Sarah Violante walks in the room with a noticeable limp, one of her knees enveloped in an implement that seems to be a cross between a brace and athletic tape. How did she get hurt?
“I was rucking a girl,” she says.
Thus begins an investigation into the hard-hitting, fast-paced, frankly violent sport that is women’s rugby. Rucking turns out to be a central aspect of the game: the way the ball is retrieved from the middle of a cluster of players using nothing but feet.
“When you ruck, you put your shoulder into another girl’s shoulder, and the ball’s beneath you,” she explains.