Alejandro Solana // Staff Writer
Rugby has always taken the backseat to football in the United States. When the football season begins, and fans turn their attention to their favorite teams, it seems that rugby is forced out of the backseat and into the trunk.
While football may be the prominent sport in the U.S., that didn’t stop senior Peter Perez from taking interest in joining the FIU rugby club. The international business major says he often saw the team practicing after his class in the law building and wanted to join.
“It all started when I was parking next to the intramural fields,” Perez said. “I saw them practicing around 4:30 p.m., and one day I just brought cleats with me.”
When Perez approached senior rugby player Barry McNutt and Head Coach Ronnie D. Suarez, to find out how he could join the club, they asked him one simple question: “Do you have cleats?”
“That’s all it takes,” Perez said. “Cleats and a willingness to learn and compete.”
While the Miami native is partially correct, rugby also requires strategy and a lot of physical, often brutal, contact.
For Perez, running full speed on a turf field and colliding with another athlete without pads is exactly what he was interested in signing up for.
“Rugby has always caught my eye,” Perez said. “I played football and a little bit of wrestling in highschool, so I liked the aggression of sports. So, I was like ‘rugby is pretty hardcore so why not play that.’”
In late September of the 2015 fall semester, Perez began practicing with the club, with help from teammates and coaching staff.
“At first, I thought it would be easy since I knew the basics, but when you’re on the field, it’s a totally different ball game,” Perez said. “It’s complex, and it feels like you’re playing a game within a game.”
Perez played high school football at Archbishop Carroll for the Bulldogs, but knowledge of American football does not necessarily translate over to Rugby.
“The transition from football to rugby wasn’t easy, but the coaches and the players made it as smooth as possible for me,” Perez said. “Every single day I learned something new in practice. I asked a ton of questions and tried to learn as much as I could from some of the guys with more experience.”
Perez, 7, attempting to gain possession of the ball during a scrum, which involves players coming closely together to retain the ball.
Soon after, Perez found a spot in the team’s rotation as a “flanker.” This position is almost always at the center of the play, winning balls at the ruck and maul, collecting short passes from tackled players and making their own big tackles in open play.
It was playing in this position that Perez helped the team go undefeated in regular season play, winning games against the University of Central Florida, Florida State University and Florida Atlantic University.
They then won the South Independent Rugby Conference 2015 Championship, which allowed the team to compete in the USA Rugby Men’s Division 1AA Nationals in April 2016.
“The coolest thing about rugby is not only the relationship you build with your teammates, [but] it’s [also] the relationship you build with the opposing team as well,” Perez said.
When he joined the team, Perez was initially looking for a new way to “blow off steam.” Instead, he found himself a new passion and joined a community he says is the best part of the whole experience.
“All the teams we play have respect for each other,” Perez said. “Sure, during the game we like to hit each other and show each other who the best is, but after the game, we all go and share a meal with each other. We sing rugby songs and celebrate, win or lose.”
Perez will be making the switch over to the “Hooker” position in the upcoming season, as the team looks to defend their SIRC title. The Hooker in rugby lines up in the scrum, or the restarting play, and is one of the forwards’ key decision makers.
More contact and responsibility await Perez this fall with the switch but he says he looks forward to the change.
“Coach told me I did well at Flanker but he’d like to see me at Hooker since I have the height for it, and already have a year of experience under my belt,” he said.
Perez encourages everyone to try the sport, as long as they’re open and willing to work.
“It won’t be easy, but if you have ever thought about playing rugby and want to be a part of a cool community, I definitely recommend it,” Perez said.
The FIU rugby club resumes its season in the fall semester. The team practices on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, in the IM fields behind Panther Garage at the Modesto Maidique Campus.
To join or learn more information about FIU’s rugby club, visit the club’s Facebook page or reach out to the team’s captain, Mateo Velazquez, at 305-790-3380.
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