Female rugger tackles stereotypes head on

By Natalie Choy

Ong Pei Yi (in red), 23, does not shy away from any rugby challenge in her way. PHOTO: GOZAR IMAGES

Broken teeth and a concussion will not stop Ong Pei Yi from donning the Singapore jersey. The national rugby player had four upper teeth pushed back and two lower teeth knocked out during a local club tournament last year.

These were just some of the injuries that Ong, a final-year student at the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, sustained in her three years playing the sport.

Her upper teeth had to be pushed back out, while her lower teeth were restored.

“A lot of players tell me concussions are the worst,” said the 23-year-old. “I’ve had one concussion before, but I felt this (accident with my teeth) was more major.”

To onlookers, rugby is seen as a sport suited for larger players.

But the slim, 1.66-metre tall Ong aims to erase the stereotype that women rugby players need to be big in order to succeed on the field.

“Rugby is a sport for all shapes and sizes. Anyone can play,” she said. “There will always be a position that suits you.”

But Ong stressed the importance of having a toned physique, having been initially taken aback by the physical demands of the sport.

“You have to hit the gym. When you have more muscle, you won’t be breaking bones when you get hit,” she said.

The contact nature of the sport also makes it seem mindlessly aggressive to spectators. “It is definitely very physical because of the tackling involved,” said Ong.

However, she dismissed claims that rugby is all mindless tackles and brute force, explaining that it is an “aggressive yet smart game”.

Decision-making skills are important, and emphasised during training, she added.

Ong is now training for the final leg of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series — a regional championship contested as a three-tournament series — which will be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The first two legs were played in Hong Kong and South Korea respectively.

Rugby sevens is played by two teams of seven players, with two seven-minute halves on a full-sized rugby pitch — almost the size of a football field.

Just three years ago, Ong knew nothing about contact rugby.

“I had never watched a single rugby match in my life,” she said.

She has been a competitive hockey player for seven years, representing Victoria Junior College in the A Division Hockey Championships from 2010 to 2011, and played hockey for NTU when she was in her first year of studies.

Ong was first exposed to rugby in her second year, when she took up the sport as an elective.
Her natural flair for it caught the attention of the NTU coach, who invited her to join the school’s women’s rugby team.

She has been playing competitively ever since.

Ong currently hits the gym thrice a week, and trains at Yio Chu Kang Stadium with the national team twice a week. Saturdays are reserved for extra training or weekend camps.

In January next year, she will be representing NTU at the Hong Kong International Tertiary Sevens — her final tournament with the university.

Said Ong: “I love the camaraderie in the national team, I feel very welcomed and I’m learning a lot.”
“But I’ll always say that NTU is my first family.”