Vallejo's lone rugby club takes the field
By DAN NIED/Times-Herald sports writer
Article Launched: 02/10/2008 08:04:34 AM PST

It was a flower blooming between cracks in the sidewalk.

Yeah, that's right, a colorful, blossoming flower thriving in the displaced setting of urban life.

OK, maybe that image doesn't ultimately lead a mind to rugby. There are obvious differences.

There's the flower - we'll say it is red - standing tall above a foundation of two gray slabs of cement.

And then there is rugby, a rough-and-tumble, padless sports similar to tackle football that resembles the cement slabs more than the flower itself.

But the imagery isn't what counts. No, it's the method and the result. That's why the Vallejo Rugby Club is the flower. Everything piling up against them, mountains of credit card debt for jerseys and shorts and equipment building up for a team manager named John Kelly who says, "we haven't been able to charge because our players are broke. They have a lot of heart and no cash. We have tried to get the money through fundraising. If not we'll have a huge credit card bill I'll have to figure out."

And then Kelly discards any financial troubles in favor of the overall service.

"These guys need a break," he says. "It is hard for me to say that we can't play anymore if they can't come up with cash. They'll walk away."

They searched for a practice and game field for months, but kept getting turned away by area schools. They have recruited a full team with only word-of-mouth publicity. They borrowed a pair of highway lights from the Marin Rugby Club so they could practice at night. They adopted their nickname, "The Barbarians," and their leaders see this club as an alternative for the city's troubled youth, another option besides football or gangs.

Thriving? Not quite yet. But the Vallejo Rugby Club has won its last two games after losing its first two. As a start-up program with few experienced players and no sponsors, they are doing pretty well for themselves.

Maybe their head-slapping, hard-nosed play resembles the cement slabs, but their mere existence makes the Vallejo Barbarians the flower in this analogy.


An Idea

It started in church, which is how Kelly crossed paths with Lani Akauola.

Akauola urged Kelly to help him start a rugby club in Vallejo. Akauola, who has played the game since he was 7-years-old, came to the semi-retired Kelly, who had no connection to the game at all.

"Lonnie asked me last January if I could help him find a field that a rugby team could use," Kelly says. "Lani asked me to help start a rugby team, 'will you help us?' "

Kelly says he made a few phone calls to secure a field. The first, he says, was to St. Patrick-St. Vincent High, but that didn't work out. Then he says he called the Vallejo School District, looking for use of a field behind Vallejo Middle School. That didn't work either.

The team got by using a field next to Zio Fredo's restaurant, where Akauola borrowed the lights so the team could hold night practices to accommodate its working players.

There was no permanent practice or playing field until Kelly called then North Hills High Athletic Director Richard Eaton, who agreed to let the team use Morton Field at Mare Island, the same place North Hills plays its football games, in exchange for maintenance and utility payments.

Declining to charge dues to the players, Kelly started racking up debt to fund the field fees, equipment, and uniforms. Meanwhile, Akauola got his friend, longtime Bay Area rugby coach Ben Nawaquvou, or "Ben Whiskey" to everyone who knows him, to lead the team.
They made a proposal to the Northern California Rugby Football Union to enter the Division III level which, according to Kelly, is for "weekend warriors and guys who like to play rugby and aren't looking to go into rugby as a profession or go to college."
They gained acceptance with a year of probation.

The Barbarians started with about 10 players, and have slowly built the team up to about 25 or 30 regulars. The group is made up of several commuters from San Jose and San Rafael, and range in age from late teens to early 40s.

Those elder statesmen, by the way, are Ben Whiskey 40, - who is playing again after a series of injuries kept him on the sidelines for years, and Akauola, 42, who serves as Ben Whiskey's assistant and plays when he is needed.

Many of the younger players come from People's High School and at least one, Hogan High senior Taua Anitoni, played prep football last season.

With this group of mostly inexperienced players, the Barbarians are 2-2, with a 1-0 record in league after beating Redding last weekend. On Saturday at 1:30 p.m., the Vallejo Rugby Club will host its first league game at Morton Field, playing the Reno Zephyrs in a game that is free to the public.


ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS

Besides his love of the sport, Akauola has another vision for the Vallejo Rugby Club.

For one, he wants to start a womens team (there are a few practicing with the men already).

But most of all, he wants to begin a youth squad that will give Vallejo's teens an alternative to the hard-luck lifestyle that is prevalent in some parts of the city.

