Skins Vs Skins

'Wanna Ruck?'

We all remember in Jr. High when the gym teacher would pick teams and yell that it was shirts vs skins.  I never minded being on either team, but was always a little nervous of getting red or that my nipples would get hard.  It was hard enough going through puberty while still in the closet, it was harder when aroused while in gym class.  Usually I kept it together, but the stress of being 'found out' still haunts me.  Why I wasted all that time.

Not sure what I would have done if the teacher had yelled skins vs skins, and I had to strip off every piece of clothing, but don't think I would have made it through to the bell ring.  In Dunedin, NZ however, that's exactly what happened to a team back in 2002.  The All-Blacks Rugby Team was a  national treasure in NZ, which is why the Nude Blacks took on their name.

It began as almost a joke during a backpackers festival.  A group of students from Otago University challenged visiting backpackers to a match on the beach.  The twist, they'd play nude. The matches soon became an unofficial, cold-weather curtain-raiser held in Dunedin ahead of major international rugby events.  It may have began as a joke, but became incredibly popular. 

The team even use the visibility to raise money for charity, this year helping a 6-year-old girl with leukemia. Their popularity is a sign of how relaxed other parts of the world are about nudity.  The Nude Blacks also travel, and are playing England in the clip included in this piece.