A very different rugby story takes centre stage in Dublin this evening with the screening of TRY!, a new Irish documentary following players and teams competing in Mixed Ability Rugby.
Directed by Oisín Mistéil, the film screens at the Irish Film Institute at 18:10 this evening, as part of the IFI Documentary Festival, with a further special screening next Tuesday ahead of its wider Irish cinema release on October 2. Tonight’s screening will be followed by a Q&A involving Mistéil, player Paul Deacon and coach Marianna Hayes, hosted by Aoife Barry.
TRY! follows four Irish teams through winter training and on to Spain for the Mixed Ability Rugby World Cup, where players with and without physical and learning disabilities compete together in full-contact, 15-a-side rugby.
The competition is significant in scale. The World Cup featured 32 teams from 16 countries, and the documentary follows its Irish subjects from training in the cold and rain to the intensity of international competition.
At the heart of the film are four players — Richie, Maeve, Tommy and Paul — whose experiences provide a window into what Mixed Ability Rugby can deliver beyond the scoreline: friendship, identity, confidence and, perhaps most importantly, a sense of belonging.
Mixed Ability Rugby differs from many disability-sport models because it doesn’t focus on creating a separate or adapted version of the game. Players with different abilities line out on the same team and play to the same laws, with inclusion built into the structure rather than added around it.
The movement has grown strongly in Ireland since it was introduced here in 2013. It now encompasses more than 1,000 players across seven teams nationally, according to those involved in developing the game.
The film has already attracted significant recognition. After its world premiere at Sheffield DocFest, it won Best Irish Feature Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh in July.
Storytelling
Much of the conversation around inclusion in sport naturally centres on participation numbers, facilities, funding and programmes. TRY! uses storytelling to show what those initiatives actually mean to the people taking part.
It also demonstrates the value of sport by allowing cameras behind the scenes for long enough to capture genuine relationships rather than simply producing promotional content. The result is a story that can reach audiences who may have little prior awareness of either Mixed Ability Rugby or the broader Mixed Ability movement.
Pipedream Productions produced the documentary, with support from Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, Coimisiún na Meán and Virgin Media.
Its cinema release on October 2 will take that story further. A launch event at The Everyman in Cork that evening will include a Q&A hosted by Matt Cooper, appropriately bringing the film back to the city which hosted the Mixed Ability Rugby World Cup in 2022.
For a sport which has grown through clubs, volunteers and players challenging traditional assumptions about who rugby is for, a feature-length cinema documentary represents another important step.
Sport for Business Perspective
There is plenty here for governing bodies and brands to consider. Inclusion can sometimes be communicated through statistics and strategies when its strongest argument is the human story.
TRY! puts those stories on a cinema screen. In doing so, it gives Mixed Ability Rugby visibility in a wonderfully human form.
We have two tickets for Sport for Business Members to attend the screening in Dublin on September 29th and in Cork on October 2nd. Email rob@sportforbusiness.com to enter the draw to win them, with winners announced Monday morning.
Special Olympics Ireland is a full member of Sport for Business. Allianz are the official partners of our Sport for Social Good coverage and this year’s Annual Sport for Social Good Conference in November.
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Image Credit: Try!
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