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Euroleague (EUWRL) suspended indefinitely.

A new underwater rugby league will begin competing this weekend at the Bellahøj Swimstadium in Copenhagen. The competition will fill the hole created by the demise of the Euroleague (EUWRL). Halted by the Covid pandemic after 7 seasons of competition, the EUWRL had prepared to resume play only to be derailed by the Russia-Ukraine war. The Moscow based non-profit underwater rugby promoter and member clubs could not overcome the additional difficulties that arose as a result.

Anton Churzin, co-founder of the Euroleague in 2011, said that he and partner Victor Krylov, had been willing to transfer the league to some alternative European based management. However, the Euroleague (EUWRL) and the organizers of the new league did not come to any agreement.

“Actually Manuel [Tito de Morais, the sport’s top referee] started reaching out initially scoping interest amongst former EUWRL managers,” explained Flipper spokesman Martin Kjeldgaard. “Important was that it was not a replacement but substitute until league could return some day.”

The new Underwater Rugby League—called UWRL for the time being—will initially broadcast 9 matches over Saturday and Sunday, October 8-9. The 6 participating clubs: Flipper, Krefeld, Malmö Triton, Molde, Polisen and Tudserne, were all  members of the Euroleague. Tudserne won the league once (2017-18) while Molde were champions 6 times. The new league will not feature any clubs from Finland, Russia or Turkey. Malsch, a top German club that competed in the Euroleague, opted not to take part.

One big difference with the new league is that all rounds will take place at the same venue, Bellahøj Swimstadium in the Danish capital. Copenhagen enjoys a geographic advantage in that teams from the Nordic countries and Germany can travel a similar distance. The pool is cost free, easy to book and is a good size for rugby.

Although a few top women managed to play sporadically in the Euroleague on mixed teams, there was no dedicated competition for all-women teams. The new league will feature women’s teams beginning with the second round. At this point the likely participants will be from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.

“For this there is so far only the opinion that all the interested teams are extended national teams,” explained Kati Vehlow, the German women’s national coach.

Even though Germany still has a functioning women’s league, Vehlow did not consider them ready for the same pure club format as the men.

“At the club level, we probably won’t get it done,” she said, “In Germany, at least, that is the situation.”

The Euroleague was very expensive for the players and their clubs. The new league has not fixed the cost of participation yet.

“Cost is still a question to be solved,” said Kjeldgaard, “Surely less than the Euroleague (with less tech and tech support). We have accepted to get going and split actual costs afterwards.”

The new league’s underwater television production will be handled by the Gotland diving club Bottenskraparna. The primary camera operator and chief producer is Hanse Sandblom. 

“The first round will be a light version and just a test to see what we can do to improve the quality in the future,” said Sandblom. “It will be cool to what we can make of it. It will be fun to see what we can achieve, hopefully the teams take it as seriously as the Euroleague in terms of quality of players and the matches.”

The organizers invited the Turkish club Ege University to join the new league, but they declined.

“We didn’t join the new league because three rounds is very difficult economically for us,” said Euroleague veteran Hakan Toğar, adding that his club still planned to play in Champions Cup in Berlin.

Betta, Russia’s top club, will not take part. According to Victor Krylov, Betta received no invitation. Krylov and other Russian players have long participated in Finnish league play as foreign free agents. Finnish domestic league rules set a cap on the number of foreign player per club. Now, however, Russian have difficulties visiting Finland to play sports. One solution may be to travel to Turkey to play, revealed Krylov.

Ekin Koç, another Turkish Euroleague veteran, confirmed that there had been discussions.

Fans can tune into the new league’s YouTube broadcast here on Saturday and here on Sunday.

Uncertainty surrounds 2023 Montreal World Championship pool conditions.

Olympic standard  pools are not the favorite venue of every underwater rugby player. Those who prefer to bang in the compact pressure cooker of a small playing field are perhaps the majority and yet there are those who flourish in a large pool.

The official CMAS rules of underwater rugby allow for a range of swimming pool width, length and depth. Montreal, host to the upcoming 2023 World Championships, will likely utilize the diving pool of the Piscine du complexe sportif Claude-Robillard.

The pool is 20 meters long and 5 meters deep. However, there are rumors that the pool could be shortened through the construction of a temporary wall. This solution, however imperfect, has precedent from the last World Championships in Graz.

I know there has been talk about getting a wall, but the cost would increase for each team.. For all players’ sake, I hope we are able to get a wall.

—Isabelle Bernard, Canadian National Team veteran

Since the announcement of Montreal’s selection in August last year, CMAS posted the competition’s date and logo on the official events calendar. However, with less than a year remaining before Montreal 2023, players and coaches do not have final word on the temporary wall solution. Many now anticipate the full 20 meters.

Linda Karlsson, a Swedish national team player who did not compete at the European Championships this summer, is not upset about the extra meters of water.

“I look forward to playing in a large deep pool, one gains a completely different freedom of action in a positive sense,” she said. “I am absolutely going to take back my goalkeeper position on the national team after having been busy with work.” 

For David Tron, who captained Luxembourg when it made its debut in CMAS competition in Graz, pool size creates unknowns. He has only rarely played in a 5m deep pool and never one longer than 15m to 16m. He recognizes that this is his personal experience but he believes that the majority of players seldom have an opportunity to play in large pools.

“I can also imagine that this will favor fast swimming teams over more physical ones,” he suggested, “And more generally strong teams over weaker teams.”

He commented that it is undesirable to play the sport’s most important tournament under conditions that are unfamiliar to a significant percentage of teams.

“That being said: if the official rules allow the dimensions concerned for an official match, it seems legitimate to me that even a world championship can be organized there.”

As a team leader Tron has to consider more than his personal preference.

“… for a country with such a small pool of players as ours, many factors come into play: high transport costs, the Covid-19 pandemic that made recruitment difficult, dates that are not necessarily ideal for us… etc. But I have to admit that the size of the pool is also one of the points that is discussed and that makes many players “worried”.”

The size of the pool, however, is not the sole determinant in his opinion, but one negative factor among others.

“For a big country it is not a real problem to replace some players–and I cannot really imagine that players would refuse a national team spot they worked hard for because they don’t like the pool?–for a small country like ours it is.”

Austria, a more established rugby nation, illustrates his point. In the opinion of Thomas Schenkeli, a national team veteran, the Montreal pool will not dampen his or his teammates’ competitive spirit. 

“Nobody in Austria will give up his spot [on the national team] because of a big pool. We would prefer a smaller pool but the best team will still win,” he said.

“I know that Scandinavians like more fighting and less swimming. But isn’t it fairer if it is sometimes a bigger and sometimes a smaller pool? Ski races are also not always happening on the same track. If you are the best, you can still prevail.”

Oscar de la Guerra, a player in Montreal, competed in Graz and hopes to represent Canada again next year. He has tried out the venue:

“The pool is big, it is true… personally the depth is ok for me, [it] is a little longer than usual but is a matter of adapting your cycles of apnea to it and coordinating the strategy with your partners in the water and out of it.”

De la Guerra believes the top teams will cope relatively easily. He outlined a number of common sense adjustments to strategy dictated by a large pool, adding that these would be most effective if all the players on a team were in good enough physical condition to execute them.

For example, he sees challenges for the weaker nations keeping three or 4 players below on offense for long periods of time. His expectation is that the number of outlet pass options will diminish for those teams with worse conditioning.

Asked what the big pool meant for him personally, de la Guerrra responded:

“Well I think it does not change the fact that to become a good underwater rugby player you need good physical condition, strength, efficient underwater swimming technique and speed. If you have that, no matter the pool you play in, you’ll be able to have a good performance and contribute as the players on the elite teams do.”

Canada has held two clinics at the pool in Montreal to acquaint players with the venue. One was national team veteran Isabelle Bernard, whose home club in Timmins plays in 3.8m deep versus Montreal’s 5.0m.

“This is a huge difference compared to the pool I practice in my hometown. The depth for me personally isn’t really problematic; you adapt easily and it gives more room to play. However the length—it’s exhausting to swim across to the opponents net… it’ll be important to try and avoid swimming back and forth and to focus on playing near the nets (whether it’s defending or attacking).”

Players who have a background in competitive swimming gain an obvious edge in a pool like Montreal’s. The coach of Denmark, Michael Kragh, knows that he can call up stronger swimmers like Sigurd Dideriksen, a former elite competitive swimmer who plays goalkeeper. Dideriksen did not play for Denmark at the European Championships.

“We have a very strong team and we have 8-10 good players for each position, including mine,” says Dideriksen, “all the [Danish] goalkeepers showed super high quality at the EC.”

He agrees that the Montreal pool improves his chances of making the team next year.

“Yes, the different elements with the long and deep pool is indeed very good for a player like me, because my particular strengths are speed and endurance.”

Dideriksen had heard that a wall might be built.

“I’ve heard the rumors, but don’t know much about it,” he says. “I think it would be good to find out for sure, so that we can plan our training for the World Championships in good advance.”

The Danish national team already emphasizes swimming fitness but Dideriksen himself plans to add one extra swim workout per week if Montreal turns out to be 20m long.

Pool size preference depends partially on what pools have been available during rugby’s formative period. In Sweden, for example, small 25m pools with a deep end for platform and springboard diving were common. Increasingly, deep ends do not find support in the planning stage of new pool projects. Sometimes deep ends are in very wide pools that favor FINA events. However, in Australia, where the per capital ownership of pools is the highest in the world, large pools are relatively common.