"I've seen the kids that dropped out from school and couldn't make it to the NFL," Akauola says. "Just to get the kids off the street. A lot of people on the team, this is their last stop before they go to jail. This team means a lot to these guys, to these youngsters."

Anitoni, for one, has had his troubles with the law. While he played football for Hogan, he says, he managed to stay out of trouble. His life was simple during the fall: Go to school, go to football practice, go home. But after the season ended in early November, Anitoni struggled to find activities to fill his extra time. Akauola, Anitoni's uncle, recruited him to the Barbarians, where the former Hogan running back has found the rhythm of life he enjoyed during football season.

"Right after school I just stay home, do my homework and go straight to rugby practice," Anitoni says.

Akauola knows his team might not have the same pull as the area's High School athletic programs, but he also knows that there are no other rugby teams in the city, and maybe no better sport in which to release aggression in a constructive manner.

"I wanted to encourage all the parents out there," he says, "if your kid doesn't make it in football, there is a rugby team in Vallejo."

The youth are coming, slowly but surely. If the Barbarians can up their fundraising and secure sponsorship, they may be able to establish a foothold in the Vallejo community, and help keep at least a few kids out of trouble.

The team is made up primarily of Pacific Islanders ("Tongans, Fijians and four or five white guys," is how Kelly describes the team's roster), and has formed a tight bond within its ranks.

"One of the reasons the Tongan people wanted to start this, they could see the young men were drifting towards the gangs," Kelly says. "They could fit within that culture without any trouble at all. In essence, what we created was a positive gang. They are the Barbarians, and they are as close as a family now. They are a marvelous group of men."


THE FLOWER BLOOMS

There are pitfalls, though. Always obstacles standing in the way of the Vallejo Rugby Club.

Just as that flower in the sidewalk has to somehow dodge pedestrian footprints, the Barbarians will have to figure out their financial struggles soon enough. Their first bill for utilities at Morton Field was over $1,000, and they are trying hard to secure a reliable base of players.

Problems abound for this start-up club trying to make a small difference in the community while embracing the sport two of its leaders grew up with. But that doesn't change the facts here.

The Vallejo Rugby Club is up and running. It has won its last two games, and it is proudly known as the Barbarians.

- E-mail Dan Nied at nied@thnewsnet.com or call 553-6839.


Original source - Times-Herald

Evaluator: David Williamson

Thanks to referee coach Dave Williamson for the many pointers that came my way before, during and after the game.

A glorious sunny day greeted the assembled players, refs, family and friends who gathered to play the inaugural competitive match at Vallejo's new pitch on Mare Island in the old naval base. The pitch is fast and flat, if perhaps a little longer than regulation -- it used to be a gridiron field, and the posts are concreted into the ground 120 yards apart (8 metres longer than the 100m standard). This was made a little more interesting by having the 22s painted only about 15m from the goal line, which the Reno fullback found to his cost when he called for the mark early on in the game.

Spirits were high, the pig was roasting away, the USA flag was raised from the mast just before kickoff, and then the game got underway at a later-than-usual 1.30pm, with the Reno team champing at the bit to get started. They drew first blood, as a Vallejo infringement in front of the posts led to an easy 3 points after 14 minutes. The Vallejo team quickly shot back with some hard-charging centre running leading to a try (unconverted) shortly after. Another penalty to Reno and a responding try to Vallejo led to a score of 10-6 to the hosts at the half. It would have been 12-6 had the kicker asked before approaching to adjust the ball on the tee -- the Reno fullback charged, stole the ball and that was that.

10 minutes into the second half, Vallejo stretched it to 13-6 with another penalty, but soon they were down to 14 after an ill-advised punch right in front of the ref. At that point, Reno took over, spreading the ball wide past a tiring back line, and running in 2 tries with their man advantage. A third try was nearly scored when the winger stepped out just before going over, but it just delayed the score as Reno snaffled the ball at the lineout to score. The winger then got his revenge and put one over in the corner just before time, and the fullback earned 5 bucks off his #6 by betting on the kick that he proceeded to slot down the middle of the uprights to cap a 6/7 performance with the boot.

34-13 the final, but credit to a much-improved Vallejo team who had the upper hand for the first 60 minutes, and who provided one heck of a spread in the clubhouse afterwards.

Original source - NCRFU Referee Society