‘An escape from life’: Players for The Roses love the sport and community of rugby
- Mara Dresner
- Jun 27
- 8 min read
by Mara Dresner
Contributing writer
By day, Lynne Stahl is a research librarian at Wesleyan University. In her off hours, you can find her playing fullback for the Hartford Wild Roses Women's Rugby Club. And while you might not hear a lot about women’s rugby, the club is no newcomer. This year, The Roses are celebrating their 50th anniversary as a continuously operating club.
Stahl, a Rocky Hill resident, came to the sport in college. Growing up, she played a variety of sports, including basketball, soccer, football, volleyball and softball.
“I grew up in Lawrence, Kan., a huge basketball town, so basketball was always number one. But I also had a childhood dream, more like a delusion, of being the first female NFL player,” she said. “I was on the Ultimate Frisbee team in college [Colorado College] and the rugby team practiced right after us, so that piqued my interest a bit. Then a friend on the team invited me to a rugby game and I remember it looked so fun that just watching from the sideline was almost painful. The rest is history.”
She’s been playing with The Roses since the summer of 2023. Previously, she played for teams in New York, Oregon and Colorado.
“I mostly play fullback, which is kind of the last line of defense and a dynamic position on offense. I'm the backs captain, which means I help with running practices, determining lineups and coordinating team logistics. I also co-coordinate our summer 7s season,” she said.
Rugby is nonstop action.
“Rugby is 80 minutes of tackling, running, passing and kicking – everything is fair game. It’s an extremely physical sport but also a cerebral one that requires a lot of communication and creativity. And it's a very bureaucratic sport with a million rules, so you always have to keep your head about you even while you're maxing yourself out physically,” Stahl said.
However, despite popular misconception, she doesn’t believe it’s an especially dangerous sport.
“It's a contact sport, so of course injuries happen, but at a similar rate to soccer,” noted Stahl, who’s had “lots of bumps and bruises,” and fractured her collarbone playing in college. “Because you don't wear pads or helmets, a lot of emphasis is placed on both tackling and being tackled safely. For example, you can't just ram someone with your shoulder like in football.”
Her teammate Kayla Edgeworth of Wethersfield also picked up the game in college, joining the rugby team her junior year at the University of New Haven.
“I grew up with a bunch of boy cousins, playing backyard football. I started basketball in middle school. When I was a freshman [in college], I saw the rugby team and those girls looked so cool. I was really intimidated for such a long time. I felt like only the super athletic can play. I went to a recruitment and talked to one of the girls on the team and she convinced me to join and I’ve been playing ever since,” Edgeworth said.
She joined The Roses in 2024, specializing in playing prop.
“Prop is essentially a huge part of the forwards. We do a lot of set pieces, scrumming, the rough and tough crashing, and making all the big hits,” she explained. “It’s what I’ve always played. I’m kind of a weird one-trick pony. I’m trying to develop and learn different positions. In my current situation, we don’t have a lot of other props.”
Last year, she had a “pretty bad concussion,” which she said was her worst injury. “There are common injuries – you get messed-up shoulders and knees and backs over time. It catches up to you,” she said.
Edgeworth, who works as a community educator for the Prudence Crandall Center, a local domestic violence agency, said she sometimes needs to offer an explanation at work as to why she’s looking a bit bruised or walking with a limp.
A 50-year history
Rachel Nashett is a mom of two and a substitute teacher in the Glastonbury school system, who especially enjoys teaching STEM classes. Prior to having children, she was an engineer at Henkel Corporation in Rocky Hill.
“I have always played sports. I did soccer and track in high school. I also skied alpine and cross country. I was on my college crew team freshman year, then I switched over to rugby,” Nashett, who attended University at Buffalo in Buffalo, N.Y., said. “My crew team in college was Division 1. I could work nearly full time and balance rugby better than I could balance crew.
“I was familiar with rugby as a game as I grew up near Saranac Lake, N.Y., where they have one of the largest rugby tournaments every summer. When I was growing up, I was not allowed to go into town on rugby weekends because of all the rugby players,” she added with a laugh.
Nashett, a Glastonbury resident, joined The Roses in 2008, and serves as forwards captain and equipment manager, as well as a senior player.
She’s played for the team since then, “minus the active months of pregnancies. Apparently you’re not supposed to play contact sports while you’re pregnant,” she joked.
She mostly plays lock, which is #5, although she’ll play other positions in the scrum, as well.
Nashett said that finding time for everything can be a bit of a challenge.
