
Women beat men to the pitch in forming the first-ever national rugby team
By Passant Rabie
Egypt Today
Watching a game of rugby union is like watching a Wild West bar-room brawl without the flying chairs. The sport epitomizes ‘full contact’ in ways that few other sports do, with each and every player called upon to run, throw, catch, kick, tackle, push, pull and, at times, be propelled vertically into the air by teammates. And once you learn the game’s terminology, you can’t help wonder what compels people to sign up for a sport that involves rucks, mauls and scrums.
In a culture with deeply ingrained views on gender, you don’t expect to see women in the middle of the scrum. However, 10 women have put on their boots and stepped onto the pitch to prove that the softer sex isn’t always so soft, forming the nation’s first-ever Women’s National Rugby Team — beating the men, who do not yet have a national rugby team, to the punch.
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