SMRC Women take rugby to Girl Scouts

On Saturday (1/25) two representatives from the Santa Monica Rugby Club Women’s team (Emily Lawrence and Amber Fandel) had the opportunity to speak with 15 members of Girl Scout Troop #12845 in Pacific Palisades about the sport of rugby.

The troop was working to earn their Fair Play badge, which has a requirement of learning about a sport popular in another country.  We first gave a brief history of rugby and discussed the major points of play.   In an effort to relate rugby to something the girls were familiar with, we compared it to football, emphasizing the fact that all passes must be backwards, players play both offense and defense, and that the game doesn’t stop if a player is tackled.  After a brief question and answer session, we included the girls in some “hands-on” demonstrations.  We began with passing in a circle.

To emphasize quick passes, we played “hot-potato.”  Next, we played a modified version of touch rugby that combined rugby and freeze tag.   The girls were divided into two teams and one team was given the ball to start.  Once the player with the ball was tagged, they had to freeze and pass backwards to a teammate without moving from the frozen spot.

As a thank you, the troop gave us a box of girl scout cookies, which was unexpected and very much appreciated.