Michael Moynihan : Rugby movie with a difference shows equality benefits everyone

‘This is a complete underdog of a documentary that’s out there. But we won best documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh, and we've been invited to the Newport Beach Film Festival in California.'

A movie with a difference is being screened in the Everyman tomorrow night.

On paper, Try! is a documentary focusing on mixed ability rugby, but it’s about much more than that. To find out more I chatted to Alan Craughwell, one of the driving forces behind it.

Twenty years working in the disability sector taught him a lot, and when he stepped back from Cope a few years ago to set up Assistiv, he learned even more.

Assistiv provides assistive technology for people with learning difficulties, disabilities, working with the hospitality sector and the retail sector. What it doesn’t do is upskill people about the challenges of film distribution, mind you, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves.

“Assistiv has been very successful in terms of helping keep and maintain and support people with employment.

“About 13 years ago I read an article in Rugby World magazine about mixed ability rugby when I was waiting on a physio session, and I said to myself, ‘that' s a great idea’.

“I was working with people with learning difficulties and disabilities at the time, some of the lads were big into rugby — Munster were flying it — and I approached two of them, Danny and James, and said ‘would you like to play rugby?'

“And they said, 'if we’re pulling strings off shorts, we don’t want to play. We want to play real rugby or no rugby at all'. And that was that.” 

Craughwell approached a friend, Liam Maher, with links to Sunday’s Well Rugby Club in Cork, and he brought it to the club’s junior committee of the Well, and it all took off from there.

The Sunday's Well team which was formed as a result was the first mixed ability team in Ireland: “They’ve won two World Cups, been to three World Cup finals, mixed ability World Cups, and have had up to 200 players play with them over the last 12 years. Those have been players with and without disabilities — it’s exactly what it says on the tin. 

"We’ve had players who have played 250 times for the club in the All-Ireland league at senior level come back to play rugby again after being retired, and we’ve had players who have never played rugby themselves as an adult, players who gave up when they were under eighteens and who came back into rugby through mixed ability. So it’s been a real path back to rugby.

“And then you’d have those who’d never had the chance because they have a disability. And that’s been the amazing part of it.” 

Craughwell points to the growing spread: there are clubs now in Belfast and Banbridge, in Dublin, in Arklow, not to mention Ballincollig, and the West Cork Jesters.

“We had the mixed-ability World Cup in Cork where we had 1,100 players from all around the world, from 14 different nations — places as far apart as Ecuador to Clonakilty.” And all of that led in turn to the documentary. When the filmmakers saw the story they decided to follow four players to the last World Cup in Pamplona.

The players

“You have Richie from Sunday's Well. Richie is autistic and would have loved to play rugby but never got the chance. The sport has given him good role models, and now he works with Heineken. The experience has been life-changing for him and his family.

“You have Maeve, who just loves sport, and I think she’s just found her tribe with this sport, and that’s massive.

“There’s Paul, who makes a 220-kilometre round trip to training from Enniscorthy to Kilternan for training. As he says in the film, ’what are you going to do, as in are you going to roll us out like little puppies and pat us on our heads and give us a ribbon?’  

“I suppose that’s a nod to some of the offerings that are around for someone with a disability. So he shows his reality — he’s involved in the club, like his brother and his sister, he’s getting the opportunity.” 

Paul raises a salient point about being condescended to, or treated like a little puppy, in his words. Craughwell points out that: “Everybody gets what they want out of the sport. Whether you’re a former rugby player who needs to have that competitiveness, there is no othering in this. 

It’s not a ‘them and us’ situation, we specifically set this up so that your teammate is not a volunteer.

“If he does have a disability, he’s not here to volunteer. He’s here to play. The whole idea differs from a lot of other offerings that are for people with disabilities. Every offering is brilliant and has its own place, but this is just different.

“It’s set up as a social sport for you to be able to go down to your local club and join the team that’s of your level or acceptance just like anybody else.

“It means that everybody gets what they want out of it. If you want a bit of training, a bit of contact, fine. if you’re an experienced player, you’re getting the satisfaction of telling somebody else what to do, and supporting someone on the pitch.

“And if you’re up against someone who is visibly weaker, or if they’ve been identified by their teammates as a player with less experience — it’s not your birthday, you’re not in the Aviva, let that person through.

“It means more to them than it does to you. That’s what it is, and it’s played in great spirit.” 

Craughwell points out that there’s a clear economic benefit to the clubs to setting up a team like this. At a time when it’s increasingly difficult to get people to participate — as players, coaches, administrators — this is a way to bring through “a new set of players, a new set of supporters, a new set of funding”.

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The film is a great introduction to the concept. Craughwell and co. are still encouraging people to get out and see the show.

“We want people to go out and see this, and to be aware that it’s not just a sports film, it’s a film about personal interests and society and inclusion. It’s a tearjerker as well as a rollercoaster.

“We’re encouraging people to log on to tryfilm.ie and to go to your local cinema and see it. And if it’s not in your local cinema, contact us and we’ll get it in.

“We’ve sold out the Everyman tomorrow night, we’ve sold out the Lighthouse Cinema in Dublin, Belfast, Galway, Bantry, Clonakilty...

“This is a complete underdog of a documentary that’s out there. But we won best documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh, and we've been invited to the Newport Beach Film Festival in California.” 

Well, sport teaches you that. Sometimes the underdog comes out on top.

• Tomorrow evening’s Everyman showing is sold out but there is a matinee at 11am. See tryfilm.ie for more.