Rugby is a vibrant contact sport that is played all over the world by men and women of all different classes, faiths, and races. It promotes friendship and camaraderie between players. To rejoice one recent Christmas, men from the American and New Zealand research stations in Antarctica played a game of rugby against each other on those southernmost frozen wastelands. Rugby is played in over 100 countries and is the most popular team sport in nations such as Japan, Fiji, and Wales, but in the state of Texas rugby is slowly gaining popularity among young athletes. One athlete in particular, Josh Kuykendall, the Jamoja Member of the Week has begun to love the sport.

Josh Kuykendall is a 19 year old sophomore at Stephen F. Austin State University where he has been playing rugby for about a year and a half. He plays any of the three losse-forwards in the scrum and didn’t have any prior experience playing rugby before he joined the steam at SFASU. “I learned how to play by being introduced to the principles of the game little by little when I started going to practice here at college. You can only learn so much in practice though. The amount of things you learn in the first 5 minutes of your first game dwarfs what you learn in 3 weeks of practice.”

Even with the endless similarities between rugby and American football, Josh had no knowledge of the sport. He played American football for 8 years of his hometown of Forney, Texas and had not touched a rugby ball before his first week of practice at SFASU. “I just decided to go to practice and the let me walk on and learn what was going on and I've loved it ever since that time.” Although Josh’s dad talked about playing when he was going to trade school, it did not sink into his system until the early stages of his college years and Josh wishes he had started playing earlier.

Not only because he would be a much more experienced rugby player but also a better football player as well. “Rugby has made me lose a lot of my fear of contact and getting hurt as well as made me put on 20+ pounds of muscle since I’ve graduated high school. It's strange because I'm less afraid to take a ball-carrier head on or to run the ball at someone in a rugby situation with no pads than I was in high school playing football in pads and helmets and whatnot,” says Josh.

Rugby also does phenomenal things for athlete’s level of fitness as well. The game is played with two forty-minute halves and almost no break in play similar to soccer. “It all boils down to the fact that I'd be leaps and bounds ahead of my skill level now as a rugger and it would have made me a better football player back in high school as well.” Josh jokes that his friends from high school are now afraid to play a little game of football with Josh because they think that he is “too rough”.

As a newcomer to the sport, Josh still does very well. He was a starter in a collegiate playoff game as a freshman after having only played for 2 full semesters and has made significant plays in very important games for the SFASU Lumberjacks. During a game against Texas State, Kuykendall broke through a maul and stripped a ball away and killed a strong drive that Texas State was sending at the Lumberjacks. Texas State had gotten the ball all the way from their 22 meter line to the 5 meter line of SFASU. Kuykendall then came in and recovered the ball for his team. “It was really important because it was my first start as a flanker and it was a huge cup match.”

There are also pressures of being the player lacking the experience. “I feel a lot of pressure because most of my teammates have 2 or 3 years more experience than me and there's just so much that you can only learn from playing the game that's lost in practice. But they accept me as a competent player and I'm always open to the suggestions and criticisms to advance the team.”

Regularly Josh is known for clearing out rucks over a ball and letting his team win possession by pushing or throwing the opposition off the line of engagement. His role on the team is very important since SFASU plays smash-mouth rugby. The Lumberjacks run hard and hit even harder than they run. “Our boys are in no way afraid of contact and are most proficient at administering a good stiff-arm to get things going. We don't always win our games, but we're always the least beat up afterwards.”

The hard-hitting action that the Lumberjacks bring on to the fields leaves players injured, which causes concern for Kuykendall. He recently hyper-extended his knee playing against Texas State University in a cup match and one of his teammates has a broken neck due to playing. “I think of all the things that can go wrong, the injuries that could very well happen and get a little scared,” Josh said nervously. But the pre-game ritual helps Josh overcome the fear. “I just get a little scared, just enough to get the adrenaline pumping. Then the team circles up for our pre-game chant and I keep that going through my head. I mix that in with a little of my favorite pre-game pump-up song: Sound of Reason by Destroy The Runner.”

That is exactly what Josh and his teammates plan to do this year every match they have this season . . . Destroy The Runner. Josh feels that his team is ‘Quantum Leaps’ better than they were the previous season. The Lumberjacks have recruited a lot of ruggers with high school experience and retained almost 95% of the team from last year. To confirm their improvement, SFASU beat a team last month 24-22 who they lost to in the playoffs last season 58-0. “Lots of other coaches have commented about how much our team has progressed as well because we've got a whole new coaching staff and a new outlook on the game.”

In the near future Stephen F. Austin wants to claim the Division II National Championship and with the help of Josh it seems inevitable. Kuykendall hopes that his rugby playing career isn’t over until he is in his 40’s, but he would like to help coach a team of college or high school students when that time comes. After his career at SFASU, Josh plans on playing professionally or even on a semi-pro team.

He is currently a psychology major with plans of going to medical school. He hopes to play alongside his favorite rugby player, Josh Lewsey who plays full-back for the English National Team. “He's an amazing athlete and plays with a tremendous amount of heart. One thing in particular he's know for is when someone cheapshots him he doesn't fight back, he waits and then gets even with a punishing, but legal, hit.” With all the pounding involved in rugby between teams, the sportsmanship in the sport is unmatched. Just as the match between the American and New Zealand researchers where the teams battles but were still comrades afterwards, the same comradely gestures apply to many ruggers across the world.

“Rugby is actually a great networking opportunity because of the worldwide popularity,” said Josh who also enjoys Jamoja because of the networking outlets and emphasis on sports rather than trivial things. “You can meet rugby players in every country of the world and when you meet another rugger there's an instant camaraderie rather than the instant rivalry you get when you meet a football player from another school or team.”

That is what sports is all about . . . the possibilities are endless.

Courtesy of Jamoja Magazine