Angus Lamin, an Australian national team player, said: “I don’t mind bigger pools over smaller pools… we’ve not really been phased by the size of a pool at a competition.”

According to Lamin, most Australian clubs have access to a 5m deep pool, 15m or longer. He personally plans to concentrate on his cardio more than strength.

In fact, he noted that prior to Covid, Australia’s national championships took place in pools the same length and width as the pool in Montreal as it is.

The length and depth create questions for the officials. Kai Throndsen, an experienced referee speaking unofficially, said: “Rumor says wall. I have not see any plan for pool.”

He added that he personally did not mind the “extra” swimming. However, he observed that the water referees in a deep pool would certainly have to wear scuba tanks in the eventuality they had to lift an injured player from the bottom.

Not a single player interviewed for this article had any formal objection to the Montreal pool size.

Linda Karlsson said the pool size was not her primary concern: “What makes me nervous is not knowing where the final cost for each player is going to fall in financial terms. To represent one’s country at a world championship, one shouldn’t have to pay oneself. Our country should pay for us, that’s what I think.”

Clarification: The Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard was built for the 1976 Summer Olympics. It played host to the handball and water polo competitions as well as being the training centre for athletics, swimming and field hockey during the games. (Source: Wikipedia)

Otto Skåre Kverndokk joins mother and uncle among the international elite.

This summer at the European Championships in Stavanger, a new yet familiar name kept popping up—Skåre. When the Norwegian men scored it was sometimes Marius Skåre, a  veteran national team player, but more often it was his nephew, 22-year-old Otto Skåre Kverndokk.

The young goalkeeper from Ålesund ended up as his nation’s top scorer. His uncle had a respectable 4 goals in total while he had 14. This placed him number two in the overall goal scoring table, tying him with Germany’s Jochen Schottmüller. Only Schottmüller’s countryman Lukas Tadda, who finished with 17 points, had more.

Kverndokk stands 1.83m and weighs just 80kg. Despite lacking body mass and arm length, Kverndokk has become one of Norway’s top offensive threats. He arrived even as his uncle and mother still compete for Norway.

Kverndokk’s mother loves the game so much that even now, verging on 30 years of international play, she intends to fight for her place on the squad going to the World Championships in Montreal next year. It is possible that the three of them will make the journey together.

Kvernkokk’s family connection to the sport is so strong that one might wonder if he was steered into underwater rugby at an early age rather than choosing to play.

“Neither mum nor uncle pushed for me to start playing rugby,” explained Kverndokk, whose younger sister tried the sport but did not continue, Kverndokk had other athletic interests. He ran middle distances in track and played football before finally prioritizing rugby.

“But I probably would never have heard of the sport had it not been for them,” he observed.

As a small boy he sometimes accompanied his mother to her practices. He swam in the shallows, at times observing the drills and scrimaging. Her club, Ålesund, had no junior training program at the time. He first tried playing around the age of 12. A couple of years later the club established a junior program. It was then that began to play regularly with other youngsters. He then gave up football.

Initially he enjoyed rugby a great deal. However, there came a time that he did not look forward to going to the pool. He remembered:

“I have always been quite a bit smaller than the others. There were several times I didn’t want to go to training because I was tired of getting beaten up in the water.”

This was especially so during the transition from junior to senior training.

Kverndokk felt he was just half the size of the largest men: “It helped to have a mother who motivated me and went along with me to practice.”

“If there were days when I wasn’t quite motivated to go, it helped to think that I had an uncle or mother standing on the edge waiting anyway.”

—Otto Skåre Kverndokk
Ålesund and National team player

He is uncertain just how old he was when he played in his first senior domestic league match but guesses that he was 15 at the time. He joined the U21 national team at age 16. He then weighed around 50kg; his height was about 1,70m. His first competition was the 2016 Open European Championship in Sandefjord.

Norway lost its bronze final against Colombia 8-0 but Kverndokk for hungry for more high level matches.

“For me, it was fun to join the team,” he recalled.

Up until that point he had always played forward, but the U21 coach Marius Bunæs switched him to goalkeeper.

“At that time we had 4 better forwards, so he would have been given less playtime,” remembered Bunæs. “But the most important thing was his reliability: we knew that he would be at his place on the basket until his partner came to switch and that he would return quickly to the bottom to exchange.”

Kverndokk’s positional partner was a clubmate, Vegard Brandal Hansen. To transform Kverndokk into a goalkeeper Bunæs knew that he could count on the uncle to work with the two boys.

“Marius is the best goalie coach in Norway,” said Bunæs, “So Otto and Vegard quickly synched with the rest of the national squad.”

Bunæs added that he was not entirely surprised that his former player has now become an offensive threat at the senior level:

“Goalies can score a lot of goals. Most of them rushing in in counter attacks or entering an attack from the safety position [lying back on offense].

Although two of Kverndokk’s junior teammates in Ålesund, Vegard Brandal Hansen, 25, and André Kalvø, 23, continue to play, most of the others dropped out of the sport. One reason for the attrition, according to Kverndokk, is the need to balance school and work.

At the age 18, he himself went to sea as a crewman on a fishing vessel. Typically, this meant 34 days at a stretch in either North Sea or Barents (around Bjørnøya and Svalbard). For the following three years he could only play rugby during his time off, every other month. In 2021, he enrolled in a two-year deck officer program at the local maritime school, allowing him to attend practice regularly again. This was enough to get him on to the national team for the Nordic Champsionships in 2021.

“After the Nordic Championships I was disappointed because I was unable to take advantage of the opportunities when I got the ball around the goal. After that, I have aimed to get better around the bucket and become a faster and more explosive player.”

Kverndokk was with the right club to improve. Ålesund, whose roster now boasts Iver Bjørnerem, are the current national champions.

“The people I play with are good at moving the ball around when we are in attack,” he said.

His uncle also helped him to do a lot of scoring technique drills. In Stavanger it all came together for Kverndokk, who said:

“I was able to be in the right place at the right time and manage to take advantage of the opportunities I was given. I have focused a lot on how I receive the ball and positioning the ball around the goal and when I make the hit.”

Kverndokk’s success in Stavanger should, barring injury, secure him a spot on the national team headed to the World Championships in Montreal next summer. So it is possible that he will play on the same squad with his uncle again, while his mother is on the women’s team.

Interestingly, Cecilie Skåre, who quit competitive swimming at age 16, started playing rugby when she was studying in Oslo at the age of 21. The person who convinced her to try the sport was none other than Øyvind Nyhus, the current Norwegian men’s national coach.

Nyhus, who has had a huge impact on the overall development of rugby strategy, has coached both mother and son. He said that the two share similarities on many levels:

“Their instinct and ability to read the game is extremely good. Tactically they are both smart players. Cecilie has extremely good playmaking skills while Otto is excellent at driving the ball out from the defensive end.”

Nyhus expects Kverndokk to be an important player in the big pool in Montreal next summer, although he, like his mother, lacks the weight and strength typical of many elite Norwegian players.

“He needs more experience to deal with players from Colombia, Germany and Denmark because of the way they hold the ball so tightly to the body,” observed Nyhus, “So he will need to put in a lot of hours in the gym next year.”

Kverndokk said that he is considering taking a year off from the sea to focus on rugby. 

“I haven’t decided anything yet,” he said.

At the European Championships in Stavanger, Ilona Häsänen had to go straight from shooting a penalty to defending one in Finland’s final match.

Finland standout goalkeeper, 31-year-old Ilona Häsänen, played a great match against Sweden in the Bronze medal final. However, in a climactic penalty shoot-out a coaching oversight in combination with bad luck in the coin toss may have cost Finland a medal at the European Championships.

Twice Häsänen kept Sweden from scoring penalty shots. The Swedes could have gone ahead 1-0 in the first half after a shoulder in the basket call. But Häsänen defended by staying down the entire 45 seconds to prevent Therese Blennert from cashing in.

And then in sudden death overtime she did it yet again. With less than 5 minutes remaining in the extra period, Sweden’s Lina Cavalin drew a wedging call. Ann-Sofi Krakau, one of the game’s all time greats, threw a penalty against Häsänen. When the shot clock ran out Krakau lay breathing on the surface while the Finn gazed up at her from the basket below.

Since I know now I can be there the whole 45 seconds, I then just try to stop the attacker and not the ball if you know what I mean. Attacking the ball it’s more risky.

—Ilona Häsänen, goalkeeper Finland

After that, neither of the two teams managed a decisive attack in the waning minutes of sudden death. And so they found themselves in the first penalty shootout of the Championships. It was also the first time in the history of CMAS rugby competitions that a new rule applied.

In the past, all players on a team had to shoot once before they could repeat. Now both teams had to supply lists of both defenders and attackers in ranked order. Although teams could make up such lists in advance of the tournament, due to injuries, fatigue and form the actual list had to be adjusted, finalized and submitted to the officials during the regulation 5-minute break between the end of play and the beginning of the shoot-out.

Since the new rule had never been in effect before, it was quickly apparent that neither the Finnish coaches nor the referees had the list management under control. 

The regulation 5-minute break lasted well over 10 minutes, as the teams and referees struggled to get the four lists in. This delay gave all the defenders extra time to deep breathe if their nerves allowed it. This distortion did not, though, favor one team over the other.

Penalty shoot outs start with a best of three series. If one team scores in its first two attempts and the opponent fails to score on either of its first two throws, there is no need for the third attempt: the match ends after two rounds. This gives coaches a strong incentive to put their strongest shooters and defenders in the one and two spots in both lists. Not surprizingly these lists can overlap.

