We went behind the scenes of Leeds’ most ‘feral’ sports societies: Here’s what we learnt

There isn’t a week that goes by in Leeds, or any uni city for that matter, where rumours aren’t flying around about who did what at last week’s manic Wednesday social or some sort of debate about who threw up – and was it at Revs or outside Mischief?

It’s for this reason (after careful deliberation about how much we valued our mental health) that The Leeds Tab decided to attend three sport societies’ socials to get an uncensored experience of what it’s really like to be at the heart of this chaos.

While not all supposedly feral sports societies responded (no surprise), we attended sports socials with Men’s Rugby League, Women’s Rugby League and Men’s Basketball to get a real insight into the characters behind these notorious teams and to decide if maybe they’re not so bad after all?

Men’s Rugby League

We were pleasantly surprised by the warm invitation we received from Men’s Rugby League (shoutout to Kelvin for taking on the impossible task of helping us feel welcome walking through a packed room of half-naked men in cavemen costumes). The social was joint with the women’s rugby team which maybe meant they were on better behaviour but, don’t fear, they still had their moments.

Their games of “Take Me Out” and “Who’s Most Likely To” were well-organised, especially considering the chaos of having to host a social for two big societies at once. Perhaps the most mesmerising part of this team was their ability to memorise whatever chant one player started. Without fail and every time, the entire team joined in. Well-bonded I suppose?

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Overall, the team were friendly, approachable and fun so if you were holding back on joining Rugby League, do not fret, you’re in good hands.

After a couple conversations on a sofa with a man-spread man mansplaining to us how Rugby League is different to Rugby Union, we got chatting to the women’s team.

Women’s Rugby League

We realised that we were being tactically avoided after one member of the team whispered loudly to her friend: “Don’t talk to them – they’re the news agents from the paper.” Last time we checked, we don’t sell crisps, cigs and birthday cards but in hindsight we imagine she meant to say writers.

Anyway, the girls were incredibly supportive of each other, cheering loudly after each girl’s “Take Me Out” pitch. The team were clearly a well-knit group and it wasn’t hard to tell they enjoy each other’s company both on and off the pitch.

Although they also fell victim to a bit of mansplaining at one point during the night, they stood their ground and we love to see it.

Men’s Basketball

Perhaps the most surprising of the socials was Men’s Basketball. We apprehensively turned up at the social sec’s house and found it was a very small gathering but, by the end of the night, we realised this meant we got to know the team a lot better.

There was a lot of expected chugging (downing a pint in less than five seconds has never been so well received) and competitive testosterone in the air during their quiz game (during which we learnt more about the team than we perhaps wanted to). However, what we didn’t expect was the surprisingly wholesome night we left with.

The team were incredibly friendly, making every effort to chat to us about their team (even though we were the scary “news agents”). And although they each went on their own side quests throughout the night, they had no problem finding each other again in the upstairs room of Mischief, huddled together in a wholesome dance circle. Charming in their own ways, every member of the basketball team is worth your time if you ever happen to meet them on your next Wednesday night out.

We would definitely recommend the socials to anyone looking to join. You can find their Instagram handles below:

Men’s Rugby League: @unileedsrl

Women’s Rugby League: @luuwomensrugbyleague

Men’s Basketball: @uniofleedsmensbasketball