Post 4: Trust in Success
When it comes to rugby, teamwork is a very important aspect. You must learn to respect your teammates, opposition and referee, both on and off the field. Though, of course many conflicts can arise, but it is how those conflicts are managed that allow a team to be successful. Depending which version of rugby you are playing, there can be well over forty members, all of whom have their own opinions and ways of looking at the game.
Being part of this community, I have experienced many conflicts. I was one of a twenty-four-woman team competing for only twelve spots on tours. So, daily we were working with people we were ultimately competing against. With so many moving parts to this team, the environment proved to be hectic, stressful and draining. Fatigue was a state you were constantly in which can contribute to poor decision making, especially on the field. Since rugby sevens is such a fast-paced game there is limited time to read the field and make decisions in the first place, so sometimes the “wrong” decisions or least desirable ones are made. This happened frequently, so as a team we had to learn to mange the conflict that arose, such as being frustrated if someone made a decision you did not agree with or were not expecting.
When these conflicts arose and plays progressed, as a team we learned that communication and trust was our way to deal with these conflicts quickly before they escalated. Our team had the understanding that we all make mistakes and it is how we learned from them that could help us move forward. In the moments on the field we could get angry and frustrated with our teammates but that would slow the play down and probably lead to failure. So, when we were on the field we trusted and supported each other’s decisions. This would be in the forms of following through with a call someone made, following someone into contact or supporting a line someone ran. We would react to one another in an instant. Each practice and game were then followed up with the communication aspect. We would watch video together and talk about what we saw in the moments on the field and why we called or did the things we did.
This form of conflict isn’t a very direct one to say, “this is the problem we had” and “this is how we resolved it” but it is the reality of the everyday in sport. We had different conflicts that developed each day, but it was a constant building, learning and growing together that solved these conflicts and helped us be successful as a team.