Sweden won the coin toss and elected to throw first.

The shot of Therese Blennert bounced off the rim into the grasp of Jenny Frondelius, who swam up, denying the Swede much chance to recover the ball. 

Häsänen took Finland’s first throw. She forced the defender, Krakau, up on the basket and after attacking head side, she pivoted to the Swede’s back, pried open a gap and jammed the ball in.

When Finland prepared for round two, the referees informed Finland that it was Häsänen, who had just shot, scheduled to defend. Clearly unprepared, she hopped straight back in the water to face Wilma Tien. Guarding the goal immediately after shooting caused obvious discomfort. The Finn put up a credible fight but could not stop the ball going in.

Livestream commentator Mattis Wahlby declared that the Finnish coach had “wasted” his top penalty defender in this mixup. Häsänen herself recalled:

“I was very disappointed with the whole situation since I had prepared myself during the break to first attack and [then to be the] third to defend. So it was very sad that I had to defend right after scoring.”

If the coin flip had gone the other way, she would have had a critical minute to reset, as her teammate shot.

Finland, which had seemed to be in control, was suddenly uncertain. Even though three Swedish defenders ended up in the penalty box—Blennert for kicking, Erika Lindström for holding the basket and Tien for leaving the vicinity of the goal—Finland was still unable to regain momentum.

Kajsa Lilja put Sweden up by one. Irina Viippola of Finland matched her to tie the game again. However, when Elin Strand gave Sweden a one point lead, all the pressure was on Finland’s Katja Lind. She had to score against Elin Hoas. The referee called Lind for a head attack. 

The dramatic confusion had sunk in so deeply that the deck referee almost sent Hoas into the penalty box, although the game was actually over. Indeed, most of the players did not seem to comprehend what had happened. The referees also seemed to be a bit shell shocked at the end.

The game was a classic but the new rule’s introduction was not entirely smooth.

Implications of new rule require study

The rule requiring the entire team to defend was proposed by Sweden and adopted at the last CMAS rugby rules meeting. It means that players unaccustomed to defending will come under pressure. The intent is to involve more players in the outcome.

“For some teams it can be an advantage, if they don’t have a super keeper,” commented Denmark’s Lars Greve.

A super keeper would be someone like Greve. In the semifinal against Norway, Greve pulled a Häsänen; incredibly he saved penalty throws by both Iver Bjørnerem and Jørgen Ulvestad.

Now in the event of a penalty shootout, the penalty defenders like Greve or Häsänen can only defend once per 12 throws.

“I don’t know the intention of the rule, but which other sports do this?” he questioned.

Perhaps Denmark or some other nation will propose to strike down the rule next year when the rules meeting takes place in Montreal. Perhaps the rule will be a success. There have not been enough competitions to know yet, commented one referee.

After the chaos of the Finland versus Sweden game, the referees provided more instructions to the teams that contested the three final matches that determined the men’s Bronze and the men and women’s Gold finals.

Each team was instructed to keep a copy of their list so that they would know which player was next in line. Secondly, and this was a point not yet covered in the text of the new rule, teams were informed that a defender sent to the penalty box would only reenter the list at the very bottom.

This is in contrast to a shooter whose attempt is spoiled by a foul on the part of the opposing team. A shooter can be inserted back into the throwing line up at any point the player and or his team’s coach decide he (or she) is ready.

Having two lists can produce unexpected consequences. Jukka Levonen and Kaj Björk, the Finnish women’s team coaches, perhaps simply did not calculate that losing the coin toss could deprive Häsänen of a critical one minute or so break between shooting and defending.

In fact, given that players, including shooters, can be sent to the time penalty box, the fixed lists minus players who committed fouls that drew time penalties have the potential to create unforseen situations that compel players to go two in a row.

Penalty shoot-outs cause dissatisfaction because they may not reflect the fact that one team dominated and had more scoring opportunities. But adding more sudden death overtime is practically impossible.

Will the new rule make the results fairer?

It is worth noting that although Greve contributed so much Denmark making it to the final and preventing Germany from scoring, he was visibly worn by the shoot-out. He did not score or save.

At that point with all the lists, a coach can hardly spontaneously send in another player who might be fresher.

Are penalty shoot-outs a coach’s nightmare or a tactical opportunity?

Update:

Lukas Tadda, who captained Germany to European Gold in Stavanger, successfully adapted to the new penalty shoot-out rule in the final against Denmark.

Tadda believes that Germany has several good defenders so it may actually enjoy an advantage under the new rule. Still, he opposes it, remarking:

“The goalkeeper is a special person in every sport. So, training to hold a penalty is a special job. Sone people train specifically for this.

“It’s very disappointing for them, that they can only defend one time. But I understand that this argument is maybe the exact reason for the implementation of this new rule.”

Loyal players gather round misanthropic coach for historic victory.

At the Swedish National Championships in Borlänge this year, Uddevalla underwater rugby club—also known as Team Super Fast Pat—stood at the top of the podium for the first time ever. Uddevalla overcame Polisen in group play and went on to beat Triton 1-0 in the final. Instead of Malmö repeating yet again, Uddevalla booked its ticket to Champions Cup.

The coach who orchestrated this triumph, Patrick Nilsson ”Misanthrope” Sonett, does not take social media too seriously. On his Facebook profile, he declares himself a hater of humanity, employed “as a slave at Sweden Slavery Incorporated”. Sonett began poking fun at social media the moment he joined the platform.

Still, there is one place online that he does not joke—the club’s internal Facebook group. There he consistently reminds members to sign up for the approaching week’s underwater rugby practices. Sonett takes his sport seriously.

People should do what they are good at, not fit into a mold or strategy that holds them back.
—Patrick Sonett

Uddevalla, around one hour’s drive north of Gothenburg, has a population of around 36,000. During the 80s and 90s when Sweden was the world’s top underwater rugby nation in the men’s game, towns like Uddevalla contributed to vibrant regional leagues across the country. However, over the last two decades, Swedish diving and rugby clubs have dried up and crumbled away. Sonett’s club was no exception.

In 2012, Uddevalla played in the national championship for the first time and then promptly disbanded. However, several players moved on to other clubs. One of these, Esurf, took third place in the national championships in 2016 and 2017. In 2020, the Uddevalla old-timers—Johan Aronsson, Emanuel Johansson, Emil Haugen, Niklas Waldäng, Henrik Waldäng and Sonett—pulled themselves together and revived the club.

The reborn Uddevalla took third place at the national championships that year. In 2021, it climbed up to second. And this year, first. So, from 8 years of non-existence, Uddevalla suddenly went on a three-year rampage, from bronze to silver to gold. To do this it overcame Stockholm’s Polisen and Malmö Triton, the two established big city clubs that had ruled the sport’s top tier in Sweden in the modern era.

How the historical final went down

The Swedish National Championships are a two day affair. Over a weekend, 4 teams play a round robin. On Saturday, Uddevalla lost to Malmö 2-4 but beat Polisen 4-0. Since Triton defeated Polisen, Uddevalla placed second overall and went through to Sunday’s final on day two. 

In the deciding game, Sonett and his teammates had two strategic points of focus. On defense, they forechecked aggressively, taking care to keep the ball out of the hands of Malmö’s Andreas Bergenholtz and Linus Norén, Triton’s two greatest offensive threats, as much as possible.

On offense, they scrummed on the surface while pushing forward. In the final, one can often see Uddevalla take the ball as far forward as possible beneath the water and then drag the defenders up to the top. Think of it as a Scandinavian variation on the Betta style.

An expert analyst (who wished to remain anonymous) described Uddevalla in the final:

“They adapted their tactics to negate a free flowing game. You can see Emanuel [Johansson] guarding the ball a lot and Super Fast Pat just waiting for the refs to look away enough so he could dive to the basket and try to push the goalie off. The signal would be when someone strong enough, often Bulten [Niklas Waldäng], could mount an attack on the Triton basket.

“But they played very well defensively in the final too, so that’s probably the main reason they won. The goal they got was classic attacking play, enough bodies put forward and [it] created the advantage and space to leave Erik Sörstadius free with the goalie’s back.”

Sonett himself summarized succinctly: “We managed to hold them to zero and jam in a single goal.”

Uddevalla in the context of Swedish rugby history

As rugby expert Benjamin Westerfjell put it, Swedish rugby once enjoyed a “golden age”. That was back in the 80s and 90s. Since then the sport has faded. At the World Championships on the men’s side Sweden has gone steadily downward:

• World Championships (men)
• Fredericia 2003 Gold
• Bari 2007 Silver
• Helsinki 2011 Bronze
• Cali 2015 4th place
• Graz 2019 5th place

This pattern coincides with the contraction of the sport at the club level. Many of the clubs that medalled in the national championships through the years—Växjö, Barracuda, Polar, Diver Sven’s Divers Diving Club, Näcken, Sydkusten, Telge Play Boys—have long vanished from domestic league play. The level of competition has fallen as a result.

The club die-off exacerbated the orphaned player dilemma, those whose clubs could no longer field a 12-man squad. The solution to rescue the orphans has been to alter the rules for club affiliation. Membership has become a loose concept.

The fourth team at the 2022 Championships, Stil-Björnarna, a pickup team of juniors and young adults seeking experience, surrendered 115 goals without scoring a single point in 4 games. One can say that the competition was really between three teams, not four clubs.

