Bestselling author Jay Atkinson explores what his thirty year career as a rugby-playing vagabond has taught him about authenticity, commitment, passion and the joys of raising hell If all sports are really about war, then rugby is a heartthumping epic of bayonet charges and hand-to-hand fighting. In Memoirs of a Rugby-Playing Man, Jay Atkinson describes his thirty year odyssey in the sport: from his hell raising days at the University of Florida, through the intrigue of various foreign tours, club championships, all star selections, up to his current stint with the freewheeling Vandals Rugby Club out of Los Angeles. Atkinson has played in more than 475 matches, for which he’s suffered three broken ribs, a detached retina, fractured cheekbone and orbital bone, four deadened teeth, and a dislocated ankle. Atkinson’s book explains why it was all worth it—the sum total of his violent adventures, and the valuable insight he has gained from them.