Playing rugby this year? POST HERE!

[Thomond78]

Training last night. Training rather well - I've made every tackle in the close-in shit, knocking lads who're on the Munster Junior team back. Jackalled the ball two or three times while doing it as well. All happy days. I make another tackle, get up, go for the ball as he rolls onto my right foot. My left leg is ahead, steadying me for the jackal.

And then I get hit from the side by two lads cleaning out.

And my fucking studs dig in.

And my right knee goes, very, very loudly, "Pop".

And I fucking scream.

It's either the meniscus or a damaged cruciate. Thanks be to Christ, it looks like it's not a torn ligament, as I can stand on it, but every so often it gives this sickening little transverse shimmy. Doing all I can to fix it if it is just a sprain, but, running through the list; J2 semi on Wednesday? Fucked, and that also means probably no final and no medal. Learning to play cricket, especially now I'm finding out I can actually bowl reasonably decent leg spin? Nope, needs a knee, that's you fucked for the foreseeable future. Sailing? Well, hiking or trapezing, don't even make me laugh - fucked. Hill-walking this summer? Fucked. In fact, pretty much all the things you like doing - forget 'em.

And that's if I'm lucky and it's only a couple of months gone before it's back to what it was.

I'm as bleak as an Invercargill Wednesday.

 

[Pfitzy]

Hard luck there Thomond - still its been my experience that the ones you can hear going pop are often not as bad as those that are silent.

 

[Scarfman]

Sorry to hear that, Thommo.

I hate knees. :angryfire:

 

[Pfitzy]

Back home after a big day for the Renegades - won both grades against a massively depleted Roseville. It was so bad for them they had to field their Colts for Second Grade! Apparently about 10 of their First Graders are away with it being school holidays etc.

So I got picked at THP for Seconds which meant jack shit as they weren't going to contest scrums anyway. It was pretty much one way traffic except for a try they nabbed after some turnovers from their very fast winger. I got subbed shortly after halftime because there were a heap of reserves showing up and some new blokes they wanted to trial for First Grade. I've been told my involvement rate is up hugely on last year and today I racked up a few tackles and made sure I hit the rucks hard. Got a few call carries in as well and even broke a couple of tackles - you know the opposition is tired when THAT happens Final score was 45-7 I think.

First Grade unleashed like a bat out of hell - final score was 109-5! Roseville were out on their feet at the end and the club captain said he was ashamed - still they tried right to the end at least and nearly got their second try on the buzzer.

 

[Turban]

First game back today. Well 30mins for 3rds at any rate. Dam I'm unfit, must have spent an hour coughing up a lung after the game. We lost too, and to make it worse I played colts with a handful of the opposition back in the day at their club. But its a great feeling to get back into it, being able to run more than 5m would make it soooo much easier for next week thou!

Sounds like our club is going to struggle at the top grades this year, unfortunatly we are looking like going from table toppers to wooden spooners. Lots of people have left including the unstoppable Ratu who was a one man band at times last year and we've also lost at least 4 other 1st graders including Future Wallaby Stannard. He plays for the Force thou so I'll forgive him.

No injuries either despite not training yet all year, and I went unstrapped into the game for the first time in about 10 yrs.

In a few weeks I'll hopefully be back iunto the swing of things and won't feel like puking for half and hour after the game.

 

[naza]

Bad luck there Thommo. Jump on the Tahs bandwagon mate, that'll put a smile on your dial.

NTA - one of these days the opposition will be so short of numbers you'll have to to fill in and play your mighty Renegades. Sounds like you're playing a very physical brand of footy but then again you've always loved giving yourself a big rap !

Turban mate, you're your own worst enemy. Why no fitness training ? (I say as I settle into my well developed couch groove).

 

[Turban]

Bad luck there Thommo. Jump on the Tahs bandwagon mate, that'll put a smile on your dial.

NTA - one of these days the opposition will be so short of numbers you'll have to to fill in and play your mighty Renegades. Sounds like you're playing a very physical brand of footy but then again you've always loved giving yourself a big rap !

Turban mate, you're your own worst enemy. Why no fitness training ? (I say as I settle into my well developed couch groove).

Cos i'm lazy. I didn't think I was the only seniour rugby player who always swears to 'get fitter' in the off season but comes back less fit than I was at the start of the previous season....

Going to the gym now. And going to hit the creatine once I'm a bit fitter, I'm sick of being stuck between 80 and 85kg I want to hit 90 for the first time ever during the season!

 

[Pfitzy]

Sounds like you're playing a very physical brand of footy but then again you've always loved giving yourself a big rap !

I'm just too lazy to run too far from the rucks so figure I'd better pitch in on the anaerobic side

 

[the gambler]

I suffered the biggest ever defeat of my life on the weekend... 69-0. To be honest we were not that much worse in 11 of the 15 positions. Its just that our front row was completely and utterly smashed and we didn?t win a single lineout so we didn?t stand a chance.

I played 7 for the first time in my life meaning this season alone I have played at least a half a match at fullback, wing, both centres, five eigth, 6, 7 and second row. Not bad considering I have only played 8 games for 4 different teams.

