Mens Journal

RUGBY

IS BACK

AND THE

U.S. MIGHT

ACTUALLY

HAVE

A SHOT

Forget the dream teams the cheesy

personal narratives and the feces

in the harbor. Here’s why you

should watch the summer games.

THE SUMMER OLYMPICS

BY STEPHEN RODRICK

PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER YANG

Theplayershitthe

field.Hard.The pros-

pects for the Eagles

Sevens rugby team are

crawling on all fours

in some sort of torture

session. They include

a Super Bowl champion a cap-

tain with an accent straight out

ofDownton Abbey and a sprinter

who ate dog food to get by as a

foster child. There are about 20

guys trying out for 12 spots on

America’s team as rugby returns

to the Olympics after a 92-year

nap. They scramble around a

pole in the Southern California

sun diving on a rugby ball the

size of a Euro traveler’s backpack.

“Go faster!” team captain

Madison Hughes screams in

his posh British accent. Assis-

tant coach Chris Brown named

these drills “Yaka Yards” and

as advertised one player is on

the far side of the f ield yakking.

Anotherplayer statestheobvi-

ous: “This sucks.”

It is all part of training for

rugby sevens which makes its

debut this summer in Rio de

Janeiro. You may know a bit

about regular rugby which was

once an Olympic sport. That’s

the one in which 15 guys with

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