'You'll fall in love': Chicago Hounds prep for home playoff game Saturday
Chicago Hounds talk Saturday's home playoff game
The Chicago Hounds are in just their third season but are already making a name for themselves and rugby in chicago.
The Chicago Hounds are in just their third season but already making a name for themselves and rugby in Chicago. This year, the team earned home-field advantage throughout the playoffs for the first time.
"We're excited to encase a brand of rugby that's exciting," Hounds head coach Chris Latham said. "We're the first Chicago rugby team to get a home semifinal. Would be awesome to break that record crowd again."
The backstory:
Hounds head coach Chris Latham is in his first year with the club. Like many other Australians he was born into rugby, and now he's seeing it grow in Chicago as his team is taking on the identity of the city.
Chicago is a very gritty, dig deep, hard-working, graft-harsh environment," Latham said. "We're used to that dig-deep, dirty environment. That's the kind of rugby we want to play."
"From the start when we arrived in Chicago, we're a really hungry group," Hounds center Bryce Campbell said. "The group has changed and slowly got more quality each year. Shows in our performances and record."
The Hounds finished 11-5 in the regular season and coming off a record-setting crowd at SeatGeek Stadium, the Hounds are hoping to show new fans this weekend what the sport is all about.
"Everyone has to run tackle pass and to see people from all different shapes and sizes come together in such a brutal and beautiful too," Campbell said. "It's a spectacle. So cool to watch."
What they're saying:
"We do it all without pads," Latham said. "One-on-one without any restrictions. Our game is continuous. War or attrition. Bone-on-bone contact. We do it right. Do it gladiator-type style. Two men in, one man leaving. That's how we like to be."
"It's playoff sports. There's nothing better than playoff sports," Hounds Flanker Lucas Rumball said. "Everyone raises their game, the stakes are always higher. Come out and give it a watch, you'll fall in love."