How does the sport of rugby shape one’s social outlook?

Introduction

Rugby is a unique game unlike any other. It is a game that was created out of

happenstance during a soccer game in the late 19th century, when William Webb

Ellis picked up the ball and was tackled by another player. As the game was created

in a unique way, so is the sport itself.

Rugby consists of two teams of fifteen players that converge on a field,

known as a pitch in rugby, where one team attempts to outscore the other in search

of victory. It is widely known as a brutal contact sport, with many injuries and bone-

crushing hits- but this stereotype is mistaken. In recent years, the game has become

safer through the implementation of new rules and techniques in hopes of

protecting player safety. As the technicality of the sport has evolved and may

surprise some people, so may the culture of the sport, and the players as well.

The culture of rugby is marked by shared values such as the love of the game,

friendship, and post-game socializing. When one steps through proverbial door of

mainstream culture into the subculture of rugby, they will see opposing teams

helping each other up after being tackled, they will hear accents from all over the

world, and smell the savory aroma of a post game cookout being constructed.

When referring to rugby as subculture, it is implied that rugby players hold

common beliefs that are not like those of similar sports or arenas of life. Through

the subsequent research that this study holds, this idea will be constructed and

supported through analysis. The construction and the maintenance of the rugby

culture can best be explained by the sociological theory of symbolic

interactionalism; more specifically, the work Mind, Self, and Society, by George

Herbert Mead.

For those unfamiliar with the sociological perspective of symbolic

interactionalism, symbolic interactionalism is a theoretical perspective that assumes

people construct themselves, society, and reality though interaction (Charmaz,

2006). Symbolic interactions can be speaking the same language, sharing a common

gesture as a thumbs-up or a wave, or as Mead puts it, “looking through the same

eyeglasses” as another (Wallace & Wolf, 2006).

To understand how and why common values are shared and acted upon in

the sport of rugby, it would prove useful to introduce Mead’s theory on the

development of self- more specifically, the concept of the “generalized other.”

Mead’s theory of self-development encompasses 4 stages: the pre-play stage,

the play stage, the game stage, and the generalized other. Mead believes the first

stage of the development of self is the pre-play stage. This stage begins around the

age of two, and is marked by meaningless, imitative acts. The self is not developed at

this stage, and a human being can only mimic those around them with no knowledge

as to why the action being mimicked is being performed (Wallace & Wolf, 2006).

Following the pre-play stage is the play stage, where individuals begin to

develop the skill of taking on the position of another person, but cannot relate to the

roles of other players (Wallace & Wolf, 2006). More specifically, the individual is

able to act out other’s roles as simple role taking. An example of this could be a child

pretending taking on their father’s role as the cook of the family. At this point, the

individual does not know how to interact with another person in a different role

(Wallace & Wolf, 2006). As the individual develops the ability to interact with

others, this takes us to the game stage.

The game stage is when several other players act together in complex

situation, such as the ability to learn the rules of rugby and interact with the other

players on the field in a fluid manner. At this point, the individual develops the

general idea of what will happen in a given situation. This leads us to the

development of what Mead refers to as the “generalized other” (Wallace & Wolf,

2006).

The concept of the generalized other best relates and describes how rugby

shapes one social outlook. Mead argues that the structure of a social situation is just

as much dependant on the individual as the individual is dependant on the social

situation for that situation to exist and thrive (Farganis, 2014). Rugby creates the

environment for generalized other. Likewise, the generalized other creates the

environment for rugby to exist. This is achieved by the shared attitudes of the team.

The structure of the sport, as well as the shared values, serve as a vessel of attitude

shaping.

To become an integral part of the rugby community, or the generalized other,

we must take on the role of the generalized other. By this it is meant that if one does

not or will not take the greater thoughts and beliefs and internalize them, the

structure of rugby will not accept the individual, nor will it exist (Farganis, 2014).