Polisen and Triton, actual organic club teams, had had Euroleague competition to keep themselves sharp in recent years. Moreover, the pair had history on their side. Although Polisen lost 6 finals in a row against Triton between 2009 and 2014, it went on to win 4 national titles, including last year’s. As for Triton, well, it stands out as one of the greatest clubs in the history of the sport. This year it was seeking its 19th national title. But neither could break the gritty defense of Uddevalla.

Sonett, a 42-year-old former submission grappling and MMA fighter, has the gift of being able to inspire. Besides holding together a core of veterans, he coached several juniors on to the elite track. Five current national team players and one reservist—Victor Lundin, Emanuel Johansson, Ivo Lundin-Hatje, Anton Sagström, Elin Strand and Sophia Axelsson—all spent time in the school of Super Fast Pat.

Appeal of the misanthrope

“He has a rather dark sense of humor but if one understands him, one realizes that really he is a very kind person who lives and breathes underwater rugby,” said Elin Strand, a forward on the Swedish national team.

Strand attended a marine biology gymnasium 50 minutes drive from Uddevalla. There a group of teenagers took up underwater rugby on their own in a shallow pool without any coach. When Sonett learned about them he invited them to his club practices in 2014. Several went directly on to the Swedish junior national team, although they had not played long. Strand remarked:

“Pat was in reality my first real coach and I regret that we only had one year with Pat’s club before I graduated, for it was during that time that I learned to play underwater rugby.”

Super Fast Pat fast? Strand, a former competitive swimmer, laughed:

“He prefers smaller pools, where one can play more and swim less.”

So, Sonett is neither an aquatic Flash Gordon nor a hater of humanity. He prefers to dictate the game’s tempo around a very physical playing style.

Sonett, whose father played underwater rugby with a club called Hydro, grew up with the sport. By his own account in his early 20s he began to take rugby seriously.

His approach to teaching rugby, perhaps influenced by his martial arts experience, rests on the systematic breakdown of skills.

“He had a different focus for every practice: ways to score goals, how to do a swimout, how one should think as a forward defending and attacking,” recalled Stand.

Anton Sagström, a Swedish national team player who also had Sonett as his first coach, usually plays in the national championships with his home club Linköping. However, the 9-time national champion club did not participate in the elite league this year, so Sagström joined Uddevalla.

He praised Sonett’s approach:

“He is forthright and direct; he gives you the feedback you need without making it complicated. He explains in a way that you can comprehend. Above all he is a very good player.”

In the national championships this year Sonett did not introduce new things, according to Sagstöm:

“We did the things we knew worked, which is a good recipe to win matches. The older Uddevalla players motivate because they always do their job with every exchange and so as a team mate, you have to do yours. That’s all there is to it.”

Uddevalla´s loss to Polisen in last year’s final galvanized the club to train even harder. Victor Lundin and Erik Sörstadius could not play with their home club (Felix) so both switched to Uddevalla. Lundin joked about the club’s beloved coach.

“Pat has motivated me by always looking very bitter, so I felt that something that could put a smile on his lips would be gold in worth. When we had finally beaten Triton, his otherwise gloomy face broke into a smile that lasted at least 5 minutes. Clearly it was worth the effort.”

Sonett´s influence on Swedish rugby resonates through the players he schooled. Lundin and Sörstadius recently took on the responsibility of coaching the Swedish U21 men’s team.

“We’ll do it for the Gold and Blue, Swedish rugby and the coaches who inspired us, like Super Fast Pat,” he said.

Märta Martin-Åkesson was a last minute addition to the Swedish women’s national team.

They found an old U21 spaghetti strap swimsuit for her at the last training camp in Oxelösund. 

Players on national team reserve lists usually do not go to championships. And if they do get promoted, it is uncertain how much playing time they can look forward to. When Märta Martin-Åkesson moved up to the national team travel squad headed to Helsinki at the end of February, the coaches did not actually plan for her to see action at the 23d meeting of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

As it turned out, with someone else’s name on the back of her suit, she delivered the key assist to break a 0-0 tie in the bronze final against Denmark. Her coaches now call her a “real trooper”.

Martin-Åkesson, who plays forward, came to the sport of rugby late in life. A Stockholmer who only started playing rugby 4 years ago at the age of 26, Martin-Åkesson would have had zero chance of wearing the national colors of Germany, Norway or Colombia. In Sweden, however, the pool of talent has been drying out for many years. The 14th and 15th spots on the squad lacked clear candidates.

At first, coaches Nina Berggren and Wilma Tien simply promoted Märta Martin-Åkesson to the reserve list because she was making rapid progress. It was a mark of distinction for what she was doing, rather than the player she was.

During her childhood in Kalmar, Martin-Åkesson had had some passing exposure to underwater rugby. In the autumn of 2017, she and a friend decided to try new things. Nemo, a club in Stockholm within cycling distance of her home, invited her to give rugby a go. It took a year before she bought her own equipment and attended practice regularly. Most of the Nemo players were men, so she had to cope with a disparity in experience, strength and aggression.

She chose the position of forward. She benefited from a very low key but involved coach named Anders Hansson. She also received help from Daniel de Soto, a forward who once played a round of the Euroleague for Polisen. Still the difficulties would have stopped most.

She had never played a team sport before. The shot put style of passing the ball underwater had to be learned from scratch. She could not accelerate rapidly, so she had to endure many scrums. Scrimmaging meant she had to suffer the humiliation of having the ball pried away time and again. She did not give up and gradually she internalized defensive tactics to protect the ball. 

Unfortunately, the opportunities for women to play against women are limited in Sweden today. There is not a single club that can come close to fielding 15 women players from a single town or city. The women’s domestic league is patched up business. The three or 4 teams are constellations that to some degree compete for players. However, Martin-Åkesson got on to a team from Stockholm and other nearby cities. Although the league was badly disturbed by Covid, it gave her an occasional chance to test her abilities in an all women competitive environment.

“I felt it was so constructive that I decided to go to everything [offered to women] just to learn as much as possible,” she recalled.

This included national team training camps, some of which are open.

“I didn’t think that I would be selected for the national team, but just that I should go to everything that I could go to. It’s cool to try and improve at stuff.”

One benefit of the camps was the eye of Jens Westerlin, a men’s national team player who helped out with the coaching. At one of the camps, he noticed the uncertain, lanky girl and asked who she was.

“Jens said that for someone who did not understand the game very well, she was pretty good,” recalled Tien.

What especially impressed him was her receptiveness to instruction.

“Jens said that she did everything that he told her to,” noted the coach.

Westerlin did not dish out praise lightly, so Tien and Berggren paid a bit more attention to the unknown Martin-Åkesson, who had used the pandemic period to hit the gym and increase her strength.

The women’s national team experienced a setback. The regular coaches Ulf “Uffe” Ridell and Johan Fernlund suddenly resigned just a few months before the competition. Kajsa Lindman, the head of the national rugby committee, asked Tien and Berggren, both aged 26, to temporarily fill in until new coaching staff could be found. They had previously coached the junior women together. Still, the responsibility stressed them, not least because both studied full time.

Furthermore, they confronted the psychological difficulty of selecting a team that might have included their old teammates, the veterans with whom they had emotionally bonded when they had been the youngest on the team.

To reduce the administrative duties of coaching they asked the team members for volunteers to take care of pool booking and other time consuming but essential details. Up stepped Martin-Åkesson.  She proved herself both capable and efficient. Suddenly, not only did they notice her out of the water, they depended on her.

No one anticipated the appearance of Martin-Åkesson on the reserve list. She herself said:

“I was really happy, I never expected it. I was just so glad that my name even came up in the situation.”

Rugby wise they did not deem her ready for international competition, but the team needed someone on land to assist. So, when Anna Alfredsson, another player was injured or contracted Covid, they decided to promote Martin-Åkesson to the 14th spot on the team, with the understanding that she probably would not play. She would make the trip to Finland to fill water bottles and seep in the atmosphere.

She still needed a national team swimsuit even if it were to remain dry. It was too late to order a new one for her. In fact, Levina Johanson, a goalkeeper from Umeå, brought an IKEA bag of leftover swimsuits from storage. Some 6 players needed to borrow blue and gold spaghetti strap suits to unify the team look. This team was an experimental constellation that might not exist come the European Championship in June. By that time a new head coach might well select a different squad.

The extra suits had the names and numbers of players from the CMAS U21 World Championships that took place in 2018. The personalized touch was inspired by the Euroleague. The suits in the IKEA bag existed because of a mix-up in the order. Players who wanted high back models with wide shoulder straps ended up with spaghetti straps. Having the wrong suits caused chaos among the teenage women players. The head of Swedish rugby, Kajsa Lindman, straightened out the mess in time for Oberhausen by getting new ones. The federation found itself stuck with a batch of rejected suits.

They should have gone to the federation’s office but ended up in Tien’s mother’s storage room and then followed Tien to Umeå and sat in a closet at the pool.

“I tried to sell them to new players, but beginners never wanted to buy a suit with Sweden and someone else’s last name,” explained Tien, who wished the bag and all the memories it evoked would disappear.

Then suddenly, 4 years later, the suits were needed for the Nordic Championships. The botched order became a convenient, cost free solution. Not coincidentally, the U21 players from Oberhausen became a major presence on the team for the first time. There were 5 of them: Agnes Hoas, Elin Strand, Sofie Öberg, Estelle Persson and Levina Johanson. Tien and Berggren found themselves coaching these players a second time.

