Don't waste your time playing dirty. Sometimes you're on top of the pile of bodies,sometimes you're on the bottom. The game is 80 minutes long, and in the end, if someone raked you, either you or one of your team mates was able to hit them hard enough at least once by the game's end.

Forces equivalent to 1.5 tons are exerted on a prop's cervical spine in a scrum.-The American Journal of Sports Medicine

In our country, true teams rarely exist... social barriers and persoal ambitions have reduced athletes to dissolute cliques or individuals thown together for mutual profit.
Yet these rugby players, with their muddied, cracked bodies, are struggling to hold onto a sense of humanity that we in america have lost and are unlikely to regain.

The game may only be to move a ball forward on a dirt field, but the task can be accomplished with an unshackled joy and its memories will be a permanent delight.The women (and men) who play on that rugby field are more alive than too many of us will ever be. The foolish emptiness we think we perceive in their existence is only our own.~Victor Cahn

Simply (and frequently) put, Rugby is not a game, it is a life style. Its essence is not drawn simply from the physical competition on the pitch, but also from camaraderie that develops from sharing such an uncommon--common bond. It starts on the field but is reinforced during the post-game gatherings when opponents break bread and toast each other with drink and song. The party is a celebration not just for the victors, but also for the vanquished (and a chance for a redemption of sorts). It is a unique endeavor in athletics. Whereas Vince Lombardi spoke for most competitive sport when he said, "Winning isn't everything, it is the only thing," the rugger, who still wishes to win, values the test of competition and the spirit of the game even more. So perhaps it can all be reduced to a bumper sticker after all {sigh}, "IN RUGBY THERE ARE NO WINNERS, ONLY SURVIVORS." And we survive well together, teammates and foes alike.