugby, it does not matter if you are 6’3 with Popeye arms or 4’11 with sticks for legs—in almost every club you’ll find a wide variety of personalities, shapes, ages, sexualities, speeds and skill-levels.
Tackling Diversity expresses the inherent diverse culture within the sport of women’s rugby, exemplified through the University of Maryland women’s club rugby team and various teams within their division.
Hima Konduru holds a ruck over Ada Beams during a match against Salisbury University on October 5, 2019. The purpose of a ruck is to allow players to compete for the ball. A ruck is formed when at least one player from each team are in contact over the ball.A player tapes up her wrist before a match on October 25, 2019. The use of braces is permitted, however anything with buckles, clips, rings, hinges, zippers, screws, bolts or rigid material or projection are forbidden.Valerie Rudich listens as the sir explains to rookie players the basic rules of a rugby match on September 14, 2019. In rugby, the referees are referred to as either sir or ma’am.Anna Collishaw straps on her scrum cap before the start of the rugby match on October 26, 2019. The scrum cap is a form of headgear used by rugby players to protect their ears in the scrum, which can suffer injuries leading to the condition commonly known as cauliflower ear.Arden Ireland (4) reaches for the ball during a line-out. A line-out is a means by which play is restarted after the ball has gone out of bounds.Alysia Henderson, an athletic trainer for the University of Maryland team, helps an injured player on the field during a match against Salisbury University on October 5, 2019. If a player is seriously injured, the referee has the discretion to allow for stoppage of the game to remove the player from the field. Otherwise, the game continues.Madison Drum (3) hugs Heather Fettke von Koeckritz after a hard-fought half against Salisbury University on October 5, 2019. Drum serves as both the team secretary and the captain of the forwards.Arden Ireland (left) and Rebecca Roseberry (right) laugh as they walk off the pitch on October 26, 2019. Ireland serves as the Match Secretary for the University of Maryland team, coordinating with the other team to set up a match time and place.Nettie Arnold (left) and Madison Drum (right) hang out on the sidelines before a match against Salisbury University on October 5, 2019. Both Arnold and Drum serve as captains for the University of Maryland rugby team.Micaela Ada (left), Nika Toure (middle), and Alexis Yaculak (right) pose for a post-match picture on October 26, 2019. A rugby match has two periods of 40 minutes each.Players shake hands after a match at the University of Maryland, College Park against the George Washington team on October 26, 2019.Madison Drum (left) hosts a post-game “beer’lympics”, where teammates play a series of drinking games against one another on November 23, 2019. Multiple “beer’lympics” are held throughout the season as a way of celebrating the match played earlier in the day.Themed cupcakes sit on the table during the University of Maryland women’s rugby team’s end of season potluck on November 23, 2019. Each player contributed a dish and spent the evening reminiscing about the season.Madison Drum drinks from a duck to start the first event of “beer’lympics” on November 23, 2019. “Beer’lympics” are where teammates play a series of drinking games against one another as a way of celebrating the match played earlier in the day.The University of Maryland women’s rugby team gathers for a post season potluck on November 23, 2019. Each player contributed a dish and spent the evening reminiscing about the season.
JOUR370 -Intro to Photojournalism 