Page 95 - All Shapes & Zebras From Treorchy

“When an injury picked up on a Saturday afternoon prevents the individual from turning up to work on a Monday morning, you get an idea of the desire and commitment of some amateur rugby players... ”
It’s worth noting the obvious: players play the game of their own volition; no one is forced onto a rugby pitch. But when an injury picked up on a Saturday afternoon prevents the individual from turning up to work on a Monday morning, you get an idea of the desire and commitment of some amateur rugby players. Indeed, the game of amateur rugby is made up of a considerable percentage of players who are self-employed. Builders, farmers, painters and decorators, electricians and hundreds from other trades – the game is made up of men and women from manual trades, for whom a significant injury may lead to time off work and little, or even no, pay.
Even in other jobs that are not self-employed, there are thousands of teachers, lawyers, doctors and such like who’ll have a spell at home because of an injury. From experience, turning up to work with black eyes and missing teeth is even more of a conversation starter in these professions too.
And then there are the serious injuries. The ‘sickeners’ that maim individuals and can sometimes lead to players calling it a day and walking away from the sport. Knees, ankles, hips and shoulders – not a variant on the children’s song but a rogues’ gallery of body parts, often the ‘trouble spots’ that begin to fail the body first. The game is also punctuated by tragedies – young players paralysed or lives forever changed from collapsed scrums or freak accidents on the pitch. These, if it indeed needs stating, are a sobering reminder that at the end of the day, rugby is just a sport.
ALL SHAPES & ZEBRAS FROM TREORCHY 93