I don't know how long I stood in the kitchen, staring at the letter in my hand. The word "Accepted", standing bold and firm against the rest of the text, kept swimming in and out of my vision. In the background I could hear mum hollering with joy and dad on the phone, excitedly proclaiming his son was in.
Eventually, after the twentieth re-read, I was certain this wasn't a hoax or one of those rejection letters that they word so vaguely you don't actually know if you've been passed over. Only then did I start to smile, which broke into a big grin, eventually cascading into full-blown laughter.
"Mr. Craig Ray, we are ecstatic to inform you that you have been selected to join the Tamworth Purple Headed Warriors, the premiere Small Town Rules Rugby League team in New South Wales."
I read it another ten times to be sure I wasn't dreaming. Mum and dad confirmed it. Twice each. There was a physical and another interview I still had to pass, but otherwise, I had made it. The promised land...
Small Town Rules Rugby was seen as a bit of a fringe sport by most people. A lot of folks hadn't even heard of it, but if you knew it, and you knew the rules, and if you could make even a five-year career out of it, you were set for life. Money coming out your arse. Enough to provide for me and the folks a hundred times over for the rest of our lives.
All I had to do was pass the physical and the interview next Monday.
I rocked up about an hour early to the clinic where the testing was done, pacing around the waiting room. While I was there I struck up a convo with the other new guys, all waiting for the physical too. There was big thick Oli Mills, with his carefully-cropped beard and hair; chiseled blonde Gordon Robbins, who looked like he'd just come straight from the farm; and good old Herman Earls, bit of a baby face even with his facial hair, but definitely the best looking fella out of all of us.
I'd seen these blokes before at the other screening points- the first physical, the interviews, the fitness tests- so we were pretty comfortable chatting away. I reckon it helped pass the time and calm us down.
Finally, the door to the doctor's office opened and out stepped our new sports physio. Right behind him was the coach, Davey John, not long retired and still a muscled bastard; and the captain, Sidney Green. I couldn't tell you how many wanks I'd had picturing these two, and now they were both here in the flesh, shaking my hand and steering me into the office.
"Right lads, final stage of the process today." Rumbled Davey, casually removing his polo shirt and track pants to stand naked in front of us.
"Our physio Marco is gonna give you guys a final check, and while he does that Sidney and I are gonna ask you some questions." He concluded, his half-rigid cock already bouncing up and down.
I'd been so transfixed by coach's naked body I hadn't realised Sidney and Marco had also stripped off behind us.
"OK then," Sidney said, moving to stand next to the coach and show off his equally-rigid knob.
"Strip off, clothes on the chair over there, line up."
We did as we were told, and soon Marco was moving down the line, feeling all over each of us, including the four hard dicks that were clearly at his eye level. While he did his work and made notes in his chart, Sidney began the questions.
"Oli, when and why was Small Town Rugby established as a sport?"
"1976 sir, as part of the sexual revolution and queer rights movement. But now anyone can play, they don't have to be gay sir." Stammered Oli, as Marco was lapping precum off his cockhead.
"Very good, but don't need the 'sir', captain will do fine. Gordon, how is Small Town Rugby different from other forms of rugby?"
I had to admire Gordon, he gave a very coherent answer considering Marco was finger-banging his arse.
"The games are played naked Captain, aside from shoes and socks in the team colours. Also the scoring system is different. Oh and uh, the two teams fuck at the end."
"Excellent. Herman- once Marco's finished testing your deep throat skills- how are points scored in Small Town Rugby?"