#earneddominance

The rugby pitch was empty, but it wasn’t quiet.

Morning mist clung low to the grass, curling around Wells’ calves as he jogged out onto the field in full Golden Army practice kit. Gold jersey with black accents stretched tight across his chest. Tight-fitting gold rugby shorts that didn’t shift when he moved. Black socks banded with gold stripes, gold cleats biting into damp turf.

No name. No number. Just work.

Coach waited at the halfway line.

Black Golden Army rugby jersey, COACH stamped in gold across chest and back. Black socks. Black cleats. Skin-tight black rubber rugby shorts that didn’t wrinkle when he moved. A whistle hung loose against his sternum. No hat. No softness.

Wells cut across the field and slowed ten meters short, restless, cocky, ready. He bounced once on his toes, then squared up.

“Line,” Coach said.

Wells stepped onto the paint, gold against white against green. Coach paced a slow circle around him, cleats pressing into the turf with deliberate weight.

“You’re training,” Coach said. “Not performing.”

Wells didn’t drop the grin. “Still planning to watch, though.”

Coach stopped. “I watch to correct.”

The whistle cracked.

Wells tore down the pitch. Thirty meters. Stop. Turn. Go again. The gold kit clung tighter with every sprint, breath sharpening, heat blooming beneath compression.

“Again,” Coach called.

Then again. And again.

By the fourth sprint Wells’ lungs burned and mist curled around his knees. Coach raised the whistle, longer this time, and stepped directly into Wells’ path.

Not blocking. Claiming space.

“Posture,” Coach said, lifting two fingers toward Wells’ chest. “You’re leaning. That’s not dominance—that’s impatience.”

Wells straightened immediately.

Coach nodded once. “Good. Hold it.”

Contact drills came next.

Coach raised the pad, stance wide and immovable, rubber shorts gleaming under cold daylight. Wells hit hard, thud, cleats tearing at wet grass.

“Lower,” Coach ordered.

Wells hit again, deeper. Legs screaming. Sweat darkening the gold jersey, rolling down his spine.

“Again.”

Impact. “Again.” Harder.

By the fifth rep Wells bent slightly, hands braced above his knees, breath dragging in and out, grin still refusing to quit.

Coach let the whistle swing slowly on its cord.

“Sooner or later,” Coach said, “you’re going to be at the bottom of a ruck with a bunch of big, burly men stacked on top of you. If you want to play this game, you’d better learn how to stay solid and keep your shape.”

Wells wiped his jaw with his forearm, grin sharpening. “Guess it’s a good thing I’m used to holding my ground when things get heavy.”

Coach tilted his head just enough to acknowledge the nerve.

“I’ve seen you hold shape when it’s easy, Wells,” he said. “We’ll see how clever you are when the pack decides you’re the problem.”

A pause, thin, charged, deliberate.

Then the faintest hint of a smirk. Gone as soon as it appeared.

Coach pointed toward the far try line. “Carry.”

Wells took the ball and ran, not fast, not flashy. Clean. Controlled. Shoulders stacked. Hips aligned. Gold cutting through mist like it belonged there.

He crossed the line upright and turned, posture unbroken, chest heaving, eyes locked on Coach. No celebration. No ask.

One short whistle.

Approval. Minimal. Earned.

Coach walked forward across paint and turf. As he passed behind Wells, he delivered a firm, grounding pat to the rear, half acknowledgment, half reminder.

“Shower,” Coach said, voice low and final. “Don’t drag.”

Wells nodded once and jogged toward the tunnel, gold kit clinging to him like a challenge he’d barely met.

Coach stayed at midfield, black rooted, unchanged, as gold disappeared off the pitch.

Training ended the way it always did.

No praise. No applause. Just orders.

And Wells already hungry for the next one.