“I think at this point, it’s balancing the fitness I need to be doing outside the practices with family work and life. It is much easier if you’re in very good shape and you need to be in very good shape for injury prevention reasons,” she noted. “I have broken my collarbone years ago. I broke my tailbone last year but played most of season. I’m 42 now. I have some knee injuries, but I’m still able to play most of it. When you’re 42 playing a contact sport, you’re likely to have some injuries.”
She thinks the perception of rugby is changing.
“I believe people used to picture rugby as almost kind of a messy sport. But there’s so many rules and everything on the field is happening for a reason and it’s governed by a set of laws,” she noted. “My parents keep asking when I will stop playing rugby and that’s been for over 20 years now. Rugby is a full-contact sport. Really the only protective gear is a mouthguard. People ask if there’s full padding. Some people wear a scrum cap. That is really only to protect cauliflower ear. I think the Olympic success of Women’s 7 Rugby make it less of a foreign sport, less of a surprise that women would play.”
The Roses play in the New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU) League. Players are registered with USA Rugby.
Practices are usually held twice a week. Off-season training is done at Roba Physical Therapy in Newington.
“They provide our recovery services, concussion testing and overall wellness to make sure we’re at our best when we play rugby,” said Edgeworth.
The team is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. They raise money through fundraisers, sponsorships, selling swag and individual donations. Edgeworth serves as fundraising chair and noted the team has partnered with Rentschler Field and the Hartford Wolfpack on past events.
The team plays in Hartford. Games are free to attend and open to the public.
On September 26, the team will host a 50th anniversary celebration in Hartford.
“We started off the back of the men’s rugby team. The wives of the men said, ‘Why can’t we play? Why can’t we be great at it too?’” Edgeworth said.
According to Calder Cahill, head of communications for USA Rugby, the first official women's rugby match in the United States was Colorado State University vs University of Colorado (Boulder) in 1972.
“Hartford was so fortunate to have women with the passion and wherewithal to start a team back in the 1970s,” Stahl said. “I think so many people fall madly in love with the sport and the family they gain from it once they start playing; they realize how important it is to maintain that environment for themselves and for others.”
Despite their decades-long history, the team is still a bit of a secret.
“We’ve been around for 50 years in Hartford and a lot of people don’t know we exist,” Edgeworth said. “We want to continue to grow the sport and our connections to the community.”
The team has held drives to donate to the YMCA and a local food pantry, as well as to help those affected by domestic violence.
They’re always looking for new players, including college students – no experience necessary.
“The most challenging part of the sport is coming to the realization that you can do it. The biggest hump that players face is the top 2% of the brain. To play rugby well, you have to be able to focus and lock into what’s happening. It’s such a fun and easy sport to play. You just have to get over the mental hump and say, ‘I can do this,’ and build that confidence,” Edgeworth said. “A lot of people don’t realize what the sport is. It’s a little bit like soccer, a little bit like football. There’s a lot of misconception that everyone is really aggressive, that everyone is really mean. It’s really about community. We’re social after the game with the other team. We go out for food and drinks.”
Rugby players tend to form a close-knit community.
“One of the best things about rugby is you can move to anywhere in the country and within one to two practices, you will have 40 friends in that area. Basically you roll in and you will have a new family,” Nashett said. “It’s a great way to balance competitiveness, a social atmosphere and a team environment. We try to balance it all so it’s a fit for everybody. We welcome everybody, whether you have no experience in rugby, all the way if you have tons of experience. We strive to create an environment where every player – regardless of background, experience or ability – feels valued, challenged and inspired to grow, both on and off the field.”
Summer is a big recruitment time for the team. On Tuesdays, the team plays touch.
“It’s a great way to network, to learn a new sport; it’s a great way to stay fit; it’s can be a potential job networking opportunity,” noted Nashett. “Through teamwork, resilience and mutual respect, we use rugby as a vehicle to build confidence, develop leadership and cultivate lifelong connections, while promoting personal growth and collective strength within our team and the broader community.”
For Stahl, the game provides numerous benefits.
“I love going to practice twice a week to run around with a ball and not think about anything else. I love getting to meet people from every walk of life, most of whom I'd never cross paths with otherwise. I love getting to tackle people for 80 minutes and then have a beer with them afterwards. I love that rugby is a sport that pushes women to be physical and aggressive and powerful and that it's a sport where there's a position for every body type,” she said.
Nashett also appreciates the focus the sport requires.
“Prior to having children, I had a very high pressure job. When you are practicing or playing rugby, to be successful, you can only concentrate on rugby. You get an escape from life, an escape from every problem. You can only think about rugby if you want to be successful,” she said. “Many teammates tout rugby as their form of therapy.” RHL/WL/GL
Learn more at hartfordroses.org or facebook.com/hartfordwildrose.