The aforementioned is how rugby shapes one social outlook. When one takes

on or assumes the organized attitudes of a social group towards the problems or

situations that face the group, the individual then governs their own self-conscious

behavior accordingly (Farganis, 2014). Shared values and attitudes such as

brotherhood, behavioral attitudes, confidence, and play styles are all examples of

behavioral changes that will occur when one joins the sport of rugby- this will be

discussed more in depth in the subsequent sections of this study.

To put the aforementioned in more simplistic terms, in rugby one begins to

identify with the team. They internalize team and sport beliefs, such as fitness,

friendliness, toughness, and the concept of brotherhood, and externalize those

beliefs through their own day-to-day behavior, which will be discussed in

subsequent sections.

To develop these beliefs, one must be immersed in the culture fully, which

might take some time. This offers a good transition into how and why respondents

were chosen.

Methods

Five respondents were chosen to interview prior to the study being

conducted. The number of respondents was chosen at the request of the

researcher’s professor. The respondents were chosen on the grounds that they must

have been in rugby for at least 2 years, with more time being involved in rugby

preferred. The amount of time involved in rugby is important for 2 reasons: 2 years

time involved in the sport was seen as enough time to become full immersed in the

sport of rugby. The second reason being that 2 years was viewed as a long enough

period of time to determine whether the individual was committed to the sport or

not. These reasons were implemented due to the fact that the researcher sought to

obtain the most accurate, thorough examples of how rugby shaped one’s social

outlook. 2 years was believed to be sufficient enough time for that to happen.

It must be noted that from here on out, this study was constructed and

conducted around the theoretical approach known as grounded theory. More

specifically, the researcher used approaches and techniques from Kathy Charmaz’s

book entitled Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Though Qualitative

Analysis.

The demographics of the players were quite similar. All respondents haled

from the same rugby team. All respondents were male Caucasians. Ages ranged from

21 to 22. Number of years playing varied from 4 years to 7 years. 3 out of the 5

respondents had begun to play in high school, and 2 began to play when they came

to college. All respondents were in good health.

After the respondents were selected and the interviews scheduled, then

began the Interview process. The researcher began by writing questions in a way

that would elicit the most beneficial conversations about their lives in relation to the

study as possible, or rich data as Charmaz (2006) refers to it. The questions wrote

were based on Charmaz’s (2006) sample of grounded theory interview questions

about a life change. The researcher found that writing the questions proved to be

quite difficult, for the reason that the researcher was a part of rugby, and the

respondents chosen to participate in the study were teammates with the researcher.

The researcher made the mistake of what Charmaz (2006) referred to as forcing

data into categories. After some coaching from their professor, the researcher

improved on this problem.

The interview process was quite informal. The researcher sought to make the

respondent feel as if this was just an every day conversation to elicit the most

accurate data as possible. To achieve this, each respondent was invited to the

researcher’s house and offered whatever beverage they desired as to make them

feel as comfortable as possible. The interviews ranged from 23 to 35 minutes, with

the length of the interviews increasing as the researcher began to develop the skill

of interviewing. Comparative questions were asked that guided the respondent to

reflect on their social outlook prior to joining rugby versus their social outlook after

being in rugby for an amount of time. Questions were also asked about

interpersonal relations in hopes of developing an accurate illustration of how

teammates interacted with each other, and why they act the way they do. After an

interview was completed, the interview was transcribed verbatim to assist in the

next process of grounded theory known as coding.

Charmaz (2006) defines coding in her book, “Coding means categorizing

segments of data with a short name that simultaneously summarizes and accounts

for each piece of data.” Translating that into understandable English, coding is the

process of deconstructing what the respondent means, and translating that into a

more graspable, summative term. This is done in hopes of creating an easier way to

sift through the data to find themes throughout the research.

