The Rugby Social/Hosting Protocols

Dear Eagles Moms, Dads and Supporters:

There have been some questions about how snacks and drinks work for rugby, so I'll explain.

Home Games

When we host a team at our home field, we take care of snacks and drinks for BOTH them and us. Upon conclusion of play, our players grab a snack and drink and before anyone on our side has a refreshment, we make sure our visitors are fully taken care of. Our players grab a dog and a drink, and they seek out their opposite number--or any opponent--and hand it to them, thanking them for coming to our field to play. Only when all of our guests have been taken care of do our players get their own.

Ideally, we host with like hot dog and chips, with a selection of drinks (water, gatorade, CapriSun, etc). This doesn't have to be a full-on feed with plates, flatware, potato salad, cloth napkins and tufted wingback chairs, but should be better than a dinky bag of lame, dry cookies and a lukewarm juice box as everyone heads for their cars.

The social aspect of rugby is a major part of our sport, of the larger rugby lifestyle, and we take it very seriously; we look forward to hanging for a while after playing with our fellow rugby players, and taking a little bit of time getting to know them. We will see each other again on the rugby pitch, whether it's next week, next month or next summer, so we should be mates.

For this Saturday, I'll have a big cooler full of ice and we'll stock it with some drinks. We're looking to have a small charcoal grill, and we can do hot-off-the-grill hot dogs for all of our guests. As we show them that we know how to properly host, they will remember us, and they will look forward to coming back.

Away Games

When we visit another team, the above kind of treatment is what we should expect.

We should bring with us plenty of hydration to take care of ourselves during the match, but we do not have to have our team bring snacks and drinks for our players for the end of the match--this is the responsibility of the host.

It is a great feeling to be hosted properly, to be welcomed at another team's field and to be thanked for coming to play. We are opponents while on the pitch, but off the field we are all rugby mates, and this is the kind of thing that makes it happen.

Singing

For those of you who have ever been to a proper, adult rugby post-game social, you'll know that it can get quite, ahem, entertaining. We aim to try this, tempered to the needs of the youth program.

We will attempt to sing a few songs, especially when we host. For anyone who's done Scouting, songs like "Singing in the Rain" or "Father Abraham" work quite well. We'll also do "Sunshine Mountain" and a few other, entry-level songs. Players will learn as we go.