‘Big milestone.’ As rugby grows in Macon, this club is fielding a women’s team for 1st time

The members of Macon Love Rugby, an amateur rugby club, are carving a new lane in Macon sports by highlighting a group that has historically been underrepresented in the sport of rugby — women.

This weekend, a Macon Love Rugby team will travel to Panama City Beach and compete as a full women’s side, a first in the club’s 25-year history. As the team practiced in Central City Park Thursday evening, several members of the club remarked at the significance of getting more women involved in the sport.

“This is the first time that in the tournament, it’s registered Macon Love Women’s Rugby and we’re playing in our own jerseys as Macon, so it’s really exciting,” said Travis Spencer, Macon Love Rugby secretary and Georgia Rugby Union president. “It’s a big milestone.”

Growth of the Macon rugby women’s side

Macon Love rugby competes within the Georgia Rugby Union, an amateur league that consists of 14 teams in the southeast. Female members of the league played for the first time as a women’s side — which is the rugby term for a team — this March. They combined female athletes from different teams.

Macon Love and other teams in the Georgia Rugby Union primarily play during the fall, winter and spring. Summer competitions give the opportunity for clubs to compete in all-day friendly tournaments before the start of the official season.

Summer matches are also in a sevens format, not 15s, meaning that a full team only has seven players on the field as opposed to the typical 15. This smaller rugby format created an opening for Macon Love to enter a team into the women’s rugby side of the tournament for the first time.

The growth of the women’s side and the whole team has stemmed from the group’s inclusive attitude — all are welcome to give rugby a try, no experience necessary, according to participants.

“No matter how athletic you are or what you look like, there’s a spot for you on the team,” said Margaret Peth, who has played for Macon Love Rugby for three years. “I feel like women don’t get a lot of opportunities to really tap into being really powerful. That’s something rugby allowed me to get in touch with myself…this aggressive energy and power.”

Youth programming in rugby is not as widespread as other team sports in the United States, which means the majority of American rugby players begin the sport as teenagers or adults. This unique characteristic of the sport translates to a wide acceptance of newcomers.

“Ninety percent of our team has been playing for less than five years and over 50% have been playing less than two years,” Spencer said.

The experience time is even smaller for the women’s side of the team. Only two of the players competing in the Panama City Beach tournament have played longer than a year.

“I remember my first practice,” said Peth. “The environment is so nurturing. Everyone wants to see you succeed. It’s the best sport to be a beginner.”

The women involved in the team all had different reasons for coming to the sport.

“It’s just a good representation of women being powerful and having fun,” said Brianna Cromartie, who has been on the team for 10 months.

Tiyuana “T” Grant said she found out about rugby through Facebook and decided to find a place to play locally. After over a year with the team, she’s motivated to try and play professional women’s rugby, potentially in the new Women’s Elite Rugby league that will kick off nationwide in 2025.

Seaira Spooney began playing rugby a few months ago after encouragement from her husband, and saw it as an opportunity to build community in Macon.

“I moved here two years ago…but you know, I work from home. It is kind of hard obviously to build a community when you don’t leave your house,” said Spooney. She said it was helpful to, “be around people with similar interests…people who positively reinforce what you’re doing and encourage you.”

What’s this Macon rugby club’s history?

Macon Love Rugby was founded in 1999, but different Macon rugby teams existed before this group.

Spencer has been involved in Macon Love Rugby since he moved to Macon in 2016, after first discovering the sport in college. Spencer said he has seen the club grow in a number of ways since he began.

“Right about the time I moved here, I think that fall I went out to practice and there were like three or four of us,” Spencer said. “And that’s not enough.”

Spencer and other Macon Love members knew they had to grow the club to get to compete in rugby fifteens. One part of that strategy was broadening the makeup of the team.

“Here in Macon, the club has been a men’s club … for the majority of its lifetime,” Spencer said. “Rugby is rugby, anyone who’s playing it does increase exposure to it and the more people we have, the better off we are. So why wouldn’t we also include women?”

Spencer said the real push towards encouraging women to come play with Macon Love started after the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the women’s side has gained momentum and according to Spencer, elevated the whole team in the process.

“The whole system just becomes stronger … you have a greater diversity of inputs and ideas and personalities and it’s better for everyone.”

Did Olympics help Macon Love rugby?

U.S. women’s rugby gained international attention at the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer. The USA Women’s Rugby Sevens team won a bronze medal for the first time in program history, upsetting Australia, a tournament favorite.

The team’s historic accomplishment paired with the rise of Ilona Maher, an already-popular USA Women’s Rugby Sevens team member, who gained a social media following of millions during the Olympics.

But on a smaller scale, the women of Macon Love Rugby said the United States’ win has created more opportunities to grow the team locally. Anna Richards started playing with the team just over a month ago and specifically named Maher as a motivation for coming out to practice.

“During the (2020) Tokyo Olympics, I discovered Ilona Maher…She’s the coolest and such a beast running down the field,” Richards said.

Women on the team said that more people are interested in the sport than ever before.

“At my job, they know that I kind of do rugby and they made a joke of ‘If you make it to the Olympics, we’re going to sponsor you,’” said team member Brianna Cromartie. “They know more about me and what I do, what it looks like.”

“Since the medal games, (there is) a lot of new interest from potential sponsors wanting to get involved and new players,” Spencer said. “It’s been a huge uptick in coverage and just attention being paid to the sport.”

What’s next?

Ultimately, both women and men in Macon Love Rugby shared that the number one reason they continued with the team was the community they’ve built.

“The community that goes with (rugby), that is what really makes it click for people and what we sell as the biggest part of it … come try rugby, but also meet a bunch of new friends … that seems to work,” Spencer said.

Women especially agreed that the community on their side of the club is strong, and even the men of Macon Love Rugby always rally around them in support.

“They’re always trying to get women to try to come play. They always speak with all of the women, saying how great we are, just to try to get other women to come play,” Grant said.

Spencer said that the team wants to eventually organize a youth team to expand the sport to kids in the community. Grant said she has hopes of taking the women’s team from a sevens team to a fifteens team.

The women acknowledged that it can be difficult to try something brand new, but encouraged others to put themselves out there. Richards recalled how scared she was to join until Peth encouraged to try it out.

“She dragged me out here and now I love it,” she said. “It kicks my butt every time I come. I just want to get better.”

This story was originally published August 13, 2024 at 10:35 AM.