A technique that was used in this research process to aid in coding was the

use of gerunds. Gerunds are verbs ending in –ing that allow the researcher to define

what the respondent is saying in a way that keeps you close to the data (Charmaz,

2006). By staying close to the data, it is meant that there is less room available for

the researcher to impose their personal beliefs about what is being said, or to force

the data into preconceived categories. If one were to force data into categories, that

could skew what the respondent initially meant in their response.

As an example of coding, we can look at an excerpt from the raw data that

was acquired in the interview process. “Before playing rugby? I was really shy at

first, a real shy guy,” said Dom. The code for this excerpt could be, “being shy before

playing rugby.” Codes do not have to be extremely complex. If the researcher were

to find the code “being shy before playing rugby,” or something similar in another

section of the data, then a pattern could be found, leading to developing the next

step of grounded theory- developing you memos.

Developing your memos begins by sifting through the codes in search of

patterns (Charmaz, 2006). When a pattern is found, it is then possible for the

researcher to write about those patterns, which then develops the memos. In most

basic terms, memos are the proverbial notepad where one writes possible claims,

themes, and thoughts while analyzing the interviews. Memos begin very informally,

with a reoccurring code being established as a memo category. This way, one is able

to have a concrete category to supplement throughout the research process, if that

theme reoccurs in further interviews. The researcher began with five memos after

the first interview and ended with three memos in the end, which became the

analysis section of this paper. Sometimes, previous claims must be discarded due to

lack of supporting evidence, or lack of significance in the larger frame of things.

Further revisions of memos allow for the most prominent and significant themes to

emerge and to be built upon. Through further memo building, one is able to make

more abstract claims as to why the theme that is being analyzed emerged in the first

place.

An example of memoing could be used from this research paper itself. In my

initial interviews, respondents were referring to other teammates as “brothers” or

using the term “brotherhood.” This concept began to arise throughout subsequent

interviews, which affirmed this as a prominent theme in rugby that must be

explored. After all 5 respondents mentioned familial like bonds in their interviews,

the researcher then began to pull away from the data and make possible claims as to

why this was a reoccurring theme, with the use inductive reasoning (Charmaz,

2006).

Qualitative analysis, more specifically the grounded theory approach, proved

to be a challenge to learn. The ambiguity of building a theory from scratch was the

major concept that the researcher struggled with. After receiving poor feedback on

the initial sets of interviews and codes, the researcher received coaching from their

professor and developed greater skill in the areas of coding and memoing, which

then translated into success in subsequent processes of the research process.

Analysis Section

- Developing Friendships through Rugby

Through my study, I have found that rugby is an environment in which

personal relationships are created and flourish. The respondents in my study

compared the friendships that have been created to family. In my first interview,

Dom and I were discussing how the relationships he had in rugby were evolving.

After a few years of playing, he illustrated how he felt about the environment of

rugby: “I'd say rugby more than any other sport is a brotherhood.”

There were commonalities of this theme of “brotherhood” in all of my

interviews. When speaking of the feeling of interacting with their teammates, all of

my respondents were quick to use the word “brotherhood” to describe the type of

bond that has been created through playing rugby with one another. Each of my

respondents had a unique twist on how and why they viewed the friendships that

have been created through the sport of rugby as a brotherhood, but the overbearing,

undeniable theme was the concept of brotherhood itself. Being this is an abstract

term, when attempting to describe why this bond exists in rugby, most of my

respondents gravitated around the physicality to the sport to explain why the

friendships that have been created are so much deeper than friendships created in

another realm of life.

If one takes into account the earlier introduction of George Herbert Mead’s

theory of the development of self, the ideology of brotherhood that are shared

among rugby players can be easier explained. Before entering the sport, the

ideology of brotherhood has already been shared by preceding players that make up

the sport that one so chooses to join. When the person who has joined has

established deep commitment, the ideology of brotherhood is internalized through

experience and externalized in the form of referring to a teammate as a brother, or

doing more for them that you would for the average friend.

