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By Tunji Toriola
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Wednesday, 20 January 2010 |
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Tunji Toriola braces himself for a game of rugby with a twist.
I was a little bemused when I was invited to a game of underwater rugby at Raksila swimming hall. I see myself as a sportsperson but I guess I was a little caught off guard with the concept of playing rugby sub-aqua.
How can you play the toughest and most physically demanding team sport underwater! Apparently, other people in Oulu were equally suspicious, so underwater rugby here has got off to a slow start. At the pool, I met Tommi Salminen, one of the coordinators of the game in Oulu. As I watched the team play, he explained, “The game was first played in Oulu in the 90’s but by the year 2000, they had to stop playing because it didn’t generate enough interest in Oulu. It was revived in 2007 when Janni Hongell, who plays for the Finnish National women’s team, moved to the city and together with the president of the Oulu dive club; Jouni Herronen got things moving again. We had our first training session in May 2007 even though we had to borrow a ball from the Ylivieska diving club!”
It wasn’t until later in 2007 that the team managed to construct their own goal posts and by spring of 2008, there were 28 people registered as members of the Oulu underwater rugby team. Despite the late assemblage, the team was bold enough to participate in the Pohjanmaa underwater rugby tournament during the winter of 2008-2009. They were well and truly beaten by more established teams.
The training session starts at 8:30 pm and I was invited to join in but, still confused by the whole concept, I preferred to be a spectator for the time being. The first 30 minutes were dedicated to warming up inside the pool. When the game eventually started, I realized that the only similarity between it and rugby was in the name. While rugby is played on a large field, the playing area for underwater rugby is usually between 12-18 meters long and 8 to 10 meters wide within a water depth of between 3 to 5 meters. The ball used is slightly larger than a softball and is filled with salt water. This means that it's not buoyant and so won't just float to the surface.
Each team is made up of twelve players (six playing in the pool at any point in time and six substitutes - the game is so exhausting that substitutions are regularly made!) wearing masks, fins and snorkels and the main aim is to score goals by throwing the ball inside the opponents’ goal post made of heavy metal buckets. I probably would have called it underwater basketball as it seemed more apt but unlike basketball, the buckets are on the pool floor rather than hanging as in real basketball and an important rule is that the ball must not come out of the water.
Even as a spectator, it appeared to me that you need to be strong to play the game, a fact Tommi confirmed “It’s a good form of exercise, very much like running and at the end of the game, the average player must have expended a lot of energy not to talk of being covered in bruises, especially at the arms because you need to grab people a lot and the wrist seems to be a very good place to grab”.
“You don’t need to be super fit to play though as there are other ways you can be useful to your team but of course you need to be able to swim well since you will be underwater for long periods” he consoled.
 The underwater rugby club of Oulu trains twice weekly on Thursdays between 8:30pm and 9:45pm and Sundays between 3:30pm and 5:30pm at the Raksila swimming hall. According to Tommi, new members are welcome to bolster the team and prepare it for the upcoming Pohjammaa Cup tournament. Hopefully, the next time I go there, I will not be a spectator but in-between, I need to practice staying underwater for prolonged periods of time.
Underwater Rugby's ball was invented in 1961 by Ludwig von Bursuda, a member of the Cologne Underwater Club. His idea was developed into a game by Dr Franz Joseph Grimmeison of the Duisberg Underwater Club. The first game of Underwater Rugby was played in 1964 and by 1975 it had reached Finland.
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