the wing. Scratchy called the set plays and passed the ball to the acting fly-half, but sometimes he would even practice running the ball himself through the defensive line to gain some extra metres. Tramp usually got the ball after the fly-half and he would further pass it onto the outside centre for most of the time, but other plays he would take a quick run himself or pass the wingers or full back. Sparky would usually stand the widest of all the backs and then follow them when they ran forward during the plays; where he would sometimes receive the ball last at the conclusion of a particular play and finish it off; but in other plays where the scrum-half was close to his end, he would stand on the outside behind the fly-half and follow him when he got the ball to be ready to receive a possible quick pass and take it into the defensive line.

After a series of set plays and defensive work, several backs broke away from the pack to practice their kicking; and Tramp was among this group. In groups of two lined up face to face at a longer distance than the passing drills, they started by punting to each other; then kicking high; then grubber kicking, or kicking the ball along the ground. They then practiced place-kicking to get the ball through the goal posts. Unfortunately Tramp could not place kick as well as he punted or grubber-kicked and he only kicked a couple through the posts and over the cross bar. The canines with the most success was a Staffordshire terrier called Vivian; who was a centre, and a bloodhound called Dreamer; who was a fly-half/centre. Vivian only missed 6 and Dreamer only missed 5, so these two were certainly looking promising for selection. They all then practiced drop-kicking, and Tramp was better at this than place-kicking as he kicked with a beautiful strike off the boot and precision virtually every time; and he, along with Vivian and Dreamer, got his fare share of misses and makes; so Tramp was now looking assured in the eyes of the coaches.

After an hour of drills from the backs and forwards, Reede called them all over with the blow of his whistle:

“Alright everyone, gather around, please! Hurry up!”

And they all ran in and hustled up together around Reede while the assistant coaches formed together in their own hustle and began to discuss the performances of both the groups and the individual players themselves.

While they were doing so, Reede continued talking to all 56 canines:

“Now, let’s all split into two groups of two teams. You will be performing a full in-game routine against each other where you will run the ball on offense and semi-tackle in defense. All of the basic skills that you have learned today will be put into practice in a game mode. So this will be like a scrimmage; and you will all go for 30 minutes. Just remember all the skills that you have been through today and combine them all into one to use in a match situation. Those of you who can master all or most of your skills out on the pitch will definitely contend for this rugby team. If some of you cannot succeed in everything but do well in most other skills; like if you run fast and gain big metres but cannot tackle as well; you will still be a possible contender for this team because you will still have time during the pre-season to improve. But as I said before; go out to scrimmage and use all of the skills that you now know to make a name for yourselves on the rugby field. All I ask is for you to give it your best shot. Now let’s move! Go!”

And all immediately broke off to two separate rugby pitches in two groups of 28 canines; with two teams of 14 canines in each group; to begin their scrimmages.

Tramp, Scratchy and Sparky played in the same group as Scamp and Mooch, but played against them in the opposing team.

The team receiving the ball spread their players out amongst their own 50-metre square. The forwards stayed more central inside the square while the backs spread to the outer parts of the circle. All were scattered in different areas to be ready to receive the ball from the kickoff. And the team kicking the ball all lined up on the halfway, or 50 metre line to be ready to charge their opponents once the fly-half drop kicked the ball; provided they stayed behind the kicker before he kicked off, otherwise they would be penalized for offside.

Caleb and Alistor acted as the referees for the two separate scrimmages; but this was also to keep a close watch on all the players to see how well they were playing and therefore come to a final conclusion as to whether or not they would indeed make the team.

Then they both blew their whistles and the two fly-half’s drop kicked the ball up high and both groups of teams collided to begin the scrimmage. During gameplay, the team with the ball concentrated on running the set plays through the increasing number of phases (e.g. phase 1 would be the players using the ball to pass and run up the field; and then after the ball carrier is tackled, the ruck forms over him to push the opposing ruckman to keep possession of the ball, and then once the ball is recycled from the ruck to the attacking players, phase 2 begins; and so on). Some phases would involve short passes to the forwards near the ruck so they could run and gain short extra metres before being tackled, and some involved passing to the backs to execute the set plays. The idea of the forwards running some phases was to give the backs time to set themselves into their positions for the upcoming set plays, and once they got going, they tried every trick in the book; off-loading, handing off, short flick passes, side-stepping, etc.; to break the tackles and defensive line to gain metres.

When on defense, the players followed and watched their marked dog, and when the ball carrier got close, they would crouch down and look as if they were about to tackle them at the waist, but as soon as they touched the attacking player, the referee would call ‘held’ and he would drop to the ground and release the ball to his side as his fellow attacking teammates joined in to form the ruck. This was all part of the rule of the semi-contact scrimmage: The defenders only needed to touch the attackers to make a tackle and by the referee’s call of ‘held’, the attacker had to go to ground for the breakdown to begin. Sometimes the attackers would run through the defense even if they got slightly touched and keep running up the field until the referee made his call.

When deep in defense and close to their own try line, the attacking team would often punt kick the ball away to the other end of the field to relieve pressure and make the opposing team run back towards their end.  And sometimes, when the attacking team got closer to their opposition’s end zone, they would perform high up-and-under kicks and run after the ball to compete for and catch it in a hope of advancing onto the try line.

Scamp and Mooch became very effective in and around the breakdown play at the ruck. Mooch wasn’t the fastest canine out on the field, but it didn’t seem to matter because practically every single breakdown he would be there to support and drive the opposition back hard and fast; and at times when he was loose on the attacking line, the scrum-half would, on a rare occasion, give him the ball and Mooch would run those extra couple of metres.

Scamp was also very helpful as he followed the ball carriers just about everywhere they ran; and at the breakdown, if he was not pushing or driving, he mostly stood close to or next to the ruck (being the Post Y or X dog) and the scrum-half would perform short passes to him and he would also assist in gaining those short metres; and when in defense, he stayed around the middle of the field and always ran forward and stayed low to be ready to semi-tackle his marked dog; so Scamp’s defensive playing was very precise.

On their opposition’s side, Tramp, Sparky and Scratchy were also working as hard as they could in the backline; continuing where they left off during set-play practice. Scratchy, at scrum-half position, followed the ball carriers and recycled the ball from the ruck to his surrounding teammates every time while also calling the set plays and organizing his team into forthcoming offensive maneuvers. Sometimes he would call for the forwards to surround him more often so that they could receive the ball and drive for short metres for 3 to 4 phases before he would pass to the backline. This way the backs would get time to set themselves into position for the upcoming set plays. Other times Scratchy would get the backs to perform a series of 2 to 3 consecutive set plays. The way that he mixed between forward and back plays appeared to confuse the opposition.

Tramp, at inside centre, often received the ball from the fly-half and always passed it short to the supporting outside centre or even long to the full back and wing. He rarely did any solo running as he always had the least time with the ball and he was desperate to keep the phases lengthy and therefore effective enough to gain metres up the field.

Sparky, at wing, ended up the rarest on his team to receive the ball as all the players were given a chance to run; but the few times that he did receive the ball, he ran at his fastest speed and managed to get his team further up the field just about every time he went. Plus on several plays that were near his side of the field, he ran and supported the fly-half in case the ball was going to be passed to him, and once when it did, Sparky ran hard and fast into the defensive line. He was also very committed on defense as he watched his opposing winger