Your match

First topic message reminder :

I've been following the progress of Sam on his thread about starting his rugby career with his first game this weekend and I was just wondering how many of us actually lace up the boots at the weekend?

I'd like to hear about other posters weekly experiences on the pitch. You don't have to give too much personal info but maybe:

did you start/sub
how did you play
result
did you score
did you smash anyone
did you get on the sauce afterwards
did you score (ahem)

Persoanally I have a game tonight hopefully playing 12 but at my stage (over 20 years playing) I could end up anywhere bar prop. I'll update tonight, probably quite late as I am definitely going on the sauce afterward.

Bugger it - our game was cancelled!

It was a lovely crisp morning down in London today until the thunderstorm came but luckily the rain only started 5 minutes from time , by which time the game was well and truly wrapped up anyway.

I played about 50 minutes with rolling subs. Our 12 didn't turn up so guess who got promoted from the bench? Turns out that was a good move - got the ball only twice in the first half - first I cut a line on the crash , went through two defenders and stepped the fullback from 40m out. Second we were on their 22 and I did the simple draw to put the winger in. Not really sure why they subbed me 5 minutes after that apart from that we play in the 3s so it's not really about winning.

In the second half they put me on the wing where I saw no ball then moved me to 6 where we spent the whole 10 minutes scrumming or doing lineouts - in which our number 8 scored from two drives.

So all in all a good contribution to what you would call me first legitimate match. The prior one was slapdash and involved me trying to tackle one of OUR first team guys who is a tank all match. Hardly fair.

Things are looking up and I'm going to apply for the post of sticking in the centres. Would love to be in the fringes of the 2nds by the end of the season although let's not get too carried away!

Final score 49-12.

Sounds like a great job for your initial run out. Sounds like you prefer centre to flanker? Wings don't count really, except for picking nice wines and ensuring your clothing ensemble works. How were you in contact? You like sticking your nose into the rucks? Details, mate. Gory details......

Well yesterday was quite an experience for us, we set off in lovely weather. By the time we arrived at the opponents club it was grey and overcast but still dry. We started strongly, with 3 tries in the first 20 minutes or so, and I was going pretty well at full back. Nice set of quick hands through the backs put our winger over in the corner, and our forwards were taking theirs apart and crashed over from close range for a couple.

Then all hell broke loose, we heard the thunder, we saw the lightning heading our way. Then we spotted the few spectators dashing for cover shortly before the mother of all hailstorms descended on us. It was ridiculous, these things were massive and properly painful in what was now a driving wind. Never before have I seen both teams and the ref (plus the teams on the next pitch) dash for the cover of 1 small plastic shelter and form a human huddle! It lasted a good few minutes at full intensity before dying down so we returned to what had started as a terrible mud bath of a pitch but had now become a cross between an ice rink and a swamp. The hailstones lasted on the ground for the rest of the match and it proceeded to urine it down with an icy wind for the rest of the game, destroying any real contest and leading to me nearly dying stood at the back!

The weather suited our opposition as they spent most of the 2nd half attacking our line, but I'm pleased to say our defence held up and they didn't score. Thats despite them crashing over a couple of times but us managing to get someone under the ball every time. Not the easiest thing to convince yourself to do when you last felt your fingers about half an hour previously, but I managed to get under their sizeable number 8 right at the end to keep them to nil. Final score 24-0, and a very gratefully received hot shower and cup of tea!

Excellent posts Effie and LLama. I ducked out of the match yesterday and claimed the moral victory. Got up and still wasn't able to bend my thumb or exert pressure on it without pain. Bigson phoned to remind me of the meet time and I told him to go and if they were short to pick me up on the way out. They had 15 and travelled up to that London and lost 16-8. I however stayed warm and dry and earned lots of brownie points with MrsPip. Plus I can smugly say I was asked to play for the firsts, at my age.   

We played the weather more than anything yesterday , lost 5 -15 but the game itself was a nightmare. Snow , Hail and heavy rain for 80 minutes.

Sorry to hear of the narrow losses Driver & Jimbo.

Doc - you are right I did prefer centre to my cameo at flanker, but from that position I wasn't afraid to hit rucks and protect ball either, which I had to do a lot because our 9 and 10 kept making runs or popping to forwards who would crash through. Not sure where our actual flankers were most of the time!

