The Roughneck Sport of Gentlemen

Right across from the train station in Tainan, the Mecca of Taiwan rugby, is a statue called "The Tackle," featuring three figures. One player is unrecognizable, but the player being tackled is Huang Mao-ch'ing, the "father of Tainan rugby," and the player catching the ball is Su Nan ch'eng, present mayor of Kaohsiung and a Tainan native son. The citizens of Tainan have added two lines below: "Who can tackle the rugby players of Tainan? Only one person, and his name is Time."

Rugby joins together a special group of men. When Mayor Su is asked what sport he played as a youth, he straightens up and loudly replies, "I played rugby."

Lin T'ai-sheng, the chairman of a chain of 31 retail stores, played rugby at Kienkwo High School 21 years ago. "My background is rugby," he says with a smile. "If you've played rugby, you'll understand the meaning of these credentials. Rugby players are cut a bit differently from the rest."

Forty-two-year-old Yeh Hsiu-ming is another example. A privately practicing obstetrician and the head of the Kienkwo rugby players alumni club, he still gets together a night or two every week with ex-members of the "All Blacks."

What is the reason for rugby's special appeal that causes such devotion?

"Because the ball's not round," Chen Po-ch'an, the rugby trainer at Tamsui High School, facetiously suggests. Odd bounces do indeed add to the game's interest, but there is certainly a deeper factor at work.

Team spirit is the key. Lin T'ai-sheng says the reason he is so enamored with rugby is simply because "it gives me a feeling of loving and being loved." Players must learn to give of themselves for the good of the team, a principle graphically illustrated in the scrum. All the pushing and straining is not for the benefit of the individual but solely to deliver the ball to another teammate. Tackling is itself a form of self-sacrifice.

Chang Hai-ch'ao, assistant professor of mathematics at National Taiwan University, has this view of the rugby spirit: "Rugby teaches us to trust in some basic convictions, like endurance, tears, sweat, cooperation, and responsibility. . . . Take a look at this playing field. How many feet have stepped down here; how many tears have been shed? Outside of the battlefield, I can't think of any other place that can teach us these lessons so vividly."

Rugby players remain friends, and often professional associates, after they step off the playing field, too. When he was a student at Taiwan University, Lin T'ai-sheng formed the "Seventy Club" with a group of other rugby players who weighed over 70 kilos. The members all have their own companies now, but whenever they get together, no matter how significant their positions--or their waistlines--the talk still turns to their favorite subject. And a slew of business and government big shots in Tainan make up the roster of the "No Doubts" rugby team, named in whimsical reference to Confucius' saying that he had no doubts after the age of 40.

Promoted by enthusiasts like these, rugby has been played on Taiwan for 67 years now, its beginnings going back to a group of Taipei high schools under the Japanese occupation. During most of this long history, Kienkwo High's All Blacks, named for the color of their uniforms, were easily the most illustrious. In those days, the All Blacks were not only handsome and good at their studies, they also won national championships for 19 straight years.

Kienkwo finally fell to a well-prepared, disciplined team from Ch'angjung High. "Just like a kid who turns bad at age 20," Lin sighs. Kienkwo recovered to win championships in the next two years, but since then supremacy has rested firmly in the south.

Rugby got started in southern Taiwan at Tainan back in 1947. Huang Mao-ch'ing, "the father of Tainan rugby," now 64, recalls how the first rugby game, after a fashion, was played when he accidentally picked up the ball once during a soccer game. Later, he and his friends came across a Japanese book on rugby, from which they surmised the rules. They then sewed together a piece of leather and an inner tube to produce Tainan's first rugby ball. It was not many years before the Tainan team slaughtered the team from Taipei in the 1958 high school championship, and clubs from Tainan have not lost since.

The people of Tainan love their rugby. Tainan's rugby field, built by private contributions, is the only playing field in the country devoted exclusively to rugby. And when visitors to Tainan get off the train, the first sight to greet them is the statue of "The Tackle," symbolizing the spirit of the city.

Tainan was looking for its tenth straight championship at the Taiwan Games a year ago last October. Changhua, host of the games, which originally had no team of its own, bought in ringers from around the island and swore to make it a fight to the finish. Unfazed, the mayor of Tainan, city officials, and a caravan of spectators descended on Changhua for the match. Changhua employed human wave tactics of its own, besieging the field with supporters. The scene was reminiscent of Little League baseball here during its heyday.

Tainan won the match. But those in the know say most of the players fielded by Changhua came from Tainan anyway, so the national championship was really just another intramural Tainan contest.

Will the other regions ever catch up? Tainan fans want their city to be not just a goldfish bowl but a greae not just a great sea of the rugby world. But "a sea in just one place can stagnate into a dead one," another fan warns.

Be that as it may, the future of rugby on Taiwan looks healthy and strong. The ROC team, which didn't even place in the first Asian Cup Games in 1966, captured third place last October in the seventh. Internationally, our team has come a long way, but continuing efforts are required.

Rugby adherents are unflagging enthusiasts, a force not to be overlooked. Who can tackle them? Time? Can it really?

[Picture Caption]

"The Tackle" is located in front of Tainan Railway Station.

Off in a cloud of dust! A frequent sight on the rugby field.

(Left) Who gets the ball? Whoever jumps highest.

(Right) Snatch the ball and take off while they're not looking!

The grunt of the scrum.

Into the wild blue yonder.

This refined gentleman was the first man to play rugby in Tainan--Huang Mao-ch'ing.

Off in a cloud of dust! A frequent sight on the rugby field.

（Left） Who gets the ball? Whoever jumps highest.

（Right） Snatch the ball and take off while they're not looking!

he grunt of the scrum.

Into the wild blue yonder.

This refined gentleman was the first man to play rugby in Tainan--Huang Mao-ch'ing.