Rugby is a sport that most people begin to play in college. It is a sport that

has begun to take hold in America the past few years, but it is a sport that is usually

only available in highly populous areas, due to the fact that is an up and coming

sport. Rugby is a high contact sport played without pads that has a high risk of

injury. It is not uncommon to see people bleeding, receiving concussions, or

sustaining more severe injuries, such as broken bones. All of my respondents

viewed the physicality of the sport as the catalyst that bonded they and their

teammates together. Dom exemplifies this in the following quote:

“If you played with somebody and you're out there on the field with somebody and you're bleeding and sweating and you're out there trying to win, you develop a bond- a really strong bond.”

One of my respondents, Debbie, joined the sport of rugby in his freshman

year of college. He was told previously by one of his friends who graduated a year

earlier than him that he “had to try it” because she thought that he would love it.

Through playing, he developed a passion for the game. He recounts to me an

example why this sport became a passion for him:

“Really it was the guys. I love to whole mentality of, like.. playing in an intense 80 minute game, being completely exhausted, bleeding for one another. Ya know, throwing your body on the line every hit.”

Physicality creates a strong bond between humans. This can be seen in the

relationships created in the military and other contact sports such as hockey and

football. There is something, though that sets the bond created through playing

rugby with one another apart from all of those. One of my respondents, Oliver, is a

member of the National Guard and a fraternity at his university. Both of those

organizations are generally known to create deep, lasting friendships, but Oliver

illustrates his perspective:

“[W]hen I joined the team they welcomed me with open arms and they taught me a whole 'nother lifestyle, like friendship... Just a whole ‘nother me. My fraternity didn't even know... All they preached about was brotherhood, but they didn't compare to rugby. Rugby doesn't even talk about brotherhood, but they have more brotherhood than any other fraternity will have.”

I found that the friendship, or brotherhood, of rugby was much stronger than

friendships created in different settings. I have come to understand through my

interviewing that the physicality of the sport is the catalyst that sets rugby apart

from other settings where people tend to make friends.

I also found another unique situation through my interviewing: romantic

relationships can be created as well. Usually when there is a men’s rugby team at a

university, there is also a women’s team. In the rugby culture, it is common for the

women’s rugby team, the men’s rugby team, and their opponents to get together for

postgame socializing. Debbie met his girlfriend through this situation. When

wrapping up our interview, Debbie added this fact. He illustrates how playing rugby

brought him and his girlfriend together:

“Playing rugby gave me Morgan. There is a chance that our paths could have crossed otherwise, but I don’t think we would have had a deep enough connection at first to keep us together. I've talked about it before, that at my wedding reception, I would make an announcement and sing rugby songs at my wedding. I know it. If I don't marry a rugby

player that won't happen. My partner won't understand. There's no way that I wouldn't do that. I have to acknowledge our family. This is our family. I couldn't not acknowledge that on one of the biggest days of out lives.”

This powerful excerpt illustrates two main themes I have come across in my

research: how friendships are created in the setting of rugby, and the depth of the

bond that is created. Through the interviewing process, my respondents have

conveyed to me the friendships that they have created through playing the sport,

and the sheer depth of those relationships. The following expert by Bartholomew

further supports this claim:

“We had Chris Peeples, a member of our team [who graduated the year I started playing], flip his car four times. We all went to see him and uh, I mean I think we rolled in 25 deep into his hospital room and sat around and talked to him for like 2 hours. That's brotherhood to me. Being there for my teammates,”

Through playing the sport of rugby, the men I interviewed have created

strong, lasting relationships through being on the field together. The intensity of the

sport brings them together, and holds them even closer.

- Learning Life Skills through Rugby

Rugby is a chaotic sport in the sense that there is continuous action. There

are no timeouts or stoppage of play, unless someone scores or the ball goes out of

bounds. This makes for an intense environment, in which the player must improvise

to all types of situations. There are no two situations that are alike during the game.

People will generally be in a different spot on the field at all times, so one must have

a large repertoire of knowledge in order to play effectively and achieve the goal of

scoring points for your team. Developing these skills takes time, and I have found

through my respondents that these skills reverberate in to every day life.

