Saturday I Played Rugby With My Son - Incredible, Proud - Did it again!

(Edited this from the original)
Well, here in the New Jersey Suburbs of NYC, the weather forecast is for terrible weather. One of the worst storms ever. Hurricane Sandy. Ironically, this is exactly one year after last year's three feet of snow the day before Haloween, which was also(?) the worst storm ever.

So what to do? With the big storm coming, on Saturday my Rugby club staged a number of matches. Later on some food and drink, all under the mantra of 'Big Storm Coming, We are all Going To Die'.

However, Saturday was one of those great days for me because it was the first time I played a real match of proper Rugby with one of my boys on the pitch with me. The match was a mix of our men's A and B sides taking on our U23s, who are pretty fair. My 15 year old was needed to make up the numbers. Instead of staying out of trouble, he played a terrific outside centre, was fearless going into contact, passes were right on target, and actually brought our wings into the match (quite a surprise for our wings). He set up a couple of tries with smart play. At the gathering afterwards it was great for me to stand back and see the men come up to him and treat him just like one of the crew and not like a kid. he was invited to play with the Men's B team for next Saturday (if we survive the storm). Now all I want is for my younger son to join us in a proper match then I can really die happy.......

Sometimes on 606 people ask why Rugby is great or what it means to us. I find the answer is difficult to put into words, but this might be a big part of it for me. .

Good luck mate, you'll probably want a thermos or something.

Yikes!!!

That looks like it could get a wee bit breezy right enough!

Keep safe Grey.

Both in the storm and on the pitch.

#Hasn'tthesensetostopathisageevenafterjustbreakinghisnose!

Best of luck mate. See if you can kick the ball into the eye of the storm

With the big storm coming, yesterday my Rugby club staged a number of matches. Later on some food and drink, all under the mantra of 'Big Storm Coming, We are all Going To Die'.

However, yesterday was one of those great days for me because it was the first time I played a real match of proper Rugby with one of my boys on the pitch with me. The match was a mix of our men's A and B sides taking on our U23s, who are pretty fair. My 15 year old was needed to make up the numbers. Instead of staying out of trouble, he played a terrific outside centre, was fearless going into contact, passes were right on target, and actually brought our wings into the match (quite a surprise for our wings). He set up a couple of tries with smart play. At the gathering afterwards it was great for me to stand back and see the men come up to him and treat him just like one of the crew and not like a kid. he was invited to play with the Men's B team for next Saturday (if we survive the storm). Now all I want is for my younger son to join us in a proper match then I can really die happy.......

Sometimes on 606 people ask why Rugby is great or what it means to us. I find the answer is difficult to put into words, but this might be a big part of it for me.

That's just awesome doc. A moment to savour forever.

I can't help but feel a bit saddened that my dad stopped playing rugby during university, as I'm at that age now and playing with my friends and their fathers.
Shame really, though is only a little fella, can't be running around babysitting him on the pitch.

Sounds like you've got a bit of a match between the Stormers and the Hurricanes about to happen...

doctor_grey wrote:With the big storm coming, yesterday my Rugby club staged a number of matches. Later on some food and drink, all under the mantra of 'Big Storm Coming, We are all Going To Die'.

However, yesterday was one of those great days for me because it was the first time I played a real match of proper Rugby with one of my boys on the pitch with me. The match was a mix of our men's A and B sides taking on our U23s, who are pretty fair. My 15 year old was needed to make up the numbers. Instead of staying out of trouble, he played a terrific outside centre, was fearless going into contact, passes were right on target, and actually brought our wings into the match (quite a surprise for our wings). He set up a couple of tries with smart play. At the gathering afterwards it was great for me to stand back and see the men come up to him and treat him just like one of the crew and not like a kid. he was invited to play with the Men's B team for next Saturday (if we survive the storm). Now all I want is for my younger son to join us in a proper match then I can really die happy.......

Sometimes on 606 people ask why Rugby is great or what it means to us. I find the answer is difficult to put into words, but this might be a big part of it for me.

Best post of 2012 on this site.

Go on the Doc! Glad you gave em Hell dude. Always loved your posts. True rugby players don't ever die, they just fade to Grey...

When you play, through a Storm... Hold yer head up high...