I attempted to steal a couple but got cleared out well and proper. I think the good news is that my response to getting smashed in a ruck was to hit the next one harder!

Leg is still aching today and battered and bruised all over are your gory details. I'll be fine for training tomorrow and probably a bit more confident with the 1st team around me than I have been previously, now I know there are *some* people on the planet I can run through..if not the guys I currently train with (I haven't seen a single 3rd team player train in my entire 3 months training!!)

I think I'll have to mention to team captain when applying for the next matchday 22 that I would like to considered at centre before wing, because in all honesty the wing is already boring me and I don't enjoy the pressure the one time I see the ball or am the last defender per match!

Question - I would quite like to try 10 at some point too. I want to know how my kicking and tactical game is first but we never practice kicking or anything of that sort during training. How does a new guy who has a good vision attempt to become a 10 in that situation?

A wonderful question Effie, whenever I turned up at a club everybody seemed to have their positions and trained accordingly. Newcomers always started on the wing until they showed they could be better employed somewhere else. So the 10 did all the kicking practice, the hooker did all the throwing and so on. Of course come match day when someone didn't turn up you find yourself learning on the job, as it were. If you want to get acquainted with a variety of positions put your hand up for third team skipper, you wait to see who turns up and then you put on whatever jersey is left. The first time you hook will stay in your memory for a long, long time. As Ross Ford discovered just the other week.

jimbopip wrote:A wonderful question Effie, whenever I turned up at a club everybody seemed to have their positions and trained accordingly. Newcomers always started on the wing until they showed they could be better employed somewhere else. So the 10 did all the kicking practice, the hooker did all the throwing and so on. Of course come match day when someone didn't turn up you find yourself learning on the job, as it were. If you want to get acquainted with a variety of positions put your hand up for third team skipper, you wait to see who turns up and then you put on whatever jersey is left. The first time you hook will stay in your memory for a long, long time. As Ross Ford discovered just the other week.

Nice dig    

So essentially what I just did last week will help my chances, as the 3rd team coach was there to watch what I did. Cool.
Next time I'll keep kicking grubbers on a sixpence for our wing and pop a good drop goal and he should get the idea ... I wish ...

Thought it was time to breathe some life back into this thread and see who has been playing recently and how it has been going?

Our seconds team game was called off on Saturday as we couldn't get a team together, a mixture of 1st team taking our players and players dropped from the 1s deciding they don't want to play for the 2s. Really frustrating as it was a league match and we are fighting for top of the league.

A few of us dropped down and played a bit for the 3s, a bit cheeky really and its never nice when other teams do that to you. So from that point of view its probably for the best that we lost, but it was a decent turn out and we put some good play together. Was just a case of the last pass or the last decision going wrong, unsurprising when they don't train and rarely have the same lineup 2 weeks in a row.

I came on for the second half and for the first time in months....... I GOT TO PLAY 9   

Bit shocked to see how much I struggled to get to every breakdown, I realised I was unfit but not to this extent. Still played pretty decently I think and very much made me want to nail down that 9 shirt for the 2s again, may even mean forcing myself to start training again!   

Good post Llama. Getting to those breakdowns is a bugger, isn't it?  
We haven't played these last two weeks and it's getting boring. Hopefully we have a league match at home on Saturday. This will mean recording the Scotland game and watching it later: we have friends over for dinner but as he used to play alongside me I'm sure it'll be wives in the kitchen with a bottle of something sweet and men glued to the telly swearing. Kids running riot as per usual of course.
Bigson came on at half time on Saturday for the firsts and managed to get ordered off for two yellow cards. I think this means he was actually off the field for longer than he was on it.   Still, he is a second row.

Llama , train train train! It's so much more satisfying playing when you've been with the squad during the week - you notice immediately better fitness level and basic skills too. Or at least I have.

Since my last game - which was my first official league game - everything has been rained off or called off for lack of players until the weekend just gone, away out to the Hebrides of London somewhere. So far I've played a friendly at wing and a league at 12 (subsequently wing and flanker in the same match), so not wanting to be undone by Scott Johnson our captain figured its time to try me at 15 i.e. nobody else wanted to. Bearing in mind I haven't taken a high ball in training once yet.

