"Arena Rugby" - selling the game stateside

Philadelphia Women's RFC in the USA were recently given a great opportunity to show the game off to a whole new audience when a link with the local professional lacrosse club resulted in their being given the chance to play a demonstration game before the lacrosse club's latest fixture.

One small challenge was that the Philadelphia Wings play their lacrosse at the Wachovia Center - the city's ice hockey stadium. Okay, they replace the ice with a carpet of artificial turf, but the boards and glass walls are still there.

This presented the rugby players with some challenges - but they came up with a version of sevens that sounds like it was a curious mixture of rugby and ice hockey, with players being forced against the boards being considered "in touch", plus several other adaptions. The result was a very fast game, well received by the crowd arriving for the lacrosse game, many of whom were interested to find out more about game.

Maybe it could be the start of something new, at least in North America or anywhere else where outdoor sport is not possible in the winter, and where there are also plenty of these indoor stadia. For more information and a match report see this report.