Page 28 - zebra_proof

In his days as British and Irish Lions’ Tour
Manager, Gerald Davies talked of players
having a “sliver of ice in their blood”,
and rugby’s real hard men will have that.
A backward step will not be taken, they
may be sometimes bloodied but remain
unbowed. They are the players who will
lead the charge, make the hit that signals
the fightback, and grind the hard yards
up the pitch. All players are unique but
often these men may not have the
aesthetic widely accepted as being
beautiful; they will have missing teeth,
cauliflower ears, cracked noses, and faint
scars. Often they will wear a gnarled expression, as if they once grimaced just as a raucous wind blew past. They’ll be held together by tape. They are walking, talking rugby clichés. At times, they may look like they have no right to keep on going, but keep on going they do, game after game, season after season.
You can get hard, tough bastards in the backline of course, but usually, your bona fide rugby hard men are always to be found in the pack. Size and stature are not the sole measure of a man, but quintessential ‘hard men’ usually have to have a certain size and imposing build about them. Work horses, like the pit ponies of old, they keep on going and going. They’re the team’s totems and the rest of the team duly follow them...
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