Rugby players

Scarborough RUFC players about to scrum down against Huddersfield today.

When I first got into press photography, it was my Saturday job. I would call into the News and Mail office on Friday after college, pick up 2 or 3 rolls of Tri-X, and be told which football game to go and snap with my Fujica SLR and 135mm Vivitar lens. Oh yes, the very best kit... I still have that camera!
If the weather was, or turned, bad then it was off to the rugby club, who played in all weathers. I enjoyed snapping rugby in the rain, as it brought out that kind of grunting effort by the players, slavered in mud. I must have got soaked doing pics sometimes, but I can't remember now...
A huge influence on my early sports photography was the work of Chris Smith in the Sunday Times, and Eamonn McCabe in the Observer, who both shot the 'unseen moment' of sports, in grainy black and white.
So this photo, Photoshopped into mono with added grain (the latest dslrs are just too good!) is a hark back to those early days, and a nod to those masters of sports photography, never forgotten.
BTW, Scarborough lost, 13-38.