My respondents have learned how to take chaotic situations in life off the

field and make the most of them, as they do while playing. Dom illustrates this in the

following quote:

“When things aren't going right [on the field], you have to calm down, examine what is going wrong, and fix things, instead of getting too riled up and pissed off and stuff. And, I guess that interprets into every day life like things aren't going right, you just have to sit down and think about what you need to do to fix it.”

Rugby also presents many difficulties, including injury, loss, and pain. These

less-than-favorable situations occur many times during a game and even more

throughout the season. Debbie brought up that fact during our time interviewing.

Rugby has taught him to deal with losing, difficult situations, and pain.

“Realistically, things don't go your way. Whether it be on the field when the sir makes a bad call, wheter someone is playing over you and you don't think they should.. you have to earn everything. People aren't going to hand things out to you. You've got to learn when to take the ball into contact; you gotta learn when to eat it. I hate losing. It's one of my most unfavorite things in the world. But now I’ve learned to become a better sport, and to deal with it… I've kinda learned how to cope with situations that I hate. I've learned, ‘Alright, well that hurts, but I don't need to go to the hospital for my owie.’”

Rugby is also a sport where you will meet a lot of new people and develop a

multitude of friendships. One must be inherently good at dealing with people if they

hope to meld seamlessly in the rugby culture. Bartholomew had problems with that

prior to playing rugby, but believes that he has developed a skill to develop deeper

relationships than he has in the past. After developing new friendships through

rugby, he also sees friendships in a different light. The following is an excerpt from

his interview:

“[I learned] how to interact with others too. I was.. I never made any enemies, and I had a close group of friends, but I, uh would.. rather socially inept. I had like 6 really good friends and 400 acquaintances. And rugby taught me how to deal with that and sort it out. I would also recommend having a couple.. 1 if not more friends who you could trust completely. I had another conversation with my dad. He.. One of our favorite movies is Tombstone. In the end of it one of the characters says to the other who's dying, ‘Thanks for always being there for me doc.’ And being able to say to somebody on your death bed, or at any point in time, thanks for being there for me is actually.. There's a lot of gravity to that statement. If somebody.. If you can honestly say somebody is there when you needed them to be, that's the essence of a relationship I guess. I would recommend to somebody to have that feeling at some point in their lives.”

Being that rugby is an intense sport, one must be in peak physical condition,

due to the fact that games are 80 minutes long. Rugby requires one to have the

capacity to quickly burst in to a sprint to break tackles and get to the ball carrier to

tackle them. You must be very committed to the sport to develop the kind of cardio-

vascular and muscular strength to be an effective player. Jonathan says that rugby

has taught him to be very committed for those very reasons. He illustrates this in the

following excerpt:

“My senior year of high school we were favorited to win state over any other team like 3-1. When we heard that, our coach spread it around the team. So as soon as we heard that it was like we're gonna make this spring memorable. So we as the captains kept everyone coming to practice. We would stay after school and all of us would lift before practice, then carpool over to where we practiced in the Mounds View gym, and after that we would all go back to school and go home. My senior year was the most committed I've ever seen myself I guess to anything in my life.”

Through the chaotic on field situations presented on by the sport of rugby,

skills must be developed to cope with those situations in order to make the most out

of them. Rugby is a very intense sport that will push you both physically and

mentally, so players must develop coping mechanisms to keep themselves in check.

Through my interviews, I have interpreted my respondents as having done just that.

Those skills seep from the playing field in to the field of every day life.

If we take all of these accounts into light and keep Mead’s development of

self, and the symbolic internationalist perspective in mind, learning how to cope

with life through rugby may offer a greater insight as to how this occurs. When one

is enveloped into a new environment or culture, what one symbol means in one

setting, may mean a different thing in a different setting. Let us take the concept of

dealing with friends for example. Bartholomew decided to do away with his many

friends and only insulate himself with those whom he finds to be genuine friends. In

another realm of life, such as the business world, having many connections would

prove useful to networking. This is an example of how your social outlook can be

shaped by the group you are a part of- and rugby seems to do just that.