To say that Tien and Berggren were reaping the reward of their previous efforts would be true but the truth is more complex and interesting. Martin-Åkesson’s arrival would not have been possible if more of the players from 2018 had continued to play and develop. At the time, the 2018 U21 team failed utterly, coming in dead last in Oberhausen, the first ever CMAS World Championship for juniors in the history of the sport.

Oberhausen set an important new benchmark for rugby as a whole. It delivered quality at the top. In the men’s final, Colombia’s Juan Jose Laverde smashed the ball through a nonexistent gap between the German goalkeeper’s head and shoulder to deliver the deciding goal in a tight 2-1 match. The German men, captained by Philip Kreißig, made for a world class opponent. Turkey beat Norway for the bronze, eliminating all the Nordic countries from the podium.

On the women’s side Turkey defeated Colombia 1-0, demonstrating that rugby could be popularized and coached to a high level in the space of a decade. Germany took bronze. The historically strong underwater rugby nations of Norway and Sweden, found themselves pushed down to the bottom of the table. Denmark and Finland did not even send teams. Observers had to ask themselves if there was any future without junior development?

The Czech Republic sent a mixed team of boys and girls. The others crushed them repeatedly. In group play the Czechs allowed 94 goals in the space of three games. They did not manage to score a single one in return. The other competitors cheered the Czechs, hoping that they would return to future events better prepared. Still, there was a general understanding that absurd disparities damaged rugby’s image.

Tien and Berggren took on the coaching assignment in part to prepare as many future players for the women’s senior national team as possible because they did not want to spend their careers playing for a nation that would never contend for medals. In essence, the two were trying to do what they could to reverse Sweden’s decline.

At Oberhausen the majority of Swedish junior women did not have the cardio for the 4-day competition. They started out strongly against Colombia in their first match, but their conditioning could not sustain their skills. The full length games soon rendered their muscles sluggish and heavy. They came in last, losing every game. They allowed 17 goals while scoring only one. Oberhausen gave the Swedish girls an experience but no triumph or glory.

To 2022 team Sweden ranks came more newcomers: Felicia Johnsson, Sara Nilsson and Elin Hoas, the older sister of  Agnes. In short, the team bet on a collection of inexperience, bad experience and youth. However, the green team in the old U21 suits still had three elite veterans: Theresa Blennert, 35, Ann-Sofi Krakau, 39, and Kajsa Lilja, 40. Did they approve of the changes by Tien and Berggren?

Part of constructing a team involves psychology.

“Märta and Felicia are two blank pages who take instructions fantastically well and they give the team energy,” explained Berggren, who feared running out of teammates.

And Sweden literally ran short of players in Helsinki when Öberg strained her shoulder and Johnson twisted her ankle. Suddenly only three defensive backs remained on Saturday. Small and medium crisis broke out. Öberg would have played, but worsening her shoulder would have been too costly in the long run. So, they had to tell Johanson to get her out of the water right before the second game.

To restore the fourth back, Tien switched down from forward and Martin-Åkesson was told to put on her suit and warm up. She had just 5 minutes to make the mental transition before the match against Finland. The rest of the team had already jumped in the water. The Swedes needed a victory over the Finns to advance to the final.

Only when Tien and Berggren looked for Martin-Åkesson to tell her to turn in the team list to the officials did they remember that she was now playing. On top of all this, Berggren’s suit had been missing and she had had to get another one out of the IKEA bag just before warm up.* Tien and Berggren later admitted that they do not understand how the great player coaches hold it all together.

The decision to put Martin-Åkesson into the lineup entailed risk, for as many know, the mistakes of a single weak player can cause a team to collapse. But it was now time to forget it all and put faith in the team as it was.

Martin-Åkesson believed in herself: “I didn’t have time to think about much. I thought it was great and I needed to do my damn best to contribute to the team and not screw up.”

By nature or education Martin-Åkesson is not the sort of person who suffers from competition anxiety.

“I was mainly nervous that I wouldn’t have time to get my suit and gear on, pee and get to the right place at the right time. Of course during the match I was on edge the whole time and my pulse was elevated along with the above normal increase in adrenaline.”

Finland kept the match 0-0 as needed. The Swedes were disappointed but the rookie forward held up, not allowing the Finns into score. Martin-Åkesson’s team would play for bronze in their final game.

The test of the rookies, a big portion of the team, depended on how the entire team accepted the strategic changes the coaches demanded. Simplified, Tien and Berggren wanted the backs and goalkeepers to take part in forechecking when on defense at their own basket instead of just exchanging. Did they consider this an innovation?

“Oh, not really! The aggressive back [in defensive strategy] was already incorporated by Johan and Uffe,” laughed Berggren.

“Stux [another former national team coach] tried,” added Tien.

The strategy had never been implemented due to a combination of factors, according to the two.

The strategy further called for Martin-Åkesson and the other forwards to resist the temptation to chase. They were to lurk and steal balls when the ball carriers were distracted.

On offensive, the two coaches wanted the whole team to contribute to attacks. No one should lie and watch Krakau and Blennert, the two most dangerous goal threats, try to score; they should get close to the action to help finish the opportunities.

In the Sunday bronze match against Denmark, whom Sweden squeaked by 1-0 on Saturday, the Danes proved stubborn again. In the second half after a strong attack by Denmark, the Swedes got the ball to the other side and then suddenly in a second wave Martin-Åkesson was on the bottom in exactly the right spot for a pass. And when she got it she pressed forward without hesitation. Elin Hoas screened out the back, allowing Tien to take a pass and drive the ball past the goalie.

“That was a well built up moment,” declared the livestream commentator.

Martin-Åkesson remembered the moment too:

“I had a Dane on me right away but I saw Wilma and Elin at full speed and so I thought that I had to pass while holding the Dane away from them. Then I saw the goal about the same time I surfaced and was so darn happy.”

After the weekend, Krakau posted her approval on social media:

“What a weekend with this team. Seldom have I played at the international level with a team with such great desire and such great courage to unsparingly dig its way through to the opponent’s basket.”

Looking forward to future competitions, she concluded that the future looked bright for Sweden since the women’s average age was just 26.

It is possible that there are a few former national team players who will now make a new effort to get back on the team. So, Martin-Åkesson is hardly assured of a spot in June at the European Championships in Stavanger. The Swedish Sport Diving Federation has yet to announce who will take over after Tien and Berggren, who were temporary replacements.

*Both Tien and Berggren keep their wet suits in Systembolaget (the Swedish state alcohol retail monoply) plastic bags. After the match they discovered that Berggren’s suit was in Tien’s pack.

Here is a YouTube link to Martin-Åkesson’s assist.

Lack of revenue hampering development of underwater rugby’s nascent professional league.

Chief Manager Anton Churzin is now considering raising capital through the sale of shares in a future company.

The Euroleague has the potential to grow. Competition for juniors and women are in planning. Expansion would, however, create additional financial demands on the already strained organization. The business model that has served for 6 seasons may no longer be adequate.

The Euroleague currently operates as a Russian domiciled non-profit organization, despite the league never having held a round in Russia. The costs of the competition have been covered almost entirely by the competing clubs. This has left the league starved for working capital. Churzin explained how the television production team, a hybrid business that lacks regular full time employees, could be transformed.

“Ten persons are working almost for free. We have very good professional team, but it will be very hard to save it, if we do not pay more for their work.”

The Euroleague anticipates an operating loss of at least euro 7,000 for the next two seasons. Without revenue from sponsors the league must charge the players more or risk bankruptcy.

The league has not yet explained how exactly how or where share sales might take place. The plan, covering the coming three years (2018-2021), proposes increasing the participation costs now to enhance the league’s value prior to an initial share offering.

“Opening to private investors will require considerable preparation,” Churzin said. “A share of future profits will of course belong to investors. So, I propose that initially the players and clubs invest so that they can benefit financially when the league monetizes.”

The notion that the league could become a company with a variety of shareholders is new. The original conception of the Euroleague was that quickly growing viewership would lead to commercial sponsors and a revenue stream from the sale of advertisements. Clubs would earn their own income. When founded, the league and clubs agreed to share any income from sale of television rights. However, no sales have occurred. In the 6 years of operation, only two significant sponsors have backed clubs (Betta and Vienna). The league itself has received sponsorship from Slomo, a video technology manufacturer that expects the league to begin paying for its mixing equipment.

Instagram

Currently the league has just over 4,000 followers on Instagram.

“We need to increase that by 70 percent each season so that we reach around 20,000 by the end of the 2019-2020 season,” said Churzin, adding that 10,000 followers is a key goal this season because that is point at which the platform permits live links. “When we reach 50,000 followers we can monetize of our Instagram account.”

According to Forbes, “an Instagram user with 100,000 followers can command $5,000 for a post made in partnership with a company or brand.”

The new business plan calls on each club to meet social media activation targets. Furthermore, the league will require all club managers to create a database in their home market so that the league can issue press releases to television, radio and newspapers.

The response of the league managers has been muted. Molde, the most successful club in the league’s history, arguably has the most to gain from the league’s stable growth. Jon Reidar Heggdal, Molde’s league manager, said: “I have no comment at this moment.”

The league’s other Norwegian club, Egersund, competed in a qualifying round last year and this year won a place in the 10-team regular season that meets three times. League Manager Håkon Emil Sæstad, called the development plan “ambitious and interesting”.

“I like what he aims to achive with the Euroleague,” said Sæstad.

Martin Schottmüller of Malsch said that his club was economically maxed out and could face difficulties next year.

“I do not approve of 10 clubs bearing the economic burden of make underwater more professional. We should take step forward to CMAS to get support and a good relationship [with the governing body] again. This is only way to be more professional.”

