photo/Charlie Phillips
Portland Women’s Rugby
Coach Nikki Plumpton’s pep talk to the Portland Women’s Rugby Football Club last November had some familiar notes as she reflected on past struggles, achievements, and the challenges ahead. Coaches often discuss these things when trying to inspire success, but Plumpton was not on the sidelines, nor speaking only to the players. She was at the Maine Irish Heritage Center in Portland, and the crowd also included family, friends and other supporters of the team. The challenges she spoke of were financial as well as athletic.
“We’re coming back from a bit of a heartbreak in 2023,” Plumpton conceded. Current and former ruggers around the room nodded. Enough said about that season, Plumpton, who plays in the higher-ranked Division 1 of national rugby in addition to volunteering to coach Portland’s D3 team, moved on to the successes.
“We trained and prepped. You can have talented people and smart people, but you still have to work harder to win,” she declared.
The Portland players must have worked extra hard, because they had a perfect 8-0 season in 2024, defeating Amoskeag (a club based in Manchester, N.H.) for the regional championship. And that brought Plumpton to the task at hand: raising enough money to cover expenses for both the next championship tournament and a tour of Ireland. “We have a lot of amazing things coming, which is why we have a lot to pay for,” said the coach.
The team had last toured Ireland in 2011, beginning in the town of Abbeyfeale and then competing all over the country. Liz Anderson, a big-rig trucker who has played with the Portland club for 16 years, didn’t go to Ireland last time, but is set to go this year. “I’m trying to convince some of the old girls to go — [the women] who were playing when I started,” Anderson told me. “Sort of a reunion tour.”
Portland Women’s Rugby, founded in 1977, boasts a large number of social members — former players who contribute off the field to the player-driven, all-volunteer organization. Anderson, who started playing as a back but has moved forward over the years, would next like to shift into coaching. “It’s hard on your body,” she said of the sport. But there are also many benefits.
“I’ve met some of my best friends in the world playing rugby,” said Anderson. “The friendship and the camaraderie — there’s nothing else like the sport. And there’s something about kicking each other’s ass for eighty minutes and then having a beer with them after, which is so much a rugby thing. I could go to any state, where any club is, and find someone to play rugby, and we’d get [that camaraderie], so that’s kind of a cool thing. It’s addicting.”
If the funds can be raised, then following the 10-day, multi-game tour of Ireland, the players will begin preparing for the Super Regional Championships in early May, held in Newport, R.I. The Portland team is currently ranked among the top four in the nation. The national championship tournament will be held two weeks after that.
Plumpton noted that Portland was once in Division 2, but slipped back to D3 a few years ago. Continued success at the regional and national levels is the pathway back to D2, which the coach said is definitely a team goal.
And speaking of goals, club president Joy Naifeh said the team’s fundraising auction last November was very successful, netting over $20,000 to support the tour and championship run, but the club is still looking for ways to raise more money. In particular, they’re soliciting sponsors for their tour uniforms and plan to raffle a trip to England. Readers who want to sponsor the team, enter the raffle, or even become a rugger should e-mail portlandmainerugby@gmail.com.
“It’s free therapy,” Anderson said with a laugh, then added, “It’s not really free.”
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