Macon Love Rugby Enjoying 15th Season
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – If you take American football and soccer and add them together, you get rugby.
It’s a popular go-to for guys like former Central High School football player Tim Taylor.
“I saw one of my high school teammates playing one year,” Taylor says. “Iit’s coming up on my third year, and ever since the first day I came out, I fell in love with it.”
Taylor plays for the Macon Love–a team made up of mostly 20 and 30 somethings that’s been around since 1999. Their sport is a rough one, and unlike football, there’s no time to rest between each play.
“You kick it off,” Taylor says. “That’s the beginning of the game, and the only difference is after the kickoff you don’t set up and get plays ready or anything like that. It’s a steady flow.”
If you were to catch a match at Central City Park, you’d see grown men tackling each other.
ground–with no pads on. The guys say injuries actually happen more often in football than they do in rugby.
“Pads give people a lot of false securities where they will go all out, lead with their head, things like that,” Charles Crowder from Milledgeville says. “When you don’t have any pads on, you have to think a little bit more about your safety when you’re making a tackle.”
It’s not all just about knocking the other guy’s head off. Your team has to rely on one another to move the ball down the field.
“It’s like an ultimate team sport,” Taylor says. “And you’re forced to work with each other, and you’re more like brothers when you’re out on the field.”
Maybe it’s that brotherly love that’s kept this squad around for so long.
And they’re pretty good.
Through two matches this season, they’ve outscored their opponents 100-17.
Check out the Macon Love on Facebook.
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