Loevely post Grey, your son seems to be part of my mantra, that pumping fellas full of creatine and all that shoite is no good if they don't have skill. Guts, speed of thought and general fitness can overcome strength is you use it well.


Hope all is good there, tomorrow seems to be the day it's going to occur. Hope you and the family stay safe!

Grey,

Edit your article and put the post about the match in it would you?

It definately deserves a wider audience.

Article Title changed, thanks Mrs. P..
Still smiling today.....
And to all - thanks.

But put the story in too!

You want me to walk and chew gum? At the same time? Follow simple directions?

Sorry!!

I forgot you were only a mere....


Orthopod!

orthopod warning

Sorry.

Need a lateral at least to check for the nasal #

Love it

Good on you and yer lad!

Hope you guys are all okay over there!

Great story... Stay safe!

Quick update: The time is about 16:50 (4:50pm for older more gentrified types) on Monday afternoon. The storm hasn't come ashore yet, but it is doing a fair amount of damage already. We are lucky where we live, only lost power for an hour. Seems the shore areas are being hammered and some are completely underwater. But, as someone once said, the best is yet to come..........

Just looking at the coverage now Grey. They are saying land-fall is in New Jersey.

Stay safe. And keep away from the anticeptic!

keep safe Dr. Grey & family. Sandy looks like a rough one. Good luck getting through it.

... What a way to go into the storm though. Cracking read, and well played to your lad.

Stay safe DrGrey!

Hope you stocked up on the essentials !

Wonderful read, Dr_G, what a fantastic experience for the both of you. Hope you're not under too much water today and have some power

Stay safe Dr G

Quick update through my mobile. A big tree crashed about one yard from the corner of my house. Trees down on powerlines everywhere. Outside of the near miss, all are OK. No power or internet, probably for the week. We get to live caveman style for a while.
We were lucky where we live, the beach areas were devistated. Billions in damage.

Ah Grey!

Great to hear you are safe in all that devastation. Heard something like 90% of Northern NJ without power.

So glad the tree missed but I know it can't be easy when friends and neighbours may not have been so fortunate. The clean up/rebuilding is beyond comprenhension but the buildings etc can and will be replaced.

Stay safe!

Doc Grey, hope you and the family continue to remain safe and in good health. Your post gave me goosebumps. The previous Saturday I too played my first match alongside my no1 son. All through my playing days I kept telling him I'd play till he was 18 and have a season with him. However, at 18 doing anything with sad old dad was way down in his list of his priorities. I threw out my boots and stopped collecting bruises and scowls from MrsP. Two years later and son is fitness coach at the club I played for and resisting requests to play for them as boxing is his sport. Then fate in the shape of a nasty concussion intervenes. He can't climb into a ring before January and so tells the 2nd team skipper he'll play if I'll turn out too. Oh the lies I had to tell Mrs P. We played a local derby and quite a few friends from my playing days were watching. Our side was a mixture of youngsters and greyheads who had played with me and we lost a keenly contested match 20-15. No1 son will never make a winger but he can tackle like a demon and we should be playing tother again this week. I'l think of you and yours in the clubhouse after the game good luck.

Good stuff Doc and glad to hear you, the family and the nose it seems are all okay.

jimbopip wrote:Doc Grey, hope you and the family continue to remain safe and in good health. Your post gave me goosebumps. The previous Saturday I too played my first match alongside my no1 son. All through my playing days I kept telling him I'd play till he was 18 and have a season with him. However, at 18 doing anything with sad old dad was way down in his list of his priorities. I threw out my boots and stopped collecting bruises and scowls from MrsP. Two years later and son is fitness coach at the club I played for and resisting requests to play for them as boxing is his sport. Then fate in the shape of a nasty concussion intervenes. He can't climb into a ring before January and so tells the 2nd team skipper he'll play if I'll turn out too. Oh the lies I had to tell Mrs P. We played a local derby and quite a few friends from my playing days were watching. Our side was a mixture of youngsters and greyheads who had played with me and we lost a keenly contested match 20-15. No1 son will never make a winger but he can tackle like a demon and we should be playing tother again this week. I'l think of you and yours in the clubhouse after the game good luck.

Plus, on a separate note.

Why on earth was he playing rugby concussed?????

Now you've definately attracted the scowls of this MrsP too!

