All rugby players remember their first tackle, and the women who play for the Jakarta Banteng Rugby Club are no exception.

Tackling in rugby is not only difficult and scary, but it can leave you flat on your face in the mud watching your opponent race on ahead. Jakarta Banteng Rugby Club women’s team captain Kartika Esi still laughs every time she recalls her first attempt at tackling her opponents in a real match.

“I tried to tackle them, but because they were bigger than me, I was just hugging them while being dragged along,” Esi said.

Rugby is a full contact sport played with a distinctively shaped oval ball, first introduced in Jakarta during the colonial period.

It experienced a lull in popularity in the 1980s but was revived around 2004 by a dedicated bunch of Australian, New Zealand and Welsh expats, along with local Indonesians, Malaysians and Singaporeans in Jakarta.

Despite being a relatively new sport to the archipelago, rugby has experienced a blossoming of growth since its rebirth, with tournaments including the Jakarta 10s, the Jakarta 15s Series and the Bali 10s, which attracted a total of 36 teams from 10 countries and regions in 2018.

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