Troy Nathan of Glasgow Blog

New Kid on the block

Hello there Rugby Lovers! I have been asked to write a fortnightly blog to give you guys an insight into the life of a professional rugby player. To get the boring stuff out of the way I will give you a quick insight into my background. Your new mate here is Kiwi born (slash Irish/English) Glasgow Warriors centre Troy Nathan. I joined the Warriors at the start of the season and have had a great few months in Glasgow. Hope you guys enjoy the read and have some healthy banter and comments for me.

What a year of rugby we’ve witnessed. The Northern Hemisphere competitions have been so tight and what about RWC 2011!! Go the mighty All Blacks. I hope some of you guys got to witness the atmosphere and beauty of ‘Rugby country’.

First of all I’d like to say what a great bunch of fellas we have up at Glasgow Warriors. A healthy mix of experience and youth (to keep us old boys on our toes) not to mention the coaching staff celebs; ex Scottish international Shade Munro, ex leaguey Gary Mercer and the Gaffer, Scotland 1990 Grand Slam winner (and fellow Kiwi) Sean Lineen.

Before joining the Warriors in June I had a four year stint with Connacht which is based in the beautiful city of Galway on the west coast of Ireland where they produce the finest oysters. Where better to enjoy a pint of Guinness than on home soil…Like Mummy’s Milk! And here I was thinking Ireland was cold…but its got nothing on the Scottish winter I’ve experienced so far Brrrrrrrrrrr!! Playing with Connacht was a life changing and cultural experience on and off the field, from every second word being ‘Bro’ to ‘Lad’, from ‘Fun’ to ‘Craic’, from chilling out in a quiet Kiwi bar to being crammed in the middle of hundreds of passionate Irishmen watching a sliotar being hit around the pitch in the All Ireland Hurling final.

The last six months have been a great experience and it’s true what ‘they’ say, the Scottish are so welcoming and helpful. Thanks to all those Glaswegians who helped me find my way home when I got lost (and I have to say it happened more than once) The Long-Lost-Maori!

Sitting in 4th place in the Rabo Direct PRO 12 reflects the performances that the team has put together in the past five months. During the World Cup we had 10 internationals missing which gave the younger boys on the team great opportunities to showcase their talent. Beating Cardiff away and then breaking Leinster’s 29-game home winning streak gave the team enormous confidence leaving us unbeaten in the competition since September.

The last couple of weeks we have had some great new signings at Glasgow Warriors with David Lemi -the Samoan speedster- who has just come off an awesome World Cup and Rory Lamont -the Scottish Xfactor- who for some reason didn’t like the weather in the South of France and reportedly was missing his right hand man Graeme Morrison’s home made Sunday roast.

Sunday’s game v Montpelier was a hard physical encounter; 20-15 is a reflection of the close battle. There was a lot of pressure to bounce back from the disappointment back in our last Heineken cup fixture v Leinster at the RDS but with a stadium of screaming Glaswegians we knew we had the edge. It’s so rewarding seeing off the scrum a well executed backs move straight off the training pitch to see Argentinian veteran Federico Aramburu scoring the try in the corner to seal the game.

We have a massive couple of weeks coming up with Montpellier again away this weekend and back to back games against Edinburgh in this season’s 1872 Cup derby over Christmas and New Year, so while you guys are stuffing your faces with turkey, mince pies and booze I’m afraid it will be another year of portion control and resisting temptation for me and the rest of the Warriors boys.

This week we travel to Montpellier to take on the mighty French which is gonna be a hell of a tough place to play. Preparation is key and we’ve got through a lot of hard work for this game, especially after last weekend’s win.

Until next time,

Merry Christmas to you all and I’m looking forward to any comments or banter you throw at me.

Stay Cool,

Troy

@dizTroy_

A Glasgow Crimbo

Kia Ora,

Meri Kirihimete (Merry Christmas) to all my readers. I hope you all had a happy and safe Christmas with family and friends. To everyone that read my first blog I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for the comments and feedback.

Christmas day was pretty quiet for me as usual, I did however manage to have a nice home cooked meal with my partner and the lonely Warriors boys, ‘The stern’ Tommy Seymour and Dutch/Kiwi Rob Verbakel who were also away from their families for the holidays. Rob proved to be a bit of a dark horse at poker while Tommy showed his competitive side when competing against a girl on the Wii!

This is the time of year when I get most homesick looking at photos of mates at home enjoying the southern hemisphere festive weather on the beach, having beers and cranking up the BBQ. When I was young I always wondered why Christmas cards had pictures of snow on them while I spent Christmas Day on the beach on my summer holidays from school! But since moving to the northern hemisphere I now realise all too well why there is snow on the Christmas cards and why Santa grows his beard at this time of year. I’ve taken a leaf out of his book to keep the chilly weather off my face!

When I moved to Glasgow I was told about the lovely winter weather to expect but thankfully I haven’t had to experience too much snow….yet!

On Boxing Day my car thermometer read 14 degrees which has to be some kind of record?! I never realised that the Scottish summer could last for eight months!

One of the things I promised myself I would do while living in Glasgow was to go to a Celtic versus Rangers Old Firm derby and guess what, I ticked that box on Wednesday night – thanks to Santa Moray Low (@moray_low) for the hook up with the tickets. I have never experienced an atmosphere like it before. Feeling a stadium with 60,000 roaring soccer fans shake was quite a frightening experience and definitely one to remember.

So has anyone else noticed the amount of big signings we have had in the Warriors camp the last few weeks? The latest being Rory Lamont’s brother Sean. Either the Lamont brothers were missing the motherland or one of the management team quietly won the euro millions. If its the later then give me a pay rise or I’ll hunt you down ha!

The last couple of weeks has been tough with our back to back run against Montpellier. Playing at Stade Yves du Manior with 10,000 screaming Frenchies was an amazing experience. The French really know how to make a trip memorable starting with our police escort to the game. Speeding through five red lights and driving at least 30 miles an hour over the speed limit from the hotel to the stadium you would be forgiven for thinking we were staring in ‘Speed 2′ with Keanu Reeves. It definitely got the adrenaline pumping before we even reached the stadium.

Without doubt the biggest highlight of the festive season has to be the 1872 Cup derby versus Edinburgh Rugby. The matches commemorate the year when one of the oldest rivalries in world rugby was inaugurated. The first ever clash between the inter-city foes took place on 23 November 1872 at the then home of Glasgow Accies, Burnbank, in the city’s west end. Since the start of the season I had heard what a massive occasion it was for both sides but it was when I arrived at training the week before Christmas and saw profile shots of the Edinburgh players posted all over the gym that it really hit home how big a deal these games actually were.

As you can imagine 5:35pm on Boxing Day couldn’t come quick enough. The atmosphere running out onto the pitch at Murrayfield was electric, with 13,000 roaring Scots on the sidelines. A final score of 23-all shows that Monday’s game against Edinburgh was a ding dong battle. For a split second the twirling winds made me think I was back in the Sportsground in Galway on a good day! Not to mention trying to avoid the rubbish being blown round the field. It’s definitely a massive derby battle of Scottish territory for the full 80 minutes of play.

After last weeks performance it’s all to play for in part two at Firhill this Sunday. With our Glasgow fans back on home soil it promises to be a game to remember and hopefully it will be a full house. Let’s hope we can keep the silverware where it belongs!!

Over the coming weeks I’m going to attempt to try some of the boys home cooking with a ‘come dine with me’ style blog. Stay tuned to hear all the banter from some up and coming Scottish internationals when I put them to the test.

Stay Cool,

Troy

@dizTroy_