David Martini did not come to UCLA planning to play rugby.

He picked up the sport at the end of sophomore year, after playing two seasons as a wide receiver for the Bruins, because he was “just looking for something to do.”

“My brother told me to try playing rugby,” Martini said. “He told me, ‘You know how to run, you know how to tackle – it’s a fun game.’”

In June, Martini graduated from UCLA and headed to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista to play in the USA Rugby Men’s All-Star Sevens Championship as one of the 18 best collegiate players in the country.

Considering the minute number of high school rugby programs in the U.S., these crossover athletes have been integral to the growing success of the UCLA men’s rugby club.

Two years ago, a Bruin squad, half comprised of players with no pre-college experience, placed 16th in the National Collegiate Playoffs.

So when the UCLA men’s rugby club hosts its first annual training camp this week, they know it will be much more than an opportunity to refine their skills.

The team needs to attract athletes to a sport that they’ve probably never played, or even seen played, before.

“Most of our recruiting happens in zero week,” said third-year physiological science student Dave Anders-Richard, the team’s vice president. “It’s good to have our platform developed and in place, so that we can really attract people by showing how professional our team is.”

This sense of professionalism becomes even more important considering rugby’s reputation in the U.S. as a less-padded, more brutal version of football. And while rugby players don’t deny the game’s physical intensity, they are also quick to mention that there is more to a good rugby player than sheer muscle.

With such a wide variety of positions on the 15-man team – from the large, strong forwards to the shrewd, tenacious scrum-half – the diversity needed to form a successful team lends itself to a spirit of acceptance.

“The most important thing to dismiss is that you have to be ‘big,’” Anders-Richard said. “What you do have to be is committed and driven. You have to have a cool head and patience. Many of the football players who’ve joined us love the increased mental side of the game.”

That “mental side” of a player’s skill is essential to a game that can be as strategically complex as it is physically demanding.

The fundamental structure of the game is similar to football, as teams of 15 players face off in attempts to touch a ball to the ground inside the end zone for five points or kick it over a goal post for three.

Then it gets complicated.

No forward passing is allowed, although the ball can be run forward or kicked forward by any player, and only the player in possession of the ball can be tackled in order to force the ball to the ground and cause a turnover.

The tackled player must release the ball, creating a ruck – a fight for the ball in which anyone may pick it up and run with it. This moment forms the basis for rugby’s legendary sense of teamwork.

“It does no good for a player to run away from his team because that leads to a turnover,” third-year classics and English student Leonard Bragg, the club’s president, said.

“Teammates cannot simply watch a breakaway runner run, but have to follow him in support to maintain possession.”

Such rapid changes in possession – and the fact that play only stops when a player scores, fouls or goes out of bounds – limit the effectiveness of preset plays. It’s the equivalent of running the option for 80 straight minutes.

Combine that with the scrums, mauls and line-outs that occur throughout the game, and there’s a lot to keep track of.

Rugby’s intricacies have been developed over the last 250 years, since it emerged as a spin-off of the football game played at England’s Rugby School.

But while the game’s long history has made it complicated, it has also created what players maintain is one of rugby’s most meaningful aspects: its traditions.

“(The traditions) are an integral part of our sport, and it keeps a lot of people playing when they’re beat up and feeling down,” Anders-Richard said. “It’s massively important.”

Among the most important of these traditions is the “third half.”

The third half alludes to the post-game festivities which traditionally follow every rugby game.

Regardless of the game’s roughness or outcome, all players are obliged to come together in a post-game celebration replete with traditional chants, songs and general revelry.

“There is a great tradition of camaraderie in rugby that I think surpasses any other sport,” Bragg said. “Teams socialize after matches – even after tackling each other for 80 minutes, we still provide a post-game meal to teams that play us here at UCLA.”

And it is that feeling of belonging, both with fellow players and with a sport so rich in history, that players say gives rugby such strong appeal.

“You play against a team and you beat each other up, but then you go out and hang out with these guys from all over the world,” Martini said.

“You’re their enemy on the field, but after the game, you’re like a collective rugby family.”