Shamrocks team in the clover; Fun and friendship are top priorities for women's rugby club.

• Position: SPORTS

Byline: Jerry Bond

WORCESTER - They are thrill-seekers looking beyond the bounds of a mundane existence. They run. They kick. They maul. They ruck. They tackle. They grind. They play in the rain.

They are the Worcester Shamrocks, a women's rugby club.

Their backgrounds are diverse. One member could be your doctor, or your lawyer, or your child's teacher, or your tax adviser. However, they share a common sentiment: In the sports kingdom, rugby rules.

The Shamrocks closed out their fall season Saturday at Lake Park with their sixth loss in eight games, a 34-0 defeat to Northampton on a rainy day only a duck could like. Taking the defeat in stride, the Worcester team headed off to a local watering hole for postgame merriment.

The club was founded in the late 1980s by Angela Cornacchioli, then a coach at WPI. She left in 1993, the year Bridget Lucey Pratt joined the team. Pratt, a former president of the club, is now the senior active member on the team.

"I'm semi-retired," said Pratt, 31.

Despite advice from her doctor and family that she quit, she remains with the team. "Once you get hooked (on rugby), you can't leave," Pratt said. "It's addicting."

The team is supported through annual player dues of $45. Each player also must buy her own green and black team rugby shirt.

The Shamrocks play teams from Boston, Portland, Hartford, Portsmouth, N.H., and Burlington, Vt. They also play in tournaments in Newport in the spring, and at the Cape in the summer. The Shamrocks have also scrimmaged some college teams, including Holy Cross and UMass.

NEW AND OLD

Some team members played rugby in college. Others got their first rugby action with the Shamrocks. New or experienced, all are drawn to the game's energy, athleticism and friendships.

Kim Mantyla, a special-needs teacher and the team's back captain, played rugby at UMass before joining the Shamrocks. "It's a unique sport. You really bond with each other," Mantyla said. "Wherever you go in the country, if you meet up with a rugby player, they're more than willing to show you around."

Liz Elder, a speech therapist for the Narragansett Regional school system, is the forward captain. She has been with the team for three years. "I saw a sign up at Stoney O'Brien's and said, "That sounds cool.' I called and came out to practice, and I've been hooked ever since."

Elder said rugby "is very social, too. These aren't just people you play a game with. They become your close friends."

Denise Turchi, who works...