I get very nervous before games and this chopping around doesn't help!

Nonetheless, 5 minutes in our wing fielded a ball meant for touch and passed it along to me. I looked up, saw space, ran to it and threw a big miss pass to unleash our other supporting wing, who cantered it unchallenged. Now *that* felt good.

The rest of they match they made sure they chased their kicks...but the damage had been done with that and a second try 5 minutes later from a similar position, involving the whole backline.

Half time was 0-17 to us and yet the match finished 7-17. We were awful in the second half, with probably 10% possession a combination of conceding every set piece and the backline dropping everything.

I really, really, want to try 10 now; because I don't think that second half could have been any worse with me standing there instead. Will just quietly put myself forwards to the captain during the week and practice my kicking...

Effie there is a simple solution for you my friend, and it comes down to 3 simple words. Goal. Kicking. Practice.

At the start of practice get out there early and practice goal kicks. On match day when everyone is warming up, look at them with disdain as you practice your goal kicks. It is the international symbol of the number 10, as soon as your captain starts seeing you regularly knocking them over the seeds will be sown in his mind!

Seriously though, just ask to run some of the lines in training from 10. It'll get you familiar with the moves, it'll build up your confidence with ball in hand and it'll give others the chance to see how you get on. I can't imagine anyone would have any issue with that, even if they don't choose to pick you at 10 it will help improve your distribution in the centres, or your running lines off 10 as a winger

Today was a rather nothing match for me. The final score was 12-19 to the visitors and I played 15, then 14, then 6. I'm really unhappy with the loss, because frustratingly like the second half of our last game we lost all shape and continuity after about 20 minutes (last time it was 40 minutes) as we failed to hold stable ruck ball for more than 2 phases at any one time. I'm not being funny here, and I'm trying to remain balanced, but every time I took it into contact the ball came out of the ruck clean because if I am tackled I hit it up, make some yards and go to ground and place it firmly behind me. As a flanker when I was following up a tackle made on our player it was fairly simple to clear out and then what happens? Quick ball. Our forwards were constantly going on pop passes from the scrum half and wanting to take contact instead of spreading it to our backline, whilst with the exception of 1 player I noticed, refusing to steady many rucks. It was just a mess! Not really sure what to do as I am new to the squad and in all fairness my skillset is hardly that rounded yet - I'm a solid player but nothing spectacular right now.

The good news is at fullback I can catch the high balls - they stopped that particular target after my 3rd clean take - and I did put myself forward for 10 which I knew would get rejected but at least they know I would be interested. Bear in mind this is my 3rd proper match so I guess things are coming on fine..

You might notice I am writing this right after the Scotland match so this has not been a generally good rugby day for me and I'm fed up of incompetence. At least my team has the excuse of hardly ever training and being a bunch of rugby misfits!!

Unfortunately one of the big differences you tend to notice between a team that trains regularly and one that doesn't is the quality of the work at the breakdown. I've played in different teams that fall into both camps, and that has certainly been my experience, with the teams who don't have the forwards training together as a unit often crashing the ball up but getting turned over because the support players aren't securing the breakdown. As a 9 this is a nightmare, because you either don't get the ball back at all, or you are trying to make the most of very scrappy, and usually slow, ball. The knock on effect naturally being that you either play is short to forwards on the crash, or you give static ball out to your backline who are confronted with a well set defensive line and have few options available.

Anyway, I also played at the weekend. We won 47-17, though the opposition played a lot of the 2nd half with 14 men as they had an injury and didn't have subs. This meant we ran away with it in the first half, raining in tries through our centres having a man over. At half time one of our guys went to play for the other team and they ended up winning the 2nd half which was a much closer contest, although we had little left to play for and were terrible - i don't think I've ever seen as many forward passes or knock ons (2 horrible forward passes from me, I'm ashamed!). End result was clearly not a fair reflection of the 2 teams, as I think we were fairly evenly matched.

I was picked at 15 again. I hate 15.

What's your usual position Llama? And why do you hate 15?

As we were coming off the pitch on Saturday a teammate told me "good work for your second time at 15. 15's a pain because it's like playing at 10 but without the ball".

