Steve
Mostly Harmless
I never played on a team, but practiced a few times with a local club in Seattle when I was in High School back in the 1980's. A buddy of mine was in the club, and invited me out to "work out" with them. As I recall, it was like 3 hours of running, a lot of colliding, some time explaining what a ruck is and how to do it, and then they all retired to the clubhouse to have a few beers. I was wrestling at the time, so couldn't do both, but I've always liked the sport.I went to a boys’ boarding school, divided into ‘houses’, and my Housemaster was a Rugby fanatic. I wasn’t a star of the Rugger field (as I said earlier, we called it Rugger), but I was good enough to be chosen for. House team and play occasionally for the school as well. There were advantages in terms of prestige to being in the Rugger team as well as being able to get away with things I wouldn’t have got away with otherwise (although I was generally well-behaved and hardworking). There were occasional hazards as well such as injuries that could result in being ‘off-eccer’ for a few days or even a week or two (‘off-eccer’ was school slang for ‘off games’ - eccer was short for exercise!). The problem with being in the Rugger team was that it was a ‘life sentence’; I raised the possibility of dropping it when I was 16 and was told in no uncertain terms that this could not be considered. I therefore went on playing during my A Level (final year). My main interests were academic but looking back I don’t regret the experience - there was quite a lot of fun and good team work as well as the mud and rain!