GLENDALE, Colo.—These days, Will Johnson’s life revolves around scrums and school.
The U.S. men’s national rugby team member has little time for anything else—not even movie night with his mates. They understand, though. Many are in the same predicament, making sacrifices for the sport they love.
For Johnson, that meant recently staying in the lobby of the team hotel to finish two term papers and cram for a final exam while his chums headed out for the evening.
“They came back and I was still in the lobby trying to write a paper,” said Johnson, who’s working on his master’s degree in economics and social history at Oxford University. “This is hard. Guys have to take time off work and really have a lenient boss or put career aspirations on hold. I’m lucky. I can be a student and develop my rugby career at the same time.”
Johnson recently flew in from England to join his squad for a series of international test matches leading to the Churchill Cup, a competition that began this week in Denver and features teams from England, Argentina, Georgia, Ireland and Canada.
The U.S. begins pool play Wednesday night against the Argentina Jaguars, a good barometer for new coach Eddie O’Sullivan. His squad is coming off a 48-15 loss to Wales on Saturday in Illinois.
“We’re a work in progress,” said O’Sullivan, a former coach of the Ireland national team who took over the U.S. squad in March. “They (elite teams) can expose your frailties very quickly, and they punish you severely. … It’s good for us to get stress tested like that. We need to know where the weaknesses are and then we can go fix those things.”
O’Sullivan hopes a demanding schedule this spring will pay off when the U.S. begins qualifying matches for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. The Eagles will play Canada in July in a home-and-away match.
The U.S. is ranked 19th in the world, and O’Sullivan thinks the team has the talent to make it back to the World Cup. The U.S. earned a spot in 2007, only to be swept out of the tournament.
O’Sullivan thinks it’s imperative for more of his players to compete overseas for international seasoning. But he realizes that’s asking a lot.
“Even right now, these guys put their careers on hold just to practice,” said O’Sullivan, whose players arrive from all over the country for training camps and matches. “They’ve got jobs to manage, they’ve got families, they’ve got other commitments and still manage to give the time and energy to rugby.”
U.S. scrum half Mike Petri, for example, requested two months off to train with the team. He works for a private wealth-management company in Manhattan.
“My managers and my boss are very understanding and very supportive,” he said.
Still, Petri had to surrender some salary and benefits for his leave. In his view, it’s a small price to pay.
Petri grew up around rugby, playing in high school in New York and then at Penn State. He’d like to see more colleges add the sport.
“You see how much Americans identify with college sports in general and it would give (the high school athlete) something to aspire to,” Petri said.
Johnson is at the other extreme, stumbling upon the sport by chance.
He was an offensive lineman in college at Harvard. He had tryouts with the Cleveland Browns and New England Patriots in 2006, only to be waived. Thinking his football career over, he went to San Francisco in search of a job. Johnson happened by a park where a rugby match was going on.
He was intrigued. The players called to him.
“They’re like, ‘Hey, you’re a big guy, want to play some rugby?'” said Johnson, who will sit out the Argentina match because of a foot injury. “I said, ‘Sure, I’ll give it a shot.'”
He was hooked.
Now he’s playing for the U.S. and also is a member of the Oxford University rugby football club.
“It’s been a really neat experience,” Johnson said.
Soon after the Churchill Cup, Johnson will travel to Oxford for a final exam. Then it’s right back to the U.S. for another rugby match.
Hectic? Very.
But Johnson wouldn’t have it any other way.
