Rugby is American football, without pads and helmets, and without mass substitutions – and if you’re bleeding after a hit, nothing to it, ’tis but a scratch.

“I hate being pulled out, even just to catch my breath. I want to be out there for the full 80 minutes,” said Perry Allen, a member of the Virginia Rugby Football Club, which will host the Virginia Beach Falcons on Saturday at VFW Post 1827 in Charlottesville in the first round of the Division 3 playoffs.

Significant others, prospective players, no worries – it’s safe.

More on that as we dive into the sport.

To the UVA Basketball fans who thought they wanted Will Wade over Ryan Odom, and you know who you are, Wade not only already lost his way out of his first NCAA Tournament at NC State, with last night’s last-second defeat in the First Four, but he’s also a loser.

I’ll be heading to Philly on Thursday to cover the first weekend of the 2026 NCAA Tournament, with a focus on #9 Virginia, which opens play on Friday as the #3 seed in the Midwest Region.

On the podcast, I offer insight into what we’ve learned about the first-round opponent, #14 seed Wright State, the champ of the Horizon League.

I also offer a travel itinerary – I get to be a tourist, too, in between games.

Beth Macy did a sitdown with me for this week’s “Street Knowledge” podcast.

Macy is a triple threat: journalist, bestselling author (Dopesick), and now, congressional candidate – running for the Democratic Party nomination in the Sixth District in Virginia.

We talked at length about her work on Dopesick and her most recent book, Paper Girl, which has the hook of Macy revisiting her rural Ohio hometown to try to figure out how it went so MAGA in her years away.

The conversation then shifts to the impact of NAFTA and globalization on Appalachian economies, and how the job losses factored into the opioid and heroin crises here in our part of Virginia.

We wrap with a rundown of where we are politically, and Macy’s priorities if elected.

You want to know what I really think about how UVA Athletics treats people?

You already know that I’ve been going to bat for fans who are getting screwed out of a home football game so that the fat cats can have an excuse to go to Brazil.

And how I feel about the this is not a reseating reseating policy for UVA Basketball that is pricing a generation of fans out of their seats.

What you didn’t know, until last night, was how UVA Athletics treats the people who write articles about the games, the players, the coaches, like utter crap.

Yeah, so, whatever, me making an issue of it means I won’t get to sit in the stadium with my laptop to report on games anymore.

Think of the money I’ll be saving on driving, flying and hotels to go to bowl games, March Madness, the College World Series.

The job of sportswriter is amazing fun, but it’s a job – and the people who work in the field deserve to be treated with respect.

Not that the folks over there care …

Let’s see if the ‘Hoos can get back on track Tuesday night against a Wake Forest team that seems to be better than me than its 15-14 record would seem to indicate.

The Deacs played Duke better in Cameron, lost by one in OT to Michigan – that one was back in November, but still.

And they’re 4-2 in their last six.

I wouldn’t look past them, is what I’m saying.

Thijs de Ridder hit an open three at the 17:02 mark, his second basket in the opening three minutes.

We didn’t know it at the time, but Virginia’s next bucket wouldn’t come for another seven and a half minutes.

A Chance Mallory three on a fast break got the ‘Hoos to within 19-12 with 7:52 to go, but three Duke threes – by Darren Harris and Dame Sarr – in the next two minutes pushed the lead to 16, and the rout was on.

Virginia, which came into the game on a nine-game winning streak, never got closer than 12 the rest of the way – basically never got off the deck after taking the series of body blows.

The final score was Duke 77, Virginia 51.

It didn’t feel that close, if that’s possible.

Tom Perriello knew when he cast his vote for the Affordable Care Act in 2010 that it may very well cost him his job as a freshman congressman.

He did it anyway.

Because it was the right thing to do.

Imagine that.

“I think when we think about what we do right and what we don't do right, what people remember is when we stand up for people,” said Perriello, who is back in the political game, running for the Democratic Party nomination in, well, either the Fifth District or Sixth District, depending.