again and I will see you all tonight."

The Amity team then picked up their sports bags and filed out of the sheds. Some, however, stayed behind to shower so that they could get clean and fresh. There were only 6 shower cubicles so not everyone could go at the same time, but they waited in anticipation for the cubicles to be vacant after their teammates would be finished. Scamp, Tramp and the Ex-JD's also went for a quick shower. This time, Scamp did not show any sign of hatred towards bathing, as much as he never really liked to freshen up with water all over his body. I guess that when dad showed me the way he used to shower under the dripping water from the water tank, he introduced an alternative cleansing option. Scamp thought. I do like doing it this way better, so this could be 'the lesser of the two evils' if you will. He chuckled at this small joke that he made. He meant that he thought that showering instead of bathing was a faster and more preferred option.

After they and teammates had finished showering and exited the sheds, some went to liaise with their families, partners and mates who were apart of the home spectator crowd, while others headed straight for their cars to leave the sports field. 

The ambulance that had been called by the Amity trainers was parked on the grass of the home teams' sideline; and the paramedics had put the injured Amity centre onto the stretcher and loaded him into the vehicle. As the doors were about to be shut, Red's teammates, in sympathy and best wishes but also for his efforts on today's game, applauded him. Red put up his hand and gave his team the thumb as they did so, symbolizing his appreciation for their praise and the fact that his fighting spirit was still there. The team applauded louder and cheered after he did this. The paramedics then shut the doors, got into their driver and passenger seats and drove away, heading for St. Raphael's Hospital in New Haven's town centre.

Scamp and Tramp then met up with their family. Lady, her daughters and Angel immediately embraced them in joy and praise but also with of love.

"Congratulations on the win, my boys!" Lady cried in a thrill as she hugged her beloved mate. "You played beautifully and I am really proud of you. That was an amazingly gutsy effort from you both."

"Thank you, Pidge." Tramp replied in delight.

"Yeah, the physicality of that game was so brutal that I thought you weren't going to come out alive." Danielle said in a half joking manner, but in reality she was amazed at how hard her brother and father had played.

"It's like a battlefield in this sport." Tramp responded. "Battles will always be fought and won but the war will never be over."

"It's funny you say that, dad." Scamp, in surprise amusement, said to his old man. "I think that is an old English proverb."

"Really?!" Tramp replied, seemingly not knowing that supposed fact. "How ironic: I never knew that!"

"Well, now that you know, you will not be able to pass that on as your own material to forthcoming generations." Scamp joked. His father and the others laughed at this.

"Very clever, Scamp." Colette responded, enjoying the joke.

"By the way," Angel spoke to her mate in slight concern. "Are you feeling okay, Scamp? That was a nasty hit on you by that Cheshire player."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Scamp assured. "He just slammed me onto my back. It winded me for a bit but it quickly wore off. It doesn't hurt much now, really."

"You are lucky that he didn't drive you in head first." Annette added. "That would have made it two hospital beds for rugby players in one game."

"Yeah, lucky break." Scamp said. "Hopefully there will be more of them. By the way, dad..." He focused his eyes onto his father as his mind switched to his injured teammate. "Any word on Red?"

"Neither Reede nor the other coaches can confirm further details as yet, but his knee is definitely critical and it looks like he could be out for some time. They said that the medical staff will contact him once they know exactly what the problem is. We should be able to find out tonight at the club. Don't worry."

"No problem." Scamp responded.

"Oh, and Scamp got man of the match today!" Tramp excitedly said to his mate and daughters. "His tackling, support and match winning try got him at number one for the team's top stars" 

After hearing this, they all came up and embraced Scamp heavily, saying their congratulations and how proud of him they were. Scamp was flattered, but tried not to pride himself too much on his performance.

"Thank you. But this honor belongs to all of you as well. If not for your tremendous support, it would have been impossible to capture."

His family, close to tears, felt touched by this and embraced him once again. Once it was finished, they started to get moving.

"Now let's head on home." Lady said. "If you boys are going to go the club tonight for post-match refreshments, you will need to wash up and get fresh. Let's go."

And with that said, the canine Brown family headed to their cars and got ready to drive back home.

 *

That evening, at the Yale Club, both the Amity and Cheshire rugby players and coaches sat and stood around in the bar and dining area drinking and eating their evening meals. Scamp liaised with Mooch, Spanner Blignaut, Stamford Vilaspos, Taylor Franklin, Vivian Prestona and Dani Bageera at one table; while Tramp, Scratchy, Dreamer, Star Denum, Woody Englehart, Reede, and fitness coach Schalk liaised at another table. While doing so, Tramp, being so considerate as he was, felt eager to get the matter of the details of his injured teammate off of his chest:

"Excuse me, Coach." Tramp asked Reede. "Did the hospital call back at all?"

"They did." Reede replied, seemingly regretful to announce this negative injury report to his players. "Bad news: Red has completely ruptured his ACL. The doctors say that he will need at least 8 months recovery; so therefore his season is over. Great start for this poor canine, indeed (!)"

"No!" Tramp quietly replied in shock at this announcement. Dreamer and the other players at this table gasped and expressed a state of surprised shock.

"F***, man!" The team captain responded even more quietly so that, because he just swore, he could barely be heard by his players. "This is only the start of the season and he is one of the toughest players that we have. He is a good runner of the ball and he can hit the opposition harder than any of us. So losing him is a blow."

"You're right, cappie." Reede responded. "He looked great today and there was certainly potential for him to get high in the stats rankings, but we have to find a suitable replacement in the meantime. I think Faulk should take his place as he can sidestep well, palm off strong and almost always lead off from the defensive line to be the first one to put pressure on the offense."

"Yeah, he broke the line on two occasions and busted a few tackles after Red came off; so I think that he will be a suitable replacement." Tramp optimistically responded. "And we have plenty of good reserves in the team, so as long as they stick around our team should still be strong."

"Very good point, Tramp." The captain said. "We do have some very good players, so this injury scare shouldn't affect us too much."

"Not at all." Reede assured. "We'll manage."

Meanwhile, at the table that Scamp and Mooch were at, the Cheshire RFC flanker who laid the dangerous tackle on Scamp earlier in the day had come over to speak to him.

"Excuse me, uh...sorry, what is your name?" He asked gently when he got to the table.

"Scamp." the young schnauzer replied calmly, not showing any disapproval at him even after what he did, because the flanker's tone of voice was very sincere and polite.

"Sunil." He replied, also introducing himself before immediately cutting to the chase. "I just wanted to apologize for that hit that I made on you today. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. No pain at all now. I think you just got me slightly banged up, but it's nothing, really. That's rugby. It happens, you know. Apology accepted."

"Thanks, Scamp." Sunil replied, relieved that he could be forgiven. They then both shook paws in respect for each other.

"And you guys played a fantastic game today." Sunil added. "You deserved to win. And well done on scoring that try to win the game."

"Well, thanks a lot, Sunil." Scamp replied. "Your team also played hard and strong through and through, so you gave us a real run for our money, or 'bones'; should I say? Heh, heh. So anyway, keep playing hard and best of luck for the rest of the season."

"You too, thanks."

And they respectively smiled at each other before Sunil parted to go back to liaise with his teammates.

"There's a classy rugby player for you." Vivian responded with approval at what just took place.

"That's the perfect example of how rugby is, quote, 'a hooligan's game for gentleman'." Spanner added. 

"Hear! Hear!" The other canines at the table cheered as they raised a toast in clinking their glasses.

Scamp then got out his iPad and searched through the canine rugby website, where he found the statistics from today's game:

 

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