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The Rugby Commandments
by Unknown Rugger
If I could offer one tip for the future, playing rugby
would be it. The long term benefits of playing rugby have
been proven by ruggers world-wide. The rest of my advice,
however, has no basis more reliable than my own
rugby-playing, rugby-living experience (brief as that may
be). I will dispense that B.S. to you now.
- Don't worry about your future health. Or worry,
but know that worrying while you continue playing is
about as effective as trying to score a try while
successfully running out the back of the try zone
without touching the ball down. The real troubles in
your health's life are apt to be the things that never
crossed your worried mind, but which tackle you at 2:00
pm in the second half of a game on a Saturday afternoon.
- Be kind to your knees ... and your shoulders ...
and your arms ... and your neck ... and, well,
everything else. You'll miss them when they stop working
like they should. - Take plenty of Advil.
- Enjoy the play you get while you are young and
injury-free. Oh never mind. You will not understand the
pleasure and luxury of your youth until you've busted
your nose, separated your shoulder, and torn your ACL.
- Enjoy your body. Wait a minute, scratch that -
you play rugby. Abuse it. Don't be afraid of what people
think of it ... wait a minute scratch THAT - you play
rugby - such fear doesn't exist!
- You'll get bruised, you'll get sore, but you'll
also get slaps on the back, and encouragement from the
guy who knocked the wind out of you 30 minutes earlier.
You'll become part of a whole.
- Understand that players of all abilities will
come and go, but when they do come out, treat them all
like you never want them to go (they may actually stay).
Work hard to retain rookies, because the more you get to
stay around, the more people you have to keep your team
from folding, and the more people who will call you by
name when you retire.
- Maybe you'll be a forward, maybe you'll be a
back. Maybe you'll get suckered into being president for
your team, and maybe your contribution will just be to
be the anchor of your team's boat race crew. Whatever
you do, don't grow too complacent, and always give it
your best shot. Remember any team can beat any other
team on any given day. But remember the reverse is true:
any team can lose to any other team, as well.
- Be careful about choosing sides when an "issue"
comes up on your team. Be aware that sides can develop.
If they do - remember the truth is always somewhere in
the middle, and if you let the truth be known, the
sides' issues become moot points, and you all can just
get on with why you're here - to play rugby. But do
remember that dealing with the rest of the "stuff" is as
much a part of being on a team, as just taking the field
together.
- Don't expect anyone else to pick you up when
you're down. Maybe you'll have teammates who will always
bolster you up. Maybe you'll have a coach that always
inspires you. The bottom line is - maybe you won't have
these things, and this is up to YOU to dig deep, to play
hard, and to play with heart.
- At least once a season, volunteer to play a
position that scares the crap out of you. Always be
willing to play more than one position.
- Dance - even if you're a forward and don't think
you're as cute as the backs.
- Get to know your front row. You never know when
they'll get hurt or retire. Be nice to your teammates.
They're the only ones to whom you never have to explain
WHY you're playing this sport. They're also the people
most likely to make sure you get dumped in the back of a
car and taken home on a Saturday night.
- If you're a back, play with the forwards at least
once, and leave when you've run a game in their boots.
If you're a forward play with the backs just once, and
leave when you really appreciate how hard it is to catch
some speed-demon in the open field.
- Don't waste your time playing dirty. Sometimes
you're on the top of the pile of bodies, sometimes'
you're on the bottom. The game is 80 minutes long, and
in the end, if someone raked you, either you or one of
your teammates was able to hit them hard enough to hurt
at least once by game's end.
- Don't bad mouth the administrators - at any
level. Remember, most are volunteers trying to make
things run smoothly. They do more stuff that you don't
know about so that all you have to do is show up, pay
dues, and play. Remember if it seemed like a pain in the
ass to get your information together so you could play
in a tournament, try and imagine trying to collect
everyone's information, organize it, and process it.
- Respect the old boys. Accept certain inalienable
truths: 1) the ref doesn't care what you think really
happened, 2) somebody will kick for points and usually
make them, and 3) you too, will get older and
slower. When you do, you'll fantasize that when you were
young, refs would listen to your arguments, somebody
would miss more than they would make, and the young
players liked having old and slow players on the field -
never minding that an old player missed a tackle because
they couldn't get there. When you were young, you knew
to respect your old boys.
- Remember the constructive criticism you receive.
Forget the griping that goes on the field. Don't feel
guilty if you don't know what the hell you're doing for
the first couple of years you're playing. The most
knowledgeable rugby players didn't know what the hell
they were doing when they started out. The most honest
of the most knowledgeable ones admit they still don't
know everything about playing the game.
- Trust me, with a few years under your belt, and
after a few years on the pitch, you'll look back to
pictures of yourself, and you'll recall in a way you
cannot possibly grasp now - how great you actually felt
after playing a whole game, and how fabulous your face
and legs really looked (once upon a time). You are not
as old as you think you are. You just feel it. Welcome
to rugby.
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