I recieved an email today about the storm, it looks bad there is an island (the name escapes me now) where they don't know whether the 500 inhabitants are OK or not.

Apparantly they didn't have enough time to evacuate before the strom hit.

Mrs P son's concussion was 2 1/2 weeks before the game so i'm not really an unfit parent, well only partly, but a more pertinent question might be who on earth was a 54year old roly poly trying to fool?

Biltong wrote:I recieved an email today about the storm, it looks bad there is an island (the name escapes me now) where they don't know whether the 500 inhabitants are OK or not.

Apparantly they didn't have enough time to evacuate before the strom hit.

Biltong,
The entire length of the New Jersey shore and the Long Island shore are barrier islands. These are narrow islands basically made from sand pushed up by waves over a long period of time. These are prized and expensive places to build homes and many are worth USD 1 million or more, but are very suseptable to weather. From what I read, mandatory evacuation orders were signed early enough for people to get out but approx. 60% of residents across all the barrier islands and flood prone areas decided to stay. I hope the trapped people can get out. The worst problem so far was in the Breezy Point section of Queens (NYC). A fire started in one houe and the winds blew the fire to over 60 homes. All gone.

I also heard this morning that some of the tunnels connecting NYC to the mainland are completely full of water. No subway service for days or weeks.

Kind of puts things in perspective, eh mate? I just heard my town has re-scheduled Halloween until Saturday. I suppose that means I will have power restored some time on Friday. But being without power is not so bad in comparison to all the people who lost homes.

Jimbopip,
Playing proper Rugby with your son must have been great. I am still completely jacked up by my experience. On the other hand, my son is being very nonchalant, which is really his style.

But, I have to agree with the Mrs. P of 606. playing so soon after a concussion is very risky.

Grey,

At least with the power out you have an excuse not to have to listen to Taylor Swift!

Have you been able to get to work? The place must be pretty busy just now. No RTAs I suppose but plenty of injuries non the less.

One of the best posts i ever read on here nice one Doc

Doc Grey
glad to see you are still posting and seem to have survived Sandy.
Two points; first I figure if I can get him playing regularly he may walk away from the boxing relatively unharmed (he has described this year as his make or break and as a parent you know that broken dreams can hurt a child just as much as anything else so belonging to the extended family that is our club might provide some support), and secondly after your game did the team captain make both you and your son stand on chairs in the middle of the club house and down pints (non-alcoholic for my athletic son) while both sets of players chanted "down in one"? I hope they did because it brought a tear to my cynical old eyes.

MrsP wrote:Grey,

At least with the power out you have an excuse not to have to listen to Taylor Swift!

Have you been able to get to work? The place must be pretty busy just now. No RTAs I suppose but plenty of injuries non the less.

No Taylor Swift!!!! Can live with that for a while........

Surprisingly work is not busy. Not many injuries form the storm. Almost seems with the loss of power people are staying indoors and not doing anything. Many non-critical procedures have been postponed and a lot of patients cannot get in to be seen. Operating Rooms are kept free to ensure they are available in case of real emergencies. The biggets problems are clearly the property damage in the shorer areas. Whole communities are destroyed.

Jimbopip,
Understand your logic to get your son to give up boxing in favour of Rugby. Rugby itself is a great inclusive fraternity and hopefully that can bring him over. That said, I still feel 2 and 1/2 weeks is quick for anyone after being concussed. Mrs. P and I are trying to heighten the awareness of the seriousness of concussions and dangers associated with returning to playing, or even strenuous excercise, too quickly.

My club here has traditions for people who score for the first time for a men's team. Its called a Zulu and one has to run around the pitch for nearby park dressed a with bit less clothing than yuor basic Zulu from the old movies. It's a good thing my son didn't score, thoguh he came close. They have never had a father and son play together before and are dreaming up something for us.

Well, its Friday afternoon here in what's left of New Jersey. I had my power restored recently, but most people in my town are still in the dark. As I said before, most of the damage was in the shore areas, but where I live there are a lot of old growth trees in rocky soil. This means tall trees with shallow roots which come down more easily than people expected. I had one big tree miss my house by about three or four feet.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of trees down and many of them fell on the power lines, almost all of which are above ground here. This is why there is limited power. The next problem is lack of petrol. Petrol stations can't pump without electricity, limiting the number of stations available. This causes huge queues, many over one hour. Available stores of petrol are being diverted to the recovery efforts which further limits the amount of petrol available.

