Junior Rugby at Nagel Park

This weekend I attended a junior rugby sporting event. The games were held at Nagel Park in Maroubra and occur every Saturday. The game I was watching was all boys ages seven and eight. The coaches of each of the teams along with one referee were on the field throughout the whole game to keep the game moving. The whole time I was watching I was nervous because the boys wear no pads! I couldn't believe how hard they were bringing each other to the ground without having any padding on. Even more surprising was that I did not see anyone get hurt the whole time I was watching. The boys had very impressive footwork and were extremely fast. They were not afraid at all to tackle each other or to be tackled themselves. The facility reminded me a lot of youth soccer back in the US. There was about four fields all next to each other with tons of children running around everywhere. The parents and siblings of the players were all lined up along the sidelines and all of the kids were playing around while they did not have a game. What was unlike the US was the freedom that the kids had. There were so many kids running around and playing so rough that I kept thinking I was seeing kids get hurt but they just popped right up. I think in the US the parent are more paranoid and would be watching the kids more instead of just letting them go. It seemed like the parents were enjoying themselves socializing with each other while the boys were playing. Overall, there was a strong community feel at the event and it was a lot of fun!