Schottmüller said that while Churzin’s vision of the future was important, pushing too hard could cause the league to collapse.

Niclas Onkelbach of Krefeld replied that the business plan would not affect his club since the German team had determined that this would be its last season in the league. He explained:

“Yes, the fees are a major point and we also had huge trouble getting people together this year. I don’t see it becoming any easier next year.”

He did not foresee the league finances drastically improving.

“You can’t make it professional by telling the players ‘be professional’,

—Niclas Onkelbach,

Manager, Krefeld

In his opinion for it to truly be professional it would have to make enough money to permit the athletes to train more, which would mean adjusting work and studies.

“Getting paid 100 euro per round isn’t something you can give as a reason for your studies taking two years longer than those of your peers.”

Janne Lind, the league manager for Urheilusukeltajat, a Finnish club that will make its debut at the October round in Helsinki, said that he discussed the business plan with key players in his club:

“The response has been mixed. We all want underwater rugby to develop and to get more media attention. However not all the people in our organization see it as the players’ responsibility to fund this development. Ideally the growth should happen organically, but there is real worry that without risk capital and crowdfunding, the progress made so far will slowly diminish.”

Urheilusukeltajat was critical of large and sudden budgetary changes.

“We highly appreciate the work Anton and the media team are doing because the Euroleague has made a huge difference in the presence of the sport. Nonetheless, the current level of expense is already a straining our team. It comes from our pockets directly.”

Lind, a business development analyst by profession, noted that none of his club’s members were professionally involved in PR and marketing.

“We are uneasy and unsure on how we could get and fund the additional costs with sponsors even if we agree that we should try this approach harder,” he added. “Additionally there is nothing in the proposed model that would allow teams to benefit if the league starts to make money.”

One incentive to raise capital and generate marketing activity would be for the participation fees to earn stock in the Euroleague as a limited company.

“Maybe teams would start to invest time and money on business development if they owned a stake it and if the league started to make money the dividends would be paid back to the participating teams,” Lind added.

There are signs that the Euroleague may have priced itself beyond the ability of clubs in less wealthy countries. Ege, which hosted a round in Izmir last season, has dropped out because of the economic difficulties, said head coach Tarkan Laleli.

Three players who have been with the league from the beginning: Thor Funk, Kristian Schäfer and Victor Krylov. Photo: Davrell Tien

Kristian Schäfer, a league veteran who has played for three top clubs (Flipper, Akkaren and Molde), concurs with Lind that opening the league to a broader owner base would be the best way to engage clubs and players.

“Basically I think the best way to move forward is if all clubs owned the league. Just as you see several banks own a organisation. That way could you also involve the clubs much more in terms of financial growth.”

“But it will only be a business if we organize ourselves like a business and act like a business, until then is it, I don’t know the word… something else, an event.”

Mikkel Rasmussen of Flipper praised the Euroleague:

“Clearly it has been great for our sport. Certainly, the lack of money has limited what we have been able to accomplish. We could offer an alternative to Champions Cup, a women’s league, a junior competition, etc. but we do not have the funding to act quickly and forcefully. I hope the league will find a way to bring in capital, but we will never flourish if everything depends on payments by the players. Also, personally, I do not see any serious investors putting money into anything domiciled in Russia. There is too little confidence in the legal system there.”

Among underwater rugby players there is a contingent of spearfishermen who have the skill to hop into the sea and come up with something to put on the dinner table.

Some post photos of their catches on social media, evidence that spearos are eating better than those of us dependent on the grocery store.

Line Urup, a 24-year-old Danish underwater rugby player, started as a gatherer. While still a child she snorkeled, collecting crabs and mussels with her bare hands. When she filled a small bucket she gave them to her parents to cook.

“It was kind of the treasure hunt feeling,” she explained.

Around the age of 11 years old her father gave her a speargun. She did not catch anything for a long time. To begin with the hunts only happened once or twice a year. Around the age of 16 she took her harpoon more seriously. Since then she has gained experience, pursuing a variety of prey under different conditions.

“I remember the first of every species I’ve caught,” remarked the now 24 year old Dane.

The transition to shooting fish took some time. The first sea trout came as a bit of a surprise.

“I didn’t expect to hit it, since it was a bit far away, but I took the shot anyway and struck it right in the eye; it was a cool experience,” she recalled.

Her most exciting catch ever was a unicorn fish on a trip to the Tuamotu Islands of French Polynesia. She was wary of prey that might be contaminated with ciguatera, toxins that reef fish sometimes accumulate. She knew, however, that unicorn fish were safe to eat. When she saw one she decided to pull the trigger, although it was not an especially impressive specimen. She was not, though, the only one who saw the fish.

“As soon as my spear hit the fish, 4 sharks came towards me and ripped the fish off my spear just next to me. So, I didn’t get my unicorn fish, but I had a very interesting close up meeting with 4 sharks.”

Spearfishing and rugby have played different roles in her life, Urup has never taken part in spearfishing as a competitive sport, although she started it earlier than the ball sport. She now hopes to match herself against other spearos.

“My plan is to attend my first spearfishing competition this year if corona allows it,” she said.

She will also seek a spot on the women’s national rugby team headed to the European Championships in Stavanger this summer.

Urup is not the only Danish rugby player who loves spearfishing.

The Siefert family

“It could be fish every evening for dinner, but the family only wants fish one or two days a week,” said William Siefert, Chairman of the Danish Spearfishing Committee.

Siefert’s son Oliver was Denmark’s top spearo in 2020, putting pressure on all the freezers the Sieferts have access to.

“Oliver won the Danish championship followed by William. Both are swollen, happy and exhausted after many hours in the cold water,” declared wife and mother Christine Siefert on Facebook. Fighting the current 20 meters below the surface, peering under the hull of a sunken ship in search of cod is what 50 percent of her family considers fun.

She knows the that sea is unforgiving to those who make mistakes while rugby in swimming pools poses a low risk as “extreme” sport go. She doesn’t complain for her family loves the outdoors. Even Silje Siefert, Oliver’s younger sister, goes spearfishing when the weather is nice.

“Silje only spearfishes with Oli and I a couple of times in the summer each year,” commented William Siefert. All three play rugby.

Oliver won a gold medal at the Nordic U21 Rugby Championships in 2017. Silje, a junior national team veteran, will try to win a spot on the women’s national team that will represent Denmark at the European Championships this summer.

Spearos need big freezers

One reason the Sieferts do not have to eat fish twice a day is because William Siefert is gamekeeper who is responsible for culling deer herds. Grandparents get both venison and fish when the family runs low on freezer space. Fish must be frozen to kill off seal worm, a parasite that can live survive briefly in humans. Salting is not certain to kill all the eggs and larvae, so the Sieferts do not employ traditional salt curing to preserve fish.

Spearfishing is a much larger sport than rugby. Oliver Siefert has become a sort of a spearo rock star.

“You can call Oliver a semi pro,” said his father, noting that there roughly 10 Danish spearos who at times get free wetsuits, fins and spearguns.

Prior to competitions Siefert can request that equipment makers help cover the cost of trips, which range between 5,000 DK and 10,000 DK (670 euro to 1,350 euro).

When the Danish national spearfishing team [which includes the two Sieferts] travel abroad to international competition, DSF (Dansk Sportsdykker Forbund/the Danish Sportdivers Federation) covers up to 50 percent of the expenses up to a maximum of 5,000 Danish kronor.

Copenhagen area spearfishing hosts competitions itself. The Latvian spearfishing equipment maker, Scorpena contributes around 1,000 euro and some gear to sponsor the Øresund Cup .

“We use the money to pay for the safety boats and other expenses,” said Siefert.

Spearfishing is a world sport

Singaporean Khee CH has many recipes for fresh fish.

“Grilling, steaming, frying, sashimi, when you have so much fish, you will try every way possible to cook it,” he laughed.

Khee began both spearfishing and rugby while studying naval architecture in Sydney between 2006 and 2010.

“I started spearfishing because I didn’t have enough money to get through my uni. I looked for a job but no one wanted to hire me for part time work. So, I decided that I’d hunt for my own food to get by.”

Familiarity with the snorkeling was not a problem. He was 23 at the time and had already begun playing rugby. He bought a secondhand wetsuit for 50 Australian dollars (32 euro) and on Ebay he found a speargun for 80 dollars (50 euro). A classmate and a housemate joined him. The three often fished together. Along the way they met other speros who helped them learn the ropes.

After graduation Khee worked in Norway, where he continued both sports. And then back in Singapore, he continued to spearfish. Water visibility there is limited to between two and 4 meters. Most of the time he hunts at depths of between 5 and 10 meters.

“Because of the visibility, the fish are particularly skittish, so it takes a while to learn how to get close to them,” he explained.

During Singapore’s Covid lockdown fishing was on hold for 4 months.

“I was back in the water the day after restrictions were lifted and the fishing was really good  because the fish had gotten fat as no one was catching them.”

Like all spearos, Khee witnesses the consequences of pollution and human activity below the surface. Spearfishing is one way for mankind to monitor the health of marine environments.

“Over time, I learned to be part of the ocean, and take only what I required,” he said.

Spearfishing and rugby go together

Finding rugby players who spearfish is not difficult. But the the state of mind playing rugby and hunting very different, though both sports require apnea, snorkel and fins. Colombian player Dario Lopez, 50, was introduced to spearfishing by rugby player friends who went fishing in the Pacific, described the mental shift between the two.

