Today I had my first rugby practise, ever! One of the crew
members, Daniel, asked me earlier in the week if I played rugby, and I answered
yes, since I've played two matches for Aylesbury Rugby Football Club. He took
me to practise with The Black Leaves (in Gansbaai), and I trained for about 1.5 hours with the first team (playing in Boland Premier League). We did a
bit of sprinting, strength training, stretching and movement training before
playing touch rugby. The communication was all in Afrikaans but the players were
very including and helped me out when we were doing stuff where I needed
instructions. I was the only white player but it was overwhelming to see how
nice the other players were. On our
first playing routing, they asked me what position I played, and I answered
centre (inside/outside), which I played when I was in Aylesbury. I positioned
on the diagonal line, and ran, I got the ball and threw it to my outside man,
but the pass was horrible. I pretty much haven’t touched a rugby ball since my
last game in Reading 6-7 weeks ago. The team mates then said I could play
winger instead, a position where you rarely pass the ball. Yeah, they realised
I was kinda rubbish. I still had a lot of fun though. While I was playing I
tried to remember all the stuff I had learned from the warm up routines and
games when I played for ARFC. It was a lot to think about, but I did all right.
I did indeed have a great time.
I'm hoping to play a game for the 2nd or 3rd
team on Saturday, but we’ll see. The level here is a lot higher than when I
played at in England. The players are so quick and the ball goes very fast, but
it would be a great experience to get some playing time in an official game. It
would be incredible to be able to say I've played rugby league games in both
England and South Africa, two of the best rugby countries in the world.
I'll keep you posted
 |
| Picture from the warm up with Aylesbury Rugby Football Club in May |
No comments:
Post a Comment