Dictated by Bob Chen, Written by Wang Di
It is a city’s name in Central England!
Rugby is a city in central England, in where there is a rugby school, which is the birthplace of rugby. Rugby just got recognized as a sport for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics several years ago. Rugby is divided into two different systems: sevens (seven-a-side), and fifteens (fifteen-a-side), and sevens is listed as the Olympic sport.
As a matter of fact, the earliest form of rugby was evolved from football, and with nearly two hundred years of development, the sport of rugby has been very popular in Europe, America, Australia and other regions. As a former water polo player, I thought water polo is strongly confrontational, and yet, after I watched rugby games, water polo seems far less confrontational than rugby. This is why there are only two halves in a game, and each half lasts seven minutes; a game of 20 minutes could totally exhaust the players.
That is a group of people with dreams！
Rugby in China was started in the 1990’s by Professor Zao Xihuang of Chinese Agricultural University, who created China’s first rugby team (the former Beijing Agricultural University Rugby Team) with the help of foreign friends, as well as the support of the Beijing Education Bureau and leaders of the Chinese Agricultural University.
Because rugby was not an Olympic sport, I did not have opportunities to work with rugby teams in the past three Olympics. On April 13, it was my great honor to be invited by the deputy director of the Small Ball Sports Management Center of the State Sports General Administration, Li Dazheng, to discuss things over with the rugby team’s assistant manager, Li Jun. The next day, I met with the head coaches of the Men’s and Women’s National Teams, Lu Xianghui and Zheng Hongjun, watched videos of their physical training, technical training and matches, and had more detailed communication with them, which enabled me to understand fully the technical and tactical characteristics, as well as physical requirements, for this sport.
When a rugby player is holding the ball, opponents can attack any part of the ball holder’s body from the neck down. We often see players’ defensive moves such as bashing and holding. They use their shoulders, or even their heads to attack each other and their physical contact is very intense. The situation in a match can change from moment to moment, which requires players to have very comprehensive functions, including speed, endurance, explosiveness, and reactive agility. Acute injuries of this sport are mainly sprains, strains, and contusions, etc; chronic injuries are tendon and ligament injuries; other injuries include various degrees of knee, ankle, and shoulder joint injuries; and of course finger, wrist and lower back injuries are also common.
The second day after I arrived, I gave a “reality show” type of a lecture, during which I invited the players to take part in an injury check up. I found that almost all of them had injuries. Compared with those Olympic gold medal events, they have received too little attention. When I saw the spirit of longing and courage in their eyes, I made every effort to help them. I communicated with athletes and coaches how to prevent and reduce injuries through training, rehabilitation, treatment, and other methods in order to restore their fitness level.
One could clearly sense that the entire team was, to a man, keen to launch this “imported” sport of rugby. Due to a late start and the lack of experience in this sport in our country, most people are learning by doing. The very good news is that our women’s team got second place at the 16th Guangzhou Asian Games, and our men’s team got third place at the Doha Asian Games. Under such difficult circumstances—the popularity of rugby is not yet wide-spread in our country—I admire the team, especially the coaching staff led by Zheng Hongjun. They started from scratch, and have developed this sport in our country. They will be remembered in the history of Chinese rugby.
Let the sport of rugby “fly” up in China!
I love watching rugby. It is not just because when I was in the States, I watched weekly football matches; it is more that I enjoy the unpredictable changes on the field, which are fun and exciting to watch. The sport of rugby establishes characteristics such as regional offense, regional defense and teamwork—very suitable for improving health and cultivating team spirit in sports. Many people wonder whether they should let their children participate in this seemingly “dangerous” sport. To tell you the truth, in my opinion, I do not think rugby is more dangerous than boxing, taekwondo, judo, or other heavy sports. As long as one starts physical training and correcting techniques from childhood, while scientifically controlling and learning proper ways to deal with acute sports injuries, rugby is no more dangerous than other sports.
I look forward to seeing rugby become popular for every age group and in every city in China in the near future. I hope it will become a mainstream sport in our country. I especially hope more people who love rugby will support this sport, so that the ball of rugby will fly across every inch of the sky above the fields of this country.
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