Now my doctor has confirmed I am officially in the race of my life to get back before the end of the season. Two recoveries linked and not so linked at the same time and I can't get going with any serious training before coming up hurting, complaining, and acting like a jackass. To make it worse there is nowhere to run because of all the snow here. And if I can't get back before the end of the season, it might be time to hang 'em up. So a bigger race than simply one more recovery from another injury. merde.

We're all with you Doc. Except it isn't snowing and we're not hurting nearly as much. Still, you're in our thoughts, sometimes.

Thanks, mate.  Appreciated.
I will take as much immoral support as a person can handle.
Will let you know how it goes.  Hard and fast target is mid- April.  Basically I have 5 weeks of rehab hell in front of me.  When I was younger I used to enjoy rehab.  Now?  Well, not so much.

I'm in a similar boat myself. Have been off work for a while, but on the way back now, and Bigson has been training me in the gym most days. I'm now fitter than I have been all season but can I remember when we last had a match? Now Saturday's has been cancelled. It's far too early to be thinking of pre season.
Just to rub salt in it... After training today I took son for lunch at a local supermarket. As we turned from the check out there was a table of two forty something mums and a pretty twentyish daughter. All three were eyeing the six foot five slab of muscle in his gym gear and failing to notice his overweight grey haired father. As we were tucking in to our food they left. One of the mothers doubled back to our table and put a folded till receipt in front of Bigson and said, "That's from my daughter." It was her name and phone number. I was slightly shocked by this but was utterly dumbfounded by Bigson's reaction. He was blasé about it and totally unimpressed, as if this sort of thing happens on a regular basis. Youth is wasted on the young.
We all have our crosses to bear Doc.

Accidentally stumbled into training last Thursday night. Was supposed to help out with coaching for junior team but it was rescheduled and I was not told. I saw the seniors setting up for a game of touch and thought I'd join in. A very enjoyable 10 minute run-around ensued which I was hoping would continue for the rest of the evening as they had no match on the weekend.
The coach had other ideas however and proceeded to take the boys through a very tough fitness session culminating in a brutal 15 minute game of Rugby League. I started with the fitness as it was quite gentle to begin with and told myself I would step out if it got too physical. Of course by the end I was knocking lumps out of everyone and getting them back in return and haven't enjoyed myself so much in a long time.
All joints still intact the morning after with only a slight swelling on the knee. Will venture back up this week and maybe get involved in 2nds cup which is coming up soon. Fingers crossed.

Good stuff Submachine!

I had a game on Friday night so that we could watch Super Saturday and ended up with a very comfortable 40-7 win. However, having read the opposition match report you would have thought it was a close run 10-8 game and the opposition had a storming game!

Got to love biased match reports eh?

Good stuff Sub, keep it up.
RDW, if it wasn't for biased match reports no-one would know what an excellent all round sportsman I really am.
I can't believe Saturday is the last league game of our season: away to the team who beat us 34-9 on the opening day. Apparently that is the closest anyone has got to them all season. I think we'll finish as we began.

jimbopip wrote:Good stuff Sub, keep it up.
RDW, if it wasn't for biased match reports no-one would know what an excellent all round sportsman I really am.
I can't believe Saturday is the last league game of our season: away to the team who beat us 34-9 on the opening day. Apparently that is the closest anyone has got to them all season. I think we'll finish as we began.

  

I was playing 13 and didn't feel remotely tested in defence. Apparently I didn't notice the opposition playing All Blacks style running rugby!

Where to begin?
We were scheduled to play our last league match on Saturday away against the team who beat us on the opening day, 34-8. Since then they were unbeaten, ran away with the league and that was the closest scoreline all season. Well, MrsPIp comes home on Friday and says she's had a real mare of a day at work. She says she understands I have an away game but since we have friends for dinner on Saturday night can I help her "get the house tidy tonight". This probably wasn't the moment to remind her that I was just about to be picked up for the youth team coaches' "social evening" and would not be seen again while the pubs were still open. As we say in Essex, I was going out, not out out, but certainly out. So I'm sitting in Jynxie Joe's car thinking of Tam O'Shanter's wife "sitting by the fireside, gathering her brows like the gathering storm, nursing her wrath to keep it warm" when himself tells me the First team game on the morrow has been cancelled. Result! A quick text message to Mr Clipboard our team manager withdrawing my availability, then a phone call to herself telling her what I have done and I am in the good books (temporarily) and told to go out and enjoy the shandies.
So what happens? They only won 24-19 without me.  
Only beat the best team in the league...without me.
Serves me right I suppose.  

