Director Oisín Mistéil introduces TRY!, his acclaimed new feature documentary that follows four Irish players who defy all expectations on their journey to the most inclusive and competitive World Cup you've never seen...
"Are you sure that's a good idea?!"
My initial thought when I was first told about full contact, 15-a-side rugby played by people both with and without disabilities. How on earth does that work?
This was back in 2022, shortly after the previous Mixed Ability Rugby World Cup had just taken place. Myself and producer Claire McCabe went down to the Sunday’s Well Rebels in Cork to watch a training session and find out exactly how it worked. We wanted to see whether there was a potential documentary in this young, unique sport and the community involved in it. Fast forward four years, and our film TRY! is hitting Irish cinemas this week. Seeing was believing.
I grew up playing team sports - everything except rugby, ironically! What struck me most when I first started watching mixed ability rugby was that these are sports teams just like any I had been a part of - the camaraderie, the messing, the slagging as a love language - it’s all there. No one treated any differently, no matter who they are or what their ability is.
To think that as a society we have locked a whole population of people out of this kind of team environment for so long is a terrible shame. Sport clubs - rugby, GAA, soccer or otherwise, should be places where everyone belongs. And for each of the clubs we followed in TRY!, having a truly inclusive team benefits the entire club enormously. Not to mention the benefit to the players who for so long had been told they would never get to play the sport they love.
To think that as a society we have locked a whole population of people out of this kind of team environment for so long is a terrible shame.
It was at that training session back in 2022 that I met Richie Philpott. Richie became one of the main characters in the film and has become a good friend. He credits the Rebels with transforming his confidence, his social ability, his life. It’s gotten him a job, friends, a hobby, a physical pursuit. "Rugby was always the sport that was going to make me… me." Now, he intends to play back the Rebels for everything they’ve given him, "in blood, sweat, and tears!"
The goal for Richie and the Rebels - as well as for Belfast’s Malone Tornaodes, Dublin’s DLSP Vikings and Cork’s Ballincollig Trailblazers - is winning the Mixed Ability Rugby World Cup: the most competitive and inclusive World Cup you’ve never heard of. But while TRY! is at face value an exciting and dramatic sports doc, it’s also a challenge to its audience’s preconceptions, and society at large: if true inclusivity can be achieved somewhere as physical and demanding as a rugby pitch, why can’t it work in your classroom, your workplace, or your social group?
Making TRY! has been the most fun I’ve ever had as a filmmaker. It’s been a privilege to tell the story of these rugby players, and I’m so grateful that they welcomed us so openly into their team huddles, their homes, their whiskey bars, their family dynamics, and their up-til-all-hours rugby tours!
During the summer, we had the pleasure of screening at the Galway Film Fleadh, where we won Best Irish Feature Documentary. Watching the film that day with the mixed ability rugby community was the most joyous occasion, and I can’t wait for our general release on 2nd October.
So do try to catch the film over the next week. I am sure that’s a good idea...
TRY! is at selected cinemas nationwide from October 2nd