- Developing Confidence Through Rugby

Through my study, I have found that the sport of rugby has allowed my

respondent’s self-confidence and self-perceptions to flourish. Rugby is a very social

sport. Teammates insulate themselves with rugby friends. Dom said to me during

our interview that, “All my friends are rugby players.” This allows for rugby players

to develop like-minded personalities and personal traits similar to one another, and

sometimes evolve into an entirely different person. Oliver exemplifies this in the

following quote from our interview:

“[Before I joined] I was definitely enclosed in my own bubble that I didn’t wanna let out of... If I dress this way, they're not gonna like it.. other people aren't gonna like it.. I have to conform to their ideologies. I have to be who people want me to be….it was a really constricting world.. really tight. It was something I didn’t want to be a part of….ever since I joined I kind of didn’t care what other people saw….I was first scared to wear short-shorts around campus, and then that grew out of me.. then it was like, ‘Short-shorts? That's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna rock them.’ And then jerseys and torn up shirts and walking through campus looking muddy and dirty and going to class looking like I just got hit by a train not caring what anyone else thought, because I knew what I did was fun. And how I looked to me started to not matter at all because I knew that I was doing something more awesome than anyone else around me, and that kinda tied in with the rest of my life now, so I'll wear whatever I want to school. If it's comfortable, I'll wear that. If I think this shirt looks freakin silly, and I like it, I'll wear it.”

Self-confidence seems to run rampant in the sport of rugby. Acceptance and

individuality are seen all over the field in the form of different colored cleats, socks,

and shorts. It is seen off the field in the form of brotherhood and acceptance. Dom,

once a shy person now says that, “Rugby kinda expands your horizon because you

have the guys team, plus you have the girls team. So you talk to a bunch of different

people, get to know other people.” The incubation of both the men’s and women’s

team allows for a lot of practice in inter-gender relations.

Likewise, the incubation of being with around your teammates in practice,

and even living with them can allow one to develop a fuller, more self-aware and

accepting perception. Bartholomew illustrates this:

“[My Teammates] accepted me, helped bring me up and developed me as an individual…. I was afraid to go in the showers in high school. Now I walk around naked in my house with 4 other naked dudes in my house. So it's just an acceptance.. a self confidence.. which feeds off of other peoples confidence and their personalities. And the strength in one persons character bolsters the strength in everybody's character. Everybody feeds off of each other and is able to grow and act accordingly.”

I have found through my conversations with rugby players that it is a

tradition to be a unique individual in the culture of rugby. “I guess it's just the

tradition… If you look at pictures before in the 1980's, they dressed the same way.

Just ridiculous,” Oliver said. Something about the sport allows people to be who they

want to be and express themselves in any way they see fit. If we again take into

account Mead’s theory, self-confidence is something that has been experienced and

shared by players in the past. When one comes into the role of the “generalized

other,” the individual again internalizes, or feeds off of, other’s confidence around

them. The individual then externalizes self-confidence in the form of individuality,

The rugby uniform is most noticeably recognized by the polo-style jersey

player’s wear and the relatively short, mid-thigh shorts the player’s wear. This

unique uniform style also seeps into the individual fashion of the player, as did the

life skills I alluded to earlier in analysis. Rugby is a sport like none other, which

breeds individuals like none other.

References

- Charmaz, Kathy. 2006. Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide

Though Qualitative Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

- Wallace, Ruth A. and Alison Wolf. 2006. Contemporary Sociological Theory:

Expanding the Classical Tradition. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:

Pearson Education, Inc.

- Farganis, James. 2014. Readings in Social Theory: The Classic Tradition to

Post-Modernism. 7th ed. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies.