Gemini rugby streak continues
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If you know about rucks, mauls, line-outs or scrums – and scrum-halves – you know rugby.
“I’m a scrum-half,” said Glendale HS Gemini’s Jordan Fitzpatrick, who plays a pivotal role on the school’s boys rugby team.
“I’m in between the backs and forwards,” said Fitzpatrick, noting eight forwards from each team bind together to form the scrum, which are formed after penalties.
“If a team ‘knocks it on,’ it stops the play and they give it to us. I don’t really know the real reason behind the scrum,” he admitted, laughing, “but it gives the advantage to us, because we get to roll it into the scrum.
“There’s a front row (in the scrum) and in the middle of the front row we have a hooker. He tries to get his leg in there and kick it to the back of our scrum, so I can throw it out and get it to our backs. Their front row has a hooker trying to steal it.”
Noah Medel is the primary hooker for the Gemini.
“We go into the scrum, then they put the ball through the channel. The other hooker and myself will try to kick it back,” said Medel, demonstrating a ‘hook.’ “We ‘hold’ until we get it out. In our league, we can only go forward one metre. If they’re pushing us back, it’s harder to hook the ball.”
“If Noah’s secured the ball, then them driving us forward is just tiring them out,” said Fitzpatrick.
“It doesn’t look like it, but there’s actually a lot of technique involved in a scrum.”
“Usually you want the front rows to be bigger, but after that, as long as they’ve got power,” said Adam Skevington. “The second row, you want them to be taller to give them a drive.”
“You want your scrum kind of level, too,” said Fitzpatrick. “The two other guys in the front row are the props and you want them the same height.”
“And you want your flanks to be quick,” said Skevington.
The scrum happens to be a major strength for the Gemini boys, who improved to 3-0 in the TVRA South East division with a 33-5 win over Woodstock Collegiate Institute.
“Yeah, we’re pretty good at the scrums,” said Skevington.
“Really good,” nodded Fitzpatrick. “Every time we get a chance, we call for a scrum.”
“We get a lot of force from our eight-man,” said Skevington. “A lot of push.”
“He’s the last guy back, and he just drives,” said Fitzpatrick.
“The locks and the eight-man, that’s what they do, they just push,” said Skevington.
“They’re the engine,” said Fitzpatrick.
“That’s me,” Skevington smiled. “I’m one of the engines.”
When the ball comes out of the scrum, depending on the position of the eight-man’s foot, the scrum-half has time to read the play before retrieving the ball.
“As long the ball stays in front of his (the eight-man’s) foot, their scrum-half can’t touch it,” said Fitzpatrick. “The second it comes past his foot, I have to get it out of there quickly or else their scrum-half can pick it up and go.
“I’m looking for any advantage I can get. If I see weakside on their blind, we have certain plays that’ll have more guys run that way to give us an advantage on that side. I’ve got plays to call out that let our backs know where to go.”
‘More physical than football… with golf etiquette,’ was Gemini Liam Spencer’s description of the sport.
Helmets are optional, and very few TVRA South East players wear them. Skevington’s an exception, requiring ear protection. When a ball carrier is stopped, and taken to the ground, they immediately protect their ears and head.
“After getting the ball to your side, you cover your head,” said Medel.
“We talked about it (helmets), but it’s the orientation of a tackle. In football, you’re head-on. In rugby, it’s more…”
“You have to wrap them up to take them down,” continued Skevington.
“The game is more spread out and chaotic,” said Medel.
“Football’s more rough than rugby,” said Skevington.
“Football, you can just run up and just shove somebody over and they’re done, the play’s dead,” said Fitzpatrick. “In rugby you have to physically wrap them up and bring them down with you. If you just shove them over they’re allowed to get back up and keep running.”
“The helmets,” said Medel, relating rugby to football gear, “would just cause more of a problem because of the pile-ups we have. Helmet against bone is not good.”
Scoring for the Gemini Monday afternoon were Michael Ram, who ran in for two tries and converted both. Damien Cooper and Zach Winegarden both scored tries, converted by Ram.
WCI drove in for a late try (five points) – the first points given up by Glendale in regular season play – before Jason Vanthuyne completed the scoring with a last-minute down the right sidelines.