• I stood along the line looking right into the eyes of the opposition, to my left I saw him standing there,
    a guy my age stood no more then five feet away from myself. To my right was nothing, but i was determined not to
    let the opposition pass me by. We then, as a pack wolves ran after our prey, the ball. I witness the ones ahead of
    me fall to keep the ball moving to their endzone. One of they guys hit the dirt and I posted up, someone beside me
    received the ball and ran until passing it down to myself. Ahead of me I saw an a lone man, maybe 300lbs or so stand
    in my way. I charge through him and am slowed down by his brothers. I gain yards but in the end i had no more push
    in me, with one final hit I slammed to the ground. The one who was originally forcing me back fell on top of me.
    I felt a violent crack in my jaw and a crushing blow to my hand. I was not done yet. I regained my balance and
    chased the one with the ball and hit him lightly, but just enough for him to hit the ground. Then getting on top of
    the ball i feel the sensation in my hand become stronger I was pushed back, in a state of shock i stood there then
    kneeled to the ground. My hand swelled and I was out for the rest of the day. Though I was angry I continued to watch
    we lost. It was a tough defeat, no doubt, we tried but I guess they just had a better idea of what they were doing.

    Later that day we had our second game I watch anxiously from the side line. We were tied and it came down to a kickoff.
    Our first kicker cleared the goal post and we were feeling good. Their first kicker did the same. Our second kicker hit
    the post and through awes' of disappointment there was clapping. Their kicker did the same and we were excited once again.
    We had only trained 2 kickers, but for our third and final kick we put in someone who has been behind in the background for
    awhile and he went for the kick and missed. We knew their kicker just had to miss. He made the goal and their team roared in
    cheer, they had just made it to the finals. Us, beaten and bruised, walked slowly over to coach hitting a knee slowly. He told
    us we could've done better, but this was it, no more rugby for the entire year, our season was over. He had some words and then
    brought up our three kickers and commented on all of their kicks in a positive way. Right then it clicked, for me at least. I looked around
    at these boys who had accepted me into their brotherhood it all made sense.

    We worked hard, we did all we could do and well, we made it pretty far. From the first day nobody knew each other and nobody knew the game,
    but at that moment I realized we had all become brothers in a sense, always looking out for each other and sharing some good times. We
    helped each other through the bad times also. I felt proud, there was a strong sense of pride inside of me, we have gotten so far and
    accomplished so much, even though this was a contact sport that was intense and painful in the end we never ever disrespected or didn't
    congratulate the teams who triumphed over us. We were all just generally good people on and off the field, not to say we weren't before
    but as a group we formed a sort of respect for everything and everyone. When I looked at all the beaten down faces of my brothers I felt
    a sense of unity. No matter what we always stuck together and stayed true to the brotherhood. If somebody was ever feeling left out or
    unimportant we drew them back in and tried to make them feel good about themselves. I viewed most of this from the sideline, I saw these
    things come out and projected on to our game and gave us the edge. There was, despite our points a definite feeling of victory. We overcame
    our bodily limitations we fought through pain, we were committed every step of the way and we tried, we tried our hardest. Now if that isn't
    victory then I don't know what is. We all exceeded our expectations and became not just athletes but brothers, its always about the brotherhood,
    if there was a weak link we all fell down with them, we pushed each other all the way and helped each other out. It makes me proud to be able to
    say "Yeah, I was on the rugby team" and to wear our spirit wear t-shirt which truly depicted the meaning of this team. The back says the following
    in a bold text, this truly was our rugby team by every means. UNITY, PRIDE, VICTORY.