GET A LOAD OF THE WRIST ON THAT GUY! No. 11 looks like Stephen Siano trying to tackle his brother Michael. Either that or the over-the-top gay friend from Will and Grace just got thrown into his first rugby match. But then he'd be running in the other direction. Or maybe not. You can make up your own back story to go with the picture.

Whatever the game of rugby football is, whether it's played by men or women, straight or gay, it is not about limp wrists. This, or course, was one of those "happy accident" moments that happen sometimes when you're shooting photos of action, as I was over the weekend. The large bearded fellow is a forward from Brandywine Rugby Club who is being harrassed, like a lion by hyenas, by three members of the Schuylkill River Exiles back line.

You can probably guess that I was a proud member of the forward pack during my rugby playing days. I won't say that there is "resentment" or "envy" among front row and second row forwards towards, say, wings and fullbacks who score flashy tries after we have done all the work in scrums, rucks, lineouts and rolling mauls just to get them the ball. I will say that there is no sight in rugby sweeter than a prop, hooker or lock making an open field break late in the second half.

Thankfully, rugby has evolved into an exciting 15-man sport where any player can and does score touchdowns (tries) at any time. When I started playing rugby a try was worth three points and a tight head prop was expected to score such a marvelous thing maybe once or twice in a career. The job of the front five forwards was like that of offensive linemen in football. Win the ball by any means necessary, and then immediately hand it over to the adults in the backline who "knew better" what to do with such a sacred object. In 1969 a rugby forward was expected to play like a luckless draftee into the infantry. All grunt, no glory.

So forgive me if I get a special kick out of this picture. For some reason I think of another struggle for equal opportunity that was raging when I started playing the game. "Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, we're free at last!"