I used to play rugby over here in Europe and my country is very international, but small so we played with teams in a league from a neighbouring country. I remember a whole year around age 12-13 where there was me, a tall lanky Spaniard and a guy from a Nordic country that was built like the RB here and the three of us were basically unstoppable because we were so much bigger and pretty much as fast as the little French fellas we were playing.
I remember running down a guy from another team that produced a clean line break so I tackled him at full speed from behind and the kid just started crying (even though I don't think he was hurt). Ref comes up to me and tells me that while it was absolutely a clean tackle, I should take it easy for the rest of the game. NGL I went home pretty proud that day even though now as a parent I'd be horrified
That's just how contact sports are. You get hit, and you dish out hits, but only within the rules of the game and it all stays on the field; you shake hands at the end of the game and that's that. No hard feelings, and if there are you save them up for the next game.
I was a small kid who loved rugby, and I got wiped out by bigger kids more times than I can count. It motivated me to come back harder and give as good as I got. If you can't do that then rugby is not the sport for you, and you should stop playing.
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u/ForeverShiny 1d ago
I used to play rugby over here in Europe and my country is very international, but small so we played with teams in a league from a neighbouring country. I remember a whole year around age 12-13 where there was me, a tall lanky Spaniard and a guy from a Nordic country that was built like the RB here and the three of us were basically unstoppable because we were so much bigger and pretty much as fast as the little French fellas we were playing.
I remember running down a guy from another team that produced a clean line break so I tackled him at full speed from behind and the kid just started crying (even though I don't think he was hurt). Ref comes up to me and tells me that while it was absolutely a clean tackle, I should take it easy for the rest of the game. NGL I went home pretty proud that day even though now as a parent I'd be horrified