Justin Whitehead Cup

Today I turned a new page in my rugby career. After a four year layoff, I returned to the pitch to play in the 3rd annual Justin Whitehead Cup match between the Austin RFC and the Austin Huns RFC. The cup is named in honor of Justin Whitehead, a former Hun rugger who died from ALS in 2007. Justin exemplified the spirit of rugby on and off the pitch. I was lucky enough to play next to Justin for the Huns 1998-2000, so participating in this match meant a lot to me personally.

I arrived at Burr Field at 2:45 PM, well after the 2:00 kick off, because I was selected to play in the 2nd side match against San Antonio. However, when I showed up, Kirk Tate -- the Huns coach and my former coach -- informed me that I was on the Blacks 22 man roster for the match. He joked that he new the Blacks were desperate for numbers when he saw my name. Well, it was news to me, but within minutes of my arrival Todd Oosterhouse asked me to warmup and play 30 minutes on the flank.

After a brief warm up I took the pitch at blindside flanker. We (Austin Blacks) were losing by 5 points. We scored a converted try to take a 2 point lead before Kregg Hyer -- a touch rugby league teammate of mine -- broke free for an 80 meter unconverted try. The Huns lead by 3 with approximately 15 minutes to play. They followed with another uncoverted try after a long recovered kick.

Our prospects looked bleak with less than 10 minutes to play and trailing by 8 points. The Huns were winning every set piece -- easily outjumping our locks in the line outs and shoving us off the ball in the scrum. With 5 minutes to play we scored a converted try after winning a Huns 5 meter scrum against the head. On the next restart the Huns were penalized for diving over in the ruck. Our scrumhalf pinned them deep in their own territory and we won the ensuing lineout. With very little time left our fly half attempted a drop kick. Although his opposite number-- Luis Sanchez -- got a hand on it, the ball went over and we won by 2 with no time to play. It was a dramatic finish to a sloppy but hard fought match.

Now the record stands that in the 31 years of the Huns existence they still have yet to beat the Blacks. Furthermore, the Blacks retained the Justin Whitehead Cup. I joked to Luis after the game that I always knew the first time the Huns beat the Blacks, I would be playing for the Blacks. But it didn't happen today. I was proud of my small role in the victory but I was even more proud to have been a part of this special match played to honor the memory of a departed friend.

This was one of those glorious rugby days where the weather was perfect and the competition was fierce. When I stopped playing rugby four years ago, I was surprised to find that I really missed the relationships more than even playing the game. Today I reconnected with many of my former teammates as a player and a friend.