Saturday."

And with that, the team broke off, went to grab their bags from the team sheds and filed out from the playing fields. 

But Scamp approached Reede as everyone was leaving and had the urge to ask him something that had been on his mind for a while.

"Hey, Coach." Scamp began.

"Hi, Scamp." Reede replied, who then immediately expressed his observations to his second rower with impression. "You are looking pretty sharp out there, bud. You have recieved so many takes in the lineout, you are defending well and tackling hard, your support for the ball carrier is  incredibly consistent, and you have gotten so many runs with the ball. I will not lie when I say that I am very impressed with you. You are certainly one of our most commited forwards, so you are going to be one of our first choice second rowers."

"Well, thanks, Coach." Scamp replied, very flattered by the complements from his 'boss'. 

"Yeah, you certainly seem to know a lot about how to really play the game." Reede further added.

"Well, I am only fresh; and so is my father, Tramp; Mooch; Scratchy; and Sparky. We are all together and we train and study together. We used to be fellow strays, but now we all live in separate homes with our human owners; apart from dad, of course, as I live with him in our mansion. The inspiration to play all came from watching a famous rugby match on TV, and I guess the speed, intensity and physicality of the game caught our attention on the spot."

"I see." Reede, seemingly intrigued, replied. "Which match was it that you saw, may I ask?"

"The 2007 Rugby World Cup Final."

"Ah, yes!" Reede responded in a slightly pleased surprise. "Very hard fought game that one was. A real blessing for South Africa to win that one with how hard they played all tournament."

"Yeah, that is what I wanted to ask you because from your accent, you must be from another country." Scamp remarked again. "Is that where you are from? South Africa?"

"Very good, my boy." Reede replied, even more impressed. "Yes, I was born and grew up in Durban. I played there for 3 years with the local canine rugby club as a loose forward. During that time, our team never won any titles but we did get runner up one year and made the quarter finals the other two, so I have to say that we had a good run. Anyway, after retiring I took up coaching the junior team for one year before moving on to head coach the senior team after their coach stepped  down. We went well and got as far as the semi-final before making the final the following year and claiming the title. It was a great moment in my life and one that I will never forget. Anyway, after that, my owners decided to move from there and come to the USA for a generous offer for a top job in this very state. So now we reside in New Haven, and have been here for almost a year, now. Shortly afterwards, I found this club and discovered that they had a vacant spot for the head coach position. Caleb was originally in charge, but after last season he wanted to 'step down a rank', if you will, after 4 years because of how busy it was getting for him when he had family to take care of, and the position opened up; so I took it. And the rest is history."

"Wow!" Scamp responded in slight awe. "One amazing journey it must have been for you."

"Too right. Having the rugby and traveling experience seemed to be one amazing way to make a living, so who could complain? I do enjoy being here because it is a beautiful state and a nice friendly town. Durban was nice, too; but then again it is good to get a change of scenery in another country. I do hope that my owners can extend their stay."

"Well, best of luck. I am sure they will. Enjoy this country while you can."

"Thank you, Scamp. I will."

Tramp, for a distance, then made a call to his son to get him to come over to their car: "Come on, Scamp! We have to get going before the others wonder where we are!"

Scamp got the message and turned back to his head coach one last time.

"Alright, I have to go now." He said. "Good talking to you, coach, and I'll see you on Saturday."

"Nice to talk to you as well. See you then, Scamp."

And with that, both the elder canine and the younger canine walked their separate ways to soon exit the rugby grounds. 

But they and the rest of the team would only have to wait two more days to come back here for the opening rugby match of the season...

To be continued...

Reede, Caleb, Alistor, Schalk, Vince, Dreamer Forsburg, and Spanner Blignaut (c) BlackJack16

All remaining characters (c) Walt Disney

I fully respect the regulations against copyright violations.

(c) May 2013; BlackJack16.