New community women’s rugby team tackles gender norms in Toledo

To the untrained eye, watching a group of women tackle one another in the middle of a grassy field might look like a full-out brawl, but a closer look will reveal that it’s actually a group of local women playing the aggressive sport of rugby.
“Well, we’re actually both from Massachusetts. I came out here for school, she’s my girlfriend, and we played in undergrad together,” said Izzy Robinson, a first-year grad student studying bone biology at the University of Toledo.
Robinson and her girlfriend, Stephanie Chau, have been trying to revive and organize the Toledo Celtics Women’s Rugby team. There is already the Toledo Celtics Men’s Rugby team which has been around for about 40 years. In 2003, a women’s team was started in collaboration with the Celtics, but fell apart.
The nine-member team is currently in the process of recruiting more players. However, the women have already played several games against other teams in the area, including a Bowling Green team.
The game of rugby features seven, or in some cases 15 women on each team competing for possession of an oval-shaped ball for two forty-minute halves.
“I guess the most common way to describe it is it’s a mix between football and soccer,” Chau said. “The ball is a little wider than a football, but the thing is you can’t pass forwards — it has to be a backwards pass. It’s continuous, unlike football and more like soccer.”
What also makes rugby different is that they ruck, maul and tackle without any sort of protective padding or helmets — just a mouth guard.
“Even though there is no protection or padding or anything, it’s actually safer than football because you’re not using your helmet or padding as weapons,” Chau said. “You actually have to tackle properly.”
Robinson chimed in about her tackling experience.
“I have a bad habit of high tackles, and that’s illegal so you can get called for those,” she said.
According to Robinson, the game has strict rules because it can get pretty aggressive.
And after watching the Women Celtics play for only a few minutes, it’s clear to see they aren’t afraid of being aggressive or getting muddy.
“I hate how people assume that girls can’t be aggressive,” Robinson said. “First of all, boys are frustrating so clearly we’re building up some type of stress and aggression.”
With a more serious tone, Robinson said that women can be just as aggressive as men are, especially when they grow up with rowdy brothers like she did.
“If you’ve grown up with brothers, there’s a high chance that you’re aggressive,” she said. “I have an older brother and a younger brother and we used to play football for fun outside and tackle each other as kids and stuff.”
However, finding a way to exert her pent-up aggression isn’t exactly how Robinson fell into loving rugby.
“I first heard about it at my first year at UMass Lowell and I was like, ‘No, I’m not going to play that; that’s stupid,’” Robinson said. “I remembered her [Chau] talking about rugby, and I remembered that I had classes with them, and they were always hyper about rugby, so I was finally like, ‘Okay, I’ll try it.’”
After recalling her first sweaty practice, Robinson reminisced on how her team experiences led her to develop a love for the sport.
“I loved it. The first practice was fun, and the first game was even better,” she said, smiling. “I guess I’m aggressive, so yeah … My first two years in undergrad, I wanted to join a sorority, but they didn’t have one that I was interested in on campus. Then I gave up on the idea and decided to play rugby, and that was basically my sorority.”
According to Chau, being a sorority girl is no different than being a rugby-playing girl — you don’t have to fit a stereotype to join either group.
“There’s a fear in playing rugby for girls, you know the ‘Oh I don’t want to get hurt, oh it’s too rough for me,’” Chau said. “But we have girls that after you play a game, you go out with the other team and you have girls that dress up and they’re all girly-girl.”
Robinson interrupted with a comment.
“Myself included. I like to wear dresses,” she said.
On the field though, Chau said the girls are “the toughest people out there.”
She explained that her favorite thing about rugby is it puts women on an even playing field, unlike many other women’s sports that have different rules from their male counterparts.
“The thing I love about rugby is … it’s the same no matter whether you’re playing with the girls or the boys,” Chau said. “Same rules, same length of game, same field, same ball.”
The only difference between men and women’s rugby is that more men actually play rugby, said Robinson. But she believes this simple fact has nothing to do with the women who do play.
“I think that when you have women that play rugby, they’re just as passionate as men that play rugby,” she said.
The team is looking for more players to join; they currently have about nine members and would like to see that number grow to 25.
“Just show up and give it a shot. Just come once — if it’s not for you, it’s not for you, but you never know if you don’t try it,” Chau said. “It’s like the best thing ever.”
The team practices on Tuesdays and Fridays from 5-7 p.m. at Sterling Park, 99 Center Street, Toledo.
“You have all these girls around you all the time, so yeah there’s drama,” Robinson said. “I mean with anything you do there’s going to be drama, but because of what you’re doing — tackling — you get offended when someone tackles your teammate. It’s like you build a sisterly bond that’s nice to have. You really do grow really close.”
For more information about the team, call Izzy Robinson at 413-336-6005 or email her at [email protected]