Yay, they made it into the nationals! [19:13] Riku bring Akira to meet the brother, next will be meet the parents. Finished up 12 ep in a day. The starting eps make me wants to drop it. It got better without unnecessary CGI and I just ignore the weird body shape they are drawn in (some parts look so off. Eg. [22:23] the end scene where the bro greets them). While body type has left the chat.. They pull out an anime just to talk about how tactics works with athleticism. THROUGH THEIR FINAL TACTIC

Just finished first ep. Recommend 'number 24' if you finished this one! It is also about rugby.
For other sports anime with gay undertones: 'tsurune' for some archery. 'sk8' for some skating. 'Gunjou no Fanfare' for some horse-riding (still ongoing, more of ep 1-2) 'Free!' for some swimming. And a real ship sailing is 'Yuri!!! on Ice' for some ice skating. I watch quite alot of sports animes so this is my list. Hope it helps.
(will write another comment here aft i finished the 12 eps [hopefully]... hitting ep2 now)

Yeah... so they played without an 8th guy the whole time until the finale or did he not matter? Surprised nobody stuffed the ball out of anyone's hand the whole time. (especially Riku since he can't tackle)

Last episode 🙁