Stop reading here for rugby talk. I now crap on about what happened for the rest of the weekend. Some may get a laugh out of my sillyness.

The game was against Nottingham Law School and was a recruitment drive by my London club to try and get them to all play for us when they move down to London next season. So while the game was a bit of a disaster we still had a cracking weekend. After plenty of beers at the ground and a season ending court session for our team involving lots more beer and rum, we took the young lads for a curry washed down with plenty more beers. They then said thankyou by taking us to the student union (massive uni bar basically)

As you can imagine things were pretty out of control at this point with 40 odd drunk rugby guys turning up to a place teaming with 18 year old girls. Having picked up the infidelety award for playing for 1st grade, 2nd grade and 3rd grade during the year I was being forced to wear handcuffs. While initially cuffed to the fat bastard of a prop dressed in a babys bonnet with dummy I soon found myself chained to a lovely girl who just happened to work at Hooters. The last thing i remember clearly is sending the girlfriend back in london a message saying "hey babe. I won the infidelity award so now I'm handcuffed to a hooters girl... I love you".

Probably not the smartest move? and I managed to make things worse by supposedly sending a message at 2.30am saying "we need to have a serious chat". I say supposedly because to make matters even worse I somehow managed to lose my phone between then (as I was leaving the Union I'm guessing) and getting back to the hotel at 5am after falling asleep in a pool hall trying to watch the Calzaghe Hopkins fight.

So that was the end of the season for the 2nd grade team but I still have one more match left. I'm off to Sardinia this weekend with the thirsty thirds for their end of season tour. Hopefully the rugby will be a bit easier than last weekend.

 

[Pfitzy]

Tell her one of the bastards on your team stole the phone

 

[Thomond78]

Knee getting better. Stable, just some adhesions at the back that are stopping full extension. I have to go for physio to break them down, but it'll be okay. I can go for a gentle run on it, so it'll be right.

The depressing thing is that we got the living shite kicked out of us in the semi last night - and, without blowing smoke up my own arse, it was because what we needed was what I always do, operating as an extra blindside/fetcher/cleaner and especially, one-out tackler.

Fucking depressing watching it and not being able to do anything about it. :'(

 

[Turban]

The fucking ref today called a forward pass after our outside centre picked up the ball after it had gone dead in goal and passed it forward for the 22. How fucked up that we only lost by 3 points and he was an old boy from our club too. He is officially disowned. :angryfire:

 

[Aussie D]

The fucking ref today called a forward pass after our outside centre picked up the ball after it had gone dead in goal and passed it forward for the 22. How fucked up that we only lost by 3 points and he was an old boy from our club too. He is officially disowned. :angryfire:

Had a similar thing happen to me years ago Turbs. Basically missed penalty and the ball went in-goal, forced the ball and then picked it up at which time the opposition arrived and pushed me over the dead ball line. Started walking towards the 22 and passed the ball to my captain who was slightly in front of me and then the ref comes over and calls the forward pass - 5 metre scrum to them. He was our club ref too :nta: Can't remember if they scored a try off the 5m scrum or not though....

 

[Scarfman]

A bit different, but I once played in a team that was not very good. Their gun player gets the ball on our 22, runs around about 10 of us without being touched, dots down under the posts, walks back to take conversion.

He's about 15 metres out when the ref manages to get it through our heads that he hadn't grounded the ball, so it's game on.

Of course, he ran around us all again to dot down.

 

[Turban]

Anyone who's wondering why the icon for this thread is a red cross (I doubt anyone who plays rugby is) should see me today, I'm a good few shades darker all over. :lmao:

 

[the gambler]

Yeah ditto. Thank god it was last game of the season for me. Tour to Sardinia was a great success. After arriving on Friday and having a suitably huge first day/night we were all feeling pretty dusty when we turned up at the ground to watch Alghero's first grade team play before we played their seconds.

Our tour organiser had stressed to our opponents that we were an amateur team that doesnt train, has a No 8-No 9 combination with a combined age of 107 and were there for a good time, not so much a high quality match. However watching the first grade play our team suddenly become quieter and paler as these guys were obviously a quite high quality side playing in the Seria A national competition, the second teir in Italy behind the Top 10. The team was made up of about 6 or 7 Saffas, and 3 Kiwis who were all full time professionals. The 1st grade game was played at a cracking pace, with typical Italian aggression seeing 7 yellow cards being issued (the players had to stand under the posts like in the old days) for everything from late hits, haymakers, stomping and the old jumper over the head and unleash a flurry of punches before he can get his head out. Great to watch.

As for our game thankfully there wasnt much depth in the local club. Despite having 3 more of the imported professionals playing we were able to play a great game of open running rugby scoring some fantastic tries and generally producing by far our best performance of the season despite losing 34-31. There was no doubt the local ref got the man of the match award for making sure the local team won but you have to expect that in Italy.