Even with all this inconvenience, things are not so bad. People are outside willingly assisting older people or neighbors, removing or cutting up trees, making meals or simply giving people a place to take a shower or bath. And always willing to share a drink or coffee.

Its always the simple things.

And even better, no Taylor Swift.

Hope things continue to improve over there Grey.

Hello there again doctor, it's good to hear things are improving at your end. I relayed your last bulletin to MrsPip as we were watching the news and she went, "aaaww!!" which is praise indeed since I last heard that sound as we got off "It's a small world" in Disneyworld. Remember the sun's coming over the hill, as they say.(actually the title to a very good song by Scottish lassie called Kareen Polwart).
On rugby matters, played second match with son yesterday and the first time we put the ball down the 3/4's he hit the line at pace and scorched in from 30 yards out. Thought my heart would burst out of my chest with paternal pride. Which just about made up for 80 minutes in the second row. It would be easier to tell you which parts don't hurt. Keep posting and let us know how things are. Good luck

Nice post fella, I got to prop against my old man in a past vs present match alst boxing day (he never played for our team but always coems to watch so was asked to play).....great fun bar the sly digs he managed to get in on me!!

Two props butting heads...Christmas dinner must have been fun!

Morning all.
Last Saturday we did it again. This time, it was against a proper team. My 15 year old son came to touch judge, but got drafted to play as our fly half came up lame and couldn't play. He is 15 years old, 11 stone (no fat at all), and just about 6 feet tall. Growing into his body well.

When discussing with the other captain whether they were comfortable playing against him he mentioned that no one, of course, would go out to hurt him, but said we are playing Rugby, not ballet. I was OK with this as was my son. However, barely audible, just loud enough, maybe spoken just to himself, I hear my son whisper "you will have to catch me first". And they rarely did.

Just to interject for a moment. My son is the least boastful person I know. Polite and cuourteous to a tee. He has a slight case of ADHD and is shy in large social situations. For him to make a statement like that, even under his breath, was shocking/amazing/hysterical.

He played a nice game. Set up one try and scored another. Kicked his conversions. Still a little intimidated on defense, but that is normal at his age, I think, going against men. Was calling out plays and played an aggressive attacking game. One funny sequence came when he took off on a run, dodged one guy and developed a case of 'try line fever' with two teammates open on his left. Tried to skin the opposing fullback, a former US Eagle (15 years ago). Needless to say he ended up on his backside, and we lost the scoring opportunity. Good lad that he is he blamed his not passing to the open teammates on the fact they were forwards. I love him!

Doc, good to hear that life is back to some kind of normal. Your boy sounds a cracker! The French philosopher Camus said something to the effect that everything he Knew about society and moral obligations and duties to other people he learned playing Sunday league football. Obviously he sounded much smarter when he said it. But that is pretty much how I feel about rugby and I can't think of a better place to share with your son.
p.s. next time he blames the fat boys; every team needs artists who can play the piano but they also need people who can lift the piano.

Good comments, mate.
Philosophers in a Rugby discussion? Hmmm. Stretching our intellects towards the heavens? be careful, you might break the internet with talk like that.

My son gets the jokes between backs and forwards. In fact, our loosehead claimed the only reason he agreed to let my son play was his background playing flanker in addition to centre (though he was our out half last weekend). Claims my son's mental and physical toughness comes from a strand of DNA known as the 'Forward Pack Sequence' and his playing with the primadonnas in the backs is an anomaly. My son just takes it all in and is learniing how to wind them all up, in his own quiet, understated way.

My younger son is a Hooker. With all that goes with it. Very different...............

Thanks for the reply Doc, on the subject of forwards/ backs intro/extrovert personalities may I recommend Winter Colours by Donald McCrae. It is the best book on rugby I've ever read and at one point Josh Kronfeld, (what a player he was) explains how a 7 has to be a bit of both so if you have a social misfit at your club make him a 7. I did this when I captained our 3rd XV and we had a guy who always rocked the boat and undermined any attempts at fostering team spirit, drifted from club to club, never seemed happy. I put him in the 7 jersey and made him pack leader! He was happy as a pig in Poopie. Can't rate the book highly enough.Cheers.