“Apnea in rugby is very demanding, which helps one to develop apnea towards fishing below the surface. Rugby improves lung capacity.”

Spearfishing requires coolness and serenity, not explosion.

“You have to reset the rugby brain because in fishing the apnea must be very, very calm at all times, even at the moment of the shot and during the ascent with the prey.”

He hunts longfin yellowtail, snappers, groupers when they are in season. He also goes after, palometas (english?), king mackerel and barracuda.

In which countries can one both play rugby and spearfish? The laws and regulations restricting fishing are so complicated that it is impossible to generalize. In the same country, the rules may differ, depending on whether one is fishing in an ocean, lake or river. Some species are protected. In some areas rubber band powered spear guns are forbidden while spears are okay.

Sweden is one country, where spearfishing is not really allowed, although one may apply for a weapon license to own speargun for underwater target shooting but they are not classed as legal fishing equipment. Nonetheless, Malmö Triton rugby player Sebastian Wada has gotten so good at spearfishing that he works part of the year in Norway as a undersea guide for Arctic Spearfishing.

“First and foremost it’s my friend Axel Schüller who runs the company,” replied Wada, who has recorded his progress as a stalker of halibut since 2014 when he took his first one, an 18-kilo fish.

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“Spearfishing and rugby are a good combination,” declared Wada. “Halibut hunting is the most extreme underwater hunting that one can do up here in the arctic. You have to spend hours on the bottom.”

Schüller has introduced around 20 underwater rugby players to spearfishing. By the time the 2012 Stavanger European Underwater Rugby Championships end the spearfishing season will have begun, he said.

“Here in Lofoten we also find big cod, pollack, coalfish, flounder etc. Its nice to mix the spearfishing up with other species because the halibut hunting can be very demanding and its not always sure the you find one.”

He then added what sounded like a perfect sales pitch to some underwater rugby players:

“When you halibut hunt its also very important that your gear is really good because they pull very hard if you don’t manage to get a killing shot… You also have to stay clear of lines and don’t get entangled in equipment, because the halibut if its big enough it can drag you down.”

Veterans dominate the 15-man squad Germany has named for the Cali World Championships this coming July. Only two new players have broken through. Christian Förschler, a TSC Pforzheim defender, is one of them. At 22 years of age he is the German national team’s youngest player.

“I was a reserve national team player before, so I knew I had a decent chance of going to Colombia, but there were other strong candidates so I never took it for granted,” he said.

He took up the game at the age of 13 when Pforzheim recruited Förschler from the diving club’s snorkel group. He recalled the beginning of his career:

“After two training sessions I fell in love with this underwater rugby. Prior to that I had played soccer but only for fun not in a club or a league.”

Despite his size and strength, his approach to the game is calculating and effective. As much as possible, he prefers to play at high speed with finesse rather than brute force:

“I developed my style for two reasons: first as a teen it was really hard to match strength with the older, powerful guys and secondly the tactics of [national] youth team are to play as fast as you can, he explained.”

Not from a leading club

He has played his entire career with Pfrozheim, except for a season with rival Malsch, which is usually number two in the final national standings after Bamberg.  His club, which competes in Germany’s southern division, has struggled this season. Last year they finished in fifth place and need to win matches in the final three games to avoid relegation. The club has only managed to rack up a total of 5 goals in league play so far. Two were by Förschler, who credits his teammate with elevating his game. He is the only player from Pforzheim on the national team.

“My club is very proud I made the national squad because it displays our good team work. I learned the game with them.”

International experience
Last year the Norwegian national team travelled to Germany for a friendly match between the 2011 World Championship gold and silver medalists. Förschler missed that competition but between 2011 and 2013 he made four appearances on Germany’s U21 squad, taking gold three times. This has given him exposure to playing several full 30-minute matches over several days time, an experience that he will take to Cali. 

Haugland takes Waterways prize for top scorer at the Champions Cup

Nine goals over three days catapulted Akkaren forward Karine Haugland to the top of the women’s table for individual scoring by the end of the underwater rugby Champions Cup in Berlin.

Once a year, the world’s national champions in underwater rugby come together for international competition at the Tempelhof Municipal Pool in Berlin. Haugland, a Norwegian national team veteran since 2005, helped lead her home club, Olso’s Akkaren, to become world champions in an undefeated run at the 2013 competition. The Oslo club defeated German league champions Duisburg 1-0 in the final on a goal scored by Haugland.

Haugland and her Akkaren teammates barely made it to the Champions Cup this year. Facing arch rival Molde in league play, they dug themselves into a deep hole at the beginning of the season by losing their first two meetings. It looked as if Molde, runner up at the Champions Cup last year, would defend its position as Norway’s number one club. Haugland recalled:

“During the regular season when we had our backs to the wall we knew we had to win our third meeting with Molde. Perhaps they took us for granted a little bit, but we played 100 percent. And after our first victory we really had a hard battle in our fourth meeting, but we had  momentum and self confidence on our side.”

After tieing the divisional race Akkaren won the national title because the Norwegian system distinguishes between the year’s league champion and national championship. The winner of the league represents the country at Champions Cup.

The Norwegian women’s league only has three teams at present. This makes the Champions Cup a special highlight of the year, according to Haugland.

“We need more variety and tougher competition. So the Champions Cup is something we really forward to. It would be great if we could compete more regularly against German club teams,” said Haugland. “Perhaps we could have a European League like the men.”

Waterways Prize

Haugland made 9 goals in Champions Cup:

– 2 versus Orcas (Colombia)
– 3 versus Aquanavt (Russia)
– 0 versus Volants (Czech Republic) did not play
– 3 in the semi final versus Black Mermaids (Sweden)
– 1 in the final versus Duisburg (Germany)

“There were many players on our team who deserved the prize: we did it together,” said Haugland upon receiving the award, a pair of Waterway underwater rugby fins.

Waterways fins dominate the fiber fin market in Norway among underwater rugby players. The retail price for a pair in Norway lies around 130 euro. Haugland already played with the Ukrainian made fins.

“Of the players who use fiber fins I would guess that 95 percent have Waterways,” she said, who originally started out as a competitive swimmer.

Haugland started out as a swimmer. But at the age of 14 she switched to slalom rivercanoing (whitewater) and was a member of the national team for five years until a knee injury forced her to quit at the age of 20.

“I was introduced to underwater rugby in 1999 and started playing competitively in 2000,” said. “Loved it from the start.”

She was named to the Norwegian National Team in 2005 and has played in two World Championships.

(Sidebar text: The top scorer in league play and the top scorer at the Norwegian Championship both receive prize money of NOK 250.

by Bobby Chen (AKA Simonsson)

Bobby Simonsson

The first UWR tournament in Australia just took place this weekend. Teams from Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Hobart and a combined New Zealand contingent (Auckland and Wellington) played an intense round robin (5 matches each) on Saturday. Sydney won 4 of its matches and settled for a tie against Brisbane, followed closely behind by New Zealand with 4 wins and one loss.

The semi-finals and finals were held on Sunday. Tasmania produced a surprise upset, defeating the Sydney team to enter into the finals against New Zealand, which defeated Brisbane in a very close and tightly fought match. In the Bronze medal game, Brisbane and Sydney were tied at 3-3 during the second half. Just as a sudden death round was looking increasingly likely, Brisbane broke the deadlock producing 2 goals in quick succession. Sydney, who were undefeated out of five games just the day before, were noticeably devastated to come in at 4th place.

The grand final between New Zealand and Tasmania was hard fought and physical. New Zealand’s defences in the end proved too tough to overcome, they dominated possession and the scoreboard with formidable, well-executed counter attacks. However, opportunity came knocking twice on Tasmania’s door. Two penalty throws were awarded to the Tassie team within 5 minutes of each other, giving them the opportunity to equalize. Both throws were contested tooth and nail but ultimately saved by the Kiwi captain. New Zealand went on to take out the tournament, leaving Tasmania to be content with the title of National Australian Champions.

However, the biggest event of the weekend was still yet to come. During a lunch break, selectors from each of the Australian teams gathered together to select the best 15 Australian players of the tournament to form a National Team. Selected players were picked quite evenly from across all the different Australian teams, even though no formal quota system was in place.

National anthems were played. Group photos were taken. Then at 2:47pm, amidst tense nerves from both players and their supporters (watching the big screen from the side of the pool) the whistle blew. Over the next 15 minutes, both sides stubbornly matched each other in attack and counter-attack. Worryingly though, for the Australians, the Kiwis were dominating possession. However, the Australian defences never let up, despite a few close calls and brilliant saves by goalies on both sides. At half time the score still sat at 0-0.

The mood around the pool was pure finger-biting, edge-of-seat nervousness. After quick match analyses and prep talks on both sides, the game resumed with an even higher level of intensity. The Kiwis were still dominating possession with their superior bottom times and precise ball handling, but Australia remained firm in defence and relentless in counter-attacks. More than halfway into the second half, the scoreboard remained dry. Players were diving in and out of the pool at increasing regularity. A few more narrow opportunities on both sides came and went. Then it happened.

The Australian goalie is outnumbered. But she narrowly staves off the attack on goal long enough for support to arrive. Number 7 from Tasmania snatches the ball and goes straight for the counter. Executing a one-two with another supporting player gets them through the Kiwi’s now scrambling midfield. A forceful drive at the New Zealand defences gets brings the ball towards the surface. The ensuing wrestle for possession takes place in the water column directly above the goal. The Kiwi goalies misjudge their exchange just as an Australian player gets a pass away. Her pass is good. It goes to number 11, nose-diving straight down from the water above. Arms fully extended, the player brings the ball home into an open goal. 1-0 with 3 minutes remaining. The elated roar of celebration from the audience was a tremendous release. The nervous tension that had been pooling over the last thirty minutes was suddenly given an outlet.