So my first and most likely last season of rugby in England has come to an end. I have played in rain, snow, hail and sleet. On some brilliant grounds with cracking clubhouses for beers after the game and some shockers with no hot water in the showers. It has been a great experience and an eye opener in many respects. The amount of whinging to the ref during the game was 10 times worse than back home, while the quality of reffing was also well below that that I have experienced back home, hence the whinging I guess. However I have made some genuine friendships and enjoyed all those extra things that only playing rugby and being part of a club can offer. From getting a job, to getting tickets to Twickenham, to going on a tour to Sardinia I have enjoyed every second and will remember as yet another highlight of my 2 year working holiday.

 

[formeropenside]

Yeah ditto. Thank god it was last game of the season for me. Tour to Sardinia was a great success. After arriving on Friday and having a suitably huge first day/night we were all feeling pretty dusty when we turned up at the ground to watch Alghero's first grade team play before we played their seconds.

Our tour organiser had stressed to our opponents that we were an amateur team that doesnt train, has a No 8-No 9 combination with a combined age of 107 and were there for a good time, not so much a high quality match. However watching the first grade play our team suddenly become quieter and paler as these guys were obviously a quite high quality side playing in the Seria A national competition, the second teir in Italy behind the Top 10. The team was made up of about 6 or 7 Saffas, and 3 Kiwis who were all full time professionals. The 1st grade game was played at a cracking pace, with typical Italian aggression seeing 7 yellow cards being issued (the players had to stand under the posts like in the old days) for everything from late hits, haymakers, stomping and the old jumper over the head and unleash a flurry of punches before he can get his head out. Great to watch.

As for our game thankfully there wasnt much depth in the local club. Despite having 3 more of the imported professionals playing we were able to play a great game of open running rugby scoring some fantastic tries and generally producing by far our best performance of the season despite losing 34-31. There was no doubt the local ref got the man of the match award for making sure the local team won but you have to expect that in Italy.

So my first and most likely last season of rugby in England has come to an end. I have played in rain, snow, hail and sleet. On some brilliant grounds with cracking clubhouses for beers after the game and some shockers with no hot water in the showers. It has been a great experience and an eye opener in many respects. The amount of whinging to the ref during the game was 10 times worse than back home, while the quality of reffing was also well below that that I have experienced back home, hence the whinging I guess. However I have made some genuine friendships and enjoyed all those extra things that only playing rugby and being part of a club can offer. From getting a job, to getting tickets to Twickenham, to going on a tour to Sardinia I have enjoyed every second and will remember as yet another highlight of my 2 year working holiday.

This reminds of a story about 10 years ago - due to a misunderstading, some English pub side (ave age 45) touring Eastern Europe ended up playing a top local club in a packed stadium, with the game locally televised. They did creditably well too. I think that's every rugby hack's dream.

 

[Pfitzy]

Played Oakhill today - and they were utter fluffybunnys from the start. I got benched for Seconds (how the mighty have fallen ) because I didn't make last week's game and couldn't get to training Wednesday. They took an early try where their guy clearly stepped on the line but their TJ was that side of the field and let it go. In reality though they played a lot smarter than us and probably deserved to win, though the ref was a shocker. A high tackle from one of our blokes got him a reward of Oakhill's 8 trying to punch his head off. When one of our guys went in to pull a bloke out, he got the card because he was "third man in" - despite not hitting anyone! Their 8 got nothing...

I came on second half and went to LHP. Their THP was a bit bigger than me and we took a few points off each other at various scrums. Then with about one quarter left, their LHP gets the ball 5m out from our line and gets absolutely slammed by our centres. We're all laughing at him as the scrum packs and he says "My sister hits harder than that". I turn around and say "Yeah I heard you hit your sister harder than that" at which point the guy just blew up! He was right up in my face, threatening to punch the shit out of me and all sorts of bollocks so I kept mouthing off, hoping he'd cop the yellow card. Only when he was out of harm's reach did he start swinging punches. Anyway, he went to the lengths of swapping sides of the scrum to THP so he could "smash" me.

At the crouch-touch he slaps me on the shoulder quite hard (for a fat bearded idiot), so I pull out to reset myself, thinking it'll fire him up - I'm right. Next crouch-touch he does the same thing so I stand up and look at the ref. The ref warns him for being stupid and warns me not to pull out again. At this point my friend the punchy loosehead has walked off swearing to himself so I knew he was ready to be toasted. He came back to the scrum and slapped me hard again but on the engage I absolutely BELTED him. Being a loosehead I guess he wasn't used to having someone drill him through the chest and the fact that he has less freedom on the hit. As he folded sideways I just kept hammering him.

Unfortunately they swapped back at the next scrum (10m out) and on our put-in they got the ball - it was partially my fault - their hooker struck pretty clean on our feed but toed it straight into my leg and as I tried to get it back it bounced through their lock's legs - end result the winning try 10-5. We pressed hard at the end but a couple of handling errors lost out.

First Grade smashed them 54-0.

My goal now is to get to all training sessions, get back on the bike to work, and start the running and gym again to get fitness and strength up. I'll be damned if I settle for playing off the bench for Seconds.

 

[Pfitzy]

I also rucked the shit out of one of them but stopped when the ref asked me to. All in all I've never had such fun on a losing side

 

[Thomond78]

I can trapeze again. And we're winning.

I'm more stoked than the engines of HMS Dreadnought. ;D