As a player and coach of an undefeated team this is a hard fact to accept. However, some days, the scores of the game do not reflect the events that took place on the field. This was one of those days.
We arrived at the field a man short, not an ideal situation for a game against a tough adversary. Not only were we short one player, we also were lacking several of our key players due to injury or job relocations. But the show must go on.
We took to the field and though no one said it, we all knew what everyone was thinking. The average player on their team was the size of our biggest player, Jose. Jose weighs in around 220 lbs and our average player weighs in about 180. Speed and solid defense were our only chance.
The Yaguares (for inexplicable reasons they spelled it wrong…) scored first by swinging the ball to the outside man thus exploiting the advantage of their numbers. Their forwards (the bigger guys on a rugby team) really dominated the game. So, as a counter measure, we decided to only attack with our backs (smaller guys) and play to our only strength.
15 minutes or so in to the game our full back, Dinamita, damaged a ligament in his knee and had to retire. Now we are down two players. We continued to play tough, getting hammered every time we got the ball. But we pressed on.
Just before the half ended, another player, Jonathan or “Crash”, took a knee to the jaw (fractured in 2 places). Once the referee realized there was a player down he whistled the half over.
Thirteen of us were left standing. Though I did not want to “throw in the towel” as a player, as a coach I had too. With only 13 people there was no feasible way we could win, but more importantly I did not want to have any more of our players hurt for the sake of pride.
The rest of the team agreed with the decision and so it was made. At halftime we forfeited the rest of the match with the final score being 15-6 in favor of the Yaguares.
I was prepared to give a speech in the post game huddle about holding our heads high and being proud of how we played. But when I looked around the circle I saw nothing but smiles on the faces of my comrades. They already were proud of themselves and their teammates. We all agreed that this was the best game we had all played, even though we had lost. We then counted to 3 and gave a good cheer for our team. AGUILAS!!!
As we disbanded I looked to the other team’s huddle and heard something that caught me and the rest of my team by surprise. They cheered Aguilas, our team’s name.
That is what rugby is all about. Win or lose, it is truly about how you play the game.
We stuck around to watch the next game and then afterwards all the teams headed out together to get food and beer, as is the tradition of the sport.
