By Tim Clinton

SPORTS EDITOR

An inaugural Major League Rugby franchise is coming to Tukwila, with the professional Seattle Seawolves setting up shop at Starfire Stadium.

The Seawolves have already held a tryout combine at the Starfire complex and are practicing there leading up to their 5 p.m. Sunday, April 22 season opener against the San Diego Legion squad.

“The stadium will be a place people can have fantastic entertainment,” said Seattle head coach Tony Healy, who hails from Victoria, B.C. after growing up in Campbell River, B.C. “It’s creating quite a buzz in the area. We’ve already had a great deal of interest. We’ve been selling season tickets and a quarter of the stadium is already full.”

Player/coach Phil Mack also lives in Victoria, B.C. and is looking forward to the first year of the franchise and league as well.

“It’s year one, so things are just falling into place for us,” said Mack, who plays the scrum half position. “We’re excited and just ready to get on with it.”

The Seawolves are owned by Seattle entrepreneurs Adrian Balfour and Shane Skinner and are one of seven franchises in the new league in which players – and coaches – are paid along with other workers.

“It provides new job opportunities for people, including us,” Healy said.

Rugby has similarities to football, including the shape of the ball.

“Football had its roots in rugby,” Healy said. “You run forward, pass the ball backwards and try to get open. You can’t throw forward passes.”

Tackles are featured on defense.

“For defenses to stop you they look to tackle you,” Healy said. “Then the rules state that you have to let go of the ball.”

A battle for possession ensues.

“They call that a ruck,” Healy said. “It’s a fast-paced, skill-driven game with a lot of physicality. There’s a premium placed on tackling. A rugby style is used by the Seattle Seahawks. It’s a type of tackling that’s a better type of tackling than smashing your helmet into someone’s chest.”

Different pro rugby teams will feature a different kind of overall play on offense.

“It can be rough,” Healy said. “Like football, you can play smash mouth football or wide open football.”

Seattle plans on emphasizing the latter.

“We’re hoping to play a fast-paced kind of rugby with a lot of movement and excitement,” Mack said. “That’s what we’re aiming to do with our team. We want to get people out to enjoy the show.”

Mack finds himself in a unique role as both an assistant coach and player.

“It always presents its own challenges,” he said. “But as long as my standards are where they are supposed to be and I don’t ask players to do anything I wouldn’t do, you can take care of issues that arise.”

Major Rugby League teams aside from Seattle and San Diego are located as far away as New Orleans with others in Houston and Austin in Texas, plus Utah and Glendale, Calif.

“So it’s a pretty good spread across the U.S.,” Mack said. “They’re just getting into preparation for the league.”

And the Seawolves are working on their own version of the product.

“We hope to create a family-oriented environment with fast-paced rugby,” Mack said.

The Seattle team can be reached at www.seattleseawolves.com.

Follow them on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/SeawolvesRugby/