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Natalie Riley is Captain and hooker of Beantown RFC. Riley recently spoke with heavensgame about her club's season of rugby.
Riley has been playing for 11 years. She started playing in her first semester at UMass Amherst. Riley's sister (Claudia Bennett, the Beantown scrumhalf) played and convinced her to come to practice. Riley thought the practice session would be her first and last experience of women's rugby, however, instead she fell in love with the sport.
Beantown RFC was founded in 1976 and is one of the two premier teams in the area (the other is Boston Women's Rugby Club).
The club is comprised of a diverse group of women who come together for their love of rugby. Most of the team lives in the Boston area, but some players travel from as far as Providence, and one player even commuted from Hartford for a few seasons! The Club is fortunate to have a great group of coaches - Jan Rutkowski (head coach), Richard Ashfield (backs coach), and Annie Flavin (forwards coach). Riley says that the ladies in the team work hard and are very dedicated to achieving their goal of winning another National Championship. They have won six National Championships, with the last in 1996. Beantown RFC fields 2 sides. The club does not have any official affiliations, but they do have unofficial affiliations from Beantown alumni that are associated with college teams - i.e. Radcliffe and Wellesley. Riley told heavensgame about her own experience of the past rugby season, "I'm finally beginning to recover from the injury that kept me from most of the playoffs. (I dislocated my hip and broke my hip socket in the process.) It was very frustrating to not be able to participate in the last 3 games, but I am extremely proud of and happy for my team to have done so well this year". "It happened in the first game of Sweet Sixteens versus Kansas City. We tapped a ball on their line out and I fielded it. I don't really remember the hit as being anything special, but all of a sudden, I was just in intense pain. I am almost done with my recovery. In the end, it was just like any broken bone - 6 weeks of crutches and a brace and then I'll be good to go".
Riley added, "It was really great to be captain this season. I felt very priviledged to be able to lead such an outstanding group of ladies. I think it went well, although it killed me to miss the end and most important part of the season. (I was scheduled to have surgery the day we left for Florida. I didn't end up having it, but was unable to make the trip.) I tried to use my natural style of leadership as captain. I lead by playing with passion and dedication and encouraging the rest of the team to do the same. I think the thing that affected me the most is that I have a quiet and calm disposition. At times, I had to figure out how to break out of that to motivate the team".
Riley explained that it was disappointing for her club to lose to Berkeley in the senior Women's Rugby Club Championships. She said that "the team's goal this season was to win Nationals. So obviously, we were disappointed when we fell short. At the same time, we moved up from #5 to #2 and beat some teams that have given us problems over the last few years - Atlanta and NY. We definitely think we can win the whole thing. And next year we will be back to prove it". |