But the Australian players in the water are slow back to their side of the pool. The whistle to start play blows while half the team has yet to touch the wall. The Kiwis make a final committed attack against a frantic Australian defence. But the defence holds yet again, followed by an Australian counter-attack, then Kiwi possession, then a referee’s ball with 1 minute on the clock remaining. The ball drops, the Kiwis take possession but become entangled by Australian players in the midfield. The referee clangs the metal pipes together. Players are rising to the surface. After 30 minutes of a thrilling, suspenseful game – the highest level of underwater rugby that has ever been played on this vast continent… it was all over.

(This was the third time that Australia and New Zealand have met in the water to fight over a trophy named the Ocean Hunter Cup, with Australia having been convincingly beaten both times before. Revenge is indeed a dish best served cold.)

South Africa had a goal in the Championships — to score at least one goal. In their final match South Africa, held scoreless in every previous match, faced Switzerland. In the first half South Africa was down 0-5. But in the second half Jacques Naude scored a goal on a penalty.

“I got him around the neck pulled him off,” said Naude when asked how he managed to give South Africa its first goal in World Championship play.

Prior to their first game the South Africans said that they had heard that the USA had only managed to make single goal at three world championships.

“We want to do better than that,” said one of the team. Goal achieved.

When South African diplomat Rudi Janse van Vuuren received a phone call, informing him that his country was represented at the World Championships he was incredulous.

“I thought someone was pulling my leg at first,” confessed van Vuuren, who later joined Team South African at their hotel for a beer.

A three-strong German break for the goal with one minute to go looks bad for Sweden, but Felicia Nyberg catches them from above and snatches the outstretched ball. Less than minute remains. It will be a penalty shootout…. No, suddenly with five seconds left Ann-Sofi Krakau, perhaps Sweden’s top player, certainly a physical and explosive athlete, is over the goal and shoves one in. An amazing finish. The Germans have been somewhat unlucky but possession must be converted into goals or it means nothing but a bitter taste… no that’s not true. Germany played very well. It is a hard defeat but they can be proud.

From now on we are in the quarter finals. For the rest of the Championships there will be no more undecided matches. Now, the event of a tie, there will first be a 15-minute overtime period of sudden death play. If that produces no resolution, then the game will go to a penalty shootout.

All 12 players are allowed to shoot, providing the game is not decided by a mathematical impossibility for the team that has fallen behind.

In the penalty shootouts if the goalie commits an infraction, he or she receives a two round seat in the penalty box.

The match between Colombia and German provided a stark contrast in strategies. The German team, collectively more than 10 percent larger in terms of length and weight, wanted to play a battle on the bottom, using rhythm and speed to punch through. This approach was no doubt correct but the Colombian women, who could not rip or wrestle the balls away in one-on-one play, had a strategy of their own.

Every time they clamped onto a German player another would close in so that German player ended up floating to the surface. At times some of the Colombian players would attach themselves to the balls and curl up in a protective fetal position. It was impossible for the German players to pass or score with such large remora on the balls. Worse the Colombian player had no interest in symbiosis. As soon as two came into the picture there was battle.

The Colombians could easily have been down 3 – 0 at the half but their goalies were very quick to seal the basket.

“They have a lot of air,” said the husband of one of the German players.

Conditioning is a vital advantage in underwater rugby. The Colombians were on the defensive much of the game. Sometimes when attacks were mounted and the goalie were in danger of being lifted off, their teammates usually the backs and or other goalie would push them down on the rim.

Germany was the stronger team but it looked as if the Colombians might pull off a long shot victory by doing approximately the same as the Japanese women did to the Americans in the World Cup. It was not to be though, as the Colombians had too few break away threats to catch the German 2 goal lead.

The other teams will have to adjust themselves to beat Colombia. Germany are after all the defending Champions, so this was not a surprize result.

We have just watched the best match of the Championships so far. In the opening minutes a very strong German team looked as if they might dominate, but Denmark got successively tougher as the match progressed.

In the first quarter of the game Germany often managed to methodically build up attacks. The Danes looked somewhat passive with the team’s forwards seemingly content to wait for passes, instead of challenging the tempo established by their opponents. The danger for Denmark was that during the exchange of backs the Germans would make a rush backed by 3 or 4 players.

Shortly before the 10 minute mark, the collection of half fresh lungs outside the Danish goal gave Germany’s Stefan Klett a chance to flip the switch, putting one on the score board. Not long after that Dennis Pahl made a second goal for Germany. Two to zero might have spelt the end for another team but not this one from the country lying so close to Germany. 

Denmark’s lapse was no burnt-out fuse. The Danes reset the circuit breaker and in workman-like fashion gradually deprived their opponents of the tempo control strategy. It did not come easily. On more than one occasion, though they did not have physical dominance, the Danes scooped up sub-prime Deutsche passes and tried to go to the bank. With around 5 minutes remaining Denmark’s Simon Schäfer put in goal, erasing Germany’s self assurance.

Perhaps frustrated at the trend, the Germans committed two roughing fouls, which only encouraged the Danes to dig in and fight harder. After half-time the Danish forechecking became urgent. If in the first half Danish counterattacks quickly met resistance, in the second half they extended their forward movement. Every time they closed on the German goal, two Russia spectators rooting for Denmark said, “come-on! Tie game now.”

The Danish pressure had a sort of increasing grimness that the Germans had no answer for. However, in the end team Germany  hung on to their one nil lead to the end. The last few minute were nail biting entertainment.

Davrell Tien poolside 

Second penalty shot for holding the basket decides game in favor of Norway.

Late in the first half Swedish goalkeeper Anna Överby goes into the penalty box for gripping the basket. Sweden survives the 2-minute power play. In the second half around 8 minutes remaining the referee calls basket holding again. Penalty shot. The Swedish goalie easily holds off the attacker and the Swedish players on deck scream with delight.

However, the Swedes are caught again. The goalkeeper is not a large player so it is easy for her to slip a shoulder too deep. The ref calls for a second penalty.

Now Felicia Nyberg (No 10) of the Swedes must face another penalty shot attempt. This time the Norway’s Karine Haugland harasses her from the bottom. Nyberg cannot risk letting a crack open. There are 45 seconds for a penalty and Haugland shrewdly heads up for a deep breath and comes back like a seal who has figured out a fisherman’s trap. She has a stressed goalie short of air and in goes the ball.

Sweden is down but not out. The action now has a frenetic quality. The Swedes are anxious to equalize. They come in more aggressively but they cannot break the Norwegian defense. With relatively little time remaining the Norwegians tie up the Swedish captain Helena Fagraeus on the surface in a tiring battle to nowhere.

Time is running out. A free ball awarded Norway gives the side a chance to call for a time out. Perhaps not a good move because it allows the Swedes to rally for a final attempt. They take the ball from Norway but Norway takes it back. Norway then burns up the remaining minute and half passing safely in the corner.

Norway has too many players in the water. A time penalty is awarded Sweden but only three seconds are left the Swedish and Norwegian players are taking off their masks as the meaningless free ball goes into play. It’s over. Norway has a victory under their suits. Sweden must regroup.

This was match commentary from a women’s match in Helskini, first published August 16, 2011

Both teams have seen a player sent to the penalty box for holding the goal. Still no score, even with the advantage of being a woman up, neither can do much. Too many dropped balls. Play is in the middle a bit too much.

Both teams are hesitating to take it into the basket area. It hurts there and there are risks but you cannot score without some pain. “I was expecting a bit more but it’s the first match,” says one a Danish ref on his break.

Report from an ongoing match during the 2011 Helisinki World Championships originally published August 16, 2011

Two strong teams are meeting. The 3 – 1 Turkish lead is the product of having more attacking players swarming around the goal. Turkey has been tougher in clinched ball situations, ripping it away from the Spaniards. In the second half Spain has been more aggressive and they need to be.

Vocal Spanish fans punctuate the spacicious pool hall with shouts of encouragement. “There is free player beneath ,” cries a woman, as if the players below could hear her.This is a nice place to play. The doors are open to let in air. One side of the pool hall is all glass, giving the Championships good light, although it is overcast. How is the video stream? Let us know.

The Turkish players sing the national anthem in salute to their opponents, for whom this was a hard blow. The Spanish players look distracted in defeat. Will they be able to pull themselves together.

The 23 – 0 result of Sweden versus Spain raises an issue that the underwater rugby rules committees at the national and international level may wish to consider in the future. In the women’s group play scoring large numbers of goals against the weakest team has now and can in the future determine advancement rather than some clear victory or defeat among those at the top of the draw.

In this case Sweden and Denmark tied while both lost to Norway. This meant that Sweden and Denmark could only distinguish themselves a total goal differential. In practice this meant pumping goals in the basket of the hapless Spanish team—a contest to see who could dish out a worse drubbing to Spain. Good for the sport? Not really.

Although there are different ways to consider the fairness of this, one thing is certain, Spain was playing for pride alone. Though the Spaniards never quit fighting but clearly their ability to resist was degraded by fatigue while Sweden was uniformly motivated. And in a team sport that relies on pairs who relieve each other from duty on the bottom (apnea) the loss of motivation can send the team into a negative spiral as already tired players must cover for the mistakes of others.

There is talk of a change in the rules.