Just make sure you make the most of your bounty points pip!

Well we have been chasing 2nd place in the league and were looking forward to playing the bottom team on Saturday that we beat comfortably earlier in the season.

However our suspicions were aroused when:

- We saw on their Twitter feed that their 1st team's game had been cancelled
- The team had arrived at the clubhouse before we had (our home game)
- They were all significantly bigger, and didn't resemble anything close to the team we had pumped earlier in the season.

So turns out they had filled their 2nd XV with their first XV players.

Baws.

On top of that I was full of the cold and was faced with the prospect of 80 mins playing at 13 against much better opposition than we were used to.

However, what then followed was a brutal, relentless physical game where we ended up losing just 14-17. We could have won the game, but individual errors let us down at key points. However, we well and truly fronted up against a strong team who expected to put 40 points on us easily, and gave them a real hard game.

I actually ended up enjoying the game despite making more tackles in the first half than in the last 5 games! Even though we lost there was something fulfilling in playing a backs against the wall performance against strong opposition. We threw everything at them and took no backward step.

Given that their first XV are in an equivalent league as our first XV, and they only beat us by 3 points, we could take a lot of satisfaction from that.

I am in a world of pain today though.

  

On the plus side young Pipetto scored two tries for the under 11's, that's three in two games.
After a few post-match beers on Saturday Bigson was heard to opine, " If we could take my little brother's skills, my strength and fitness and the old man's balls... We would have a bloody good rugby player."
" But we can't so we're stuck with three mediocre ones." Came the reply.  
He'll learn to keep his thoughts to himself.

Right, 3 Thursday sessions in a row. 2nds cup game tonight. Giddy.

Go for it, Sub.

Ah the morning after glow of playing a full game, winning, scoring and smashing. Although it was quite a low level J4 cup, both teams were very well matched. We started like a train and scored two tries in the first twenty minutes. The first of which was scored when I took a short pass from a scrum ran through their 10 and set up a ruck 10 yards out.
Quick ball spun out to second centre who went over. I got the second after our out half made the initial break popped to second centre who offloaded to me to again go through the out half (at least 4 stone lighter than me) and scored under the sticks.
Our forwards died a death after that and we let them back in. They chipped over me in the centre and having the turning circle of a fishing trawler with a bumper catch I had no chance of covering back. Thankfully we held on for the win and a quarter final looms.
April is my favourite rugby month.

Joke yesterday

9 reset scrums for our 14 to knock on in corner , Jesus.

Driver wrote:Joke yesterday

9 reset scrums for our 14 to knock on in corner , Jesus.

Rigormortis had probably set in by then.

I played my final game of the season and got to finish as I started, at scrum half   

Absolutely belting sunshine, cue 2 teams running till they're falling over and both agreeing to end proceedings early. To be fair we were 51-10 up by that point. Played pretty well generally, not as sharp as I'd have liked but I havent really played 9 since christmas. Incidentally I also took some goal kicks for the first time this season, but we won't talk about the new 0 from 4 record I've now picked up   

Though in my defence the ref made me take 2 as drop goals because the only guy we had to bring the tee on is still recovering from a broken ankle!

    

Started pre-pre season at the gym, and forgot how sore you are for days after if you've not done weights for months!

Doing the stronglifts 5X5 programme if anyone is interested in this kind of thing. Looks to be a really good programme to build up good all round strength in 3 months, especially if you don't have much already like me!

http://stronglifts.com/5x5/

Pre-season! Already! I'm tryinto lose four stone of useless fat before the vets game next Saturday, then rest before my fortnight bingeing on wine and pain au raisins in Normandy then I'll START thinking about pre-season. Actually Mrs Pip has already started suggesting that next season may be a bridge too far. I'll show her (maybe)

No, pre-pre season! I want to be in decent shape for pre season so I dont feel like death.

Our 1s have been promoted to the national league so pre season will be tough!

So it's pre pre season? I need a pie, and some cake and a beer or two.

Speaking of pre-pre-pre-season what has become of the good doctor?
Doc Grey speak to the multitudes it is now mid-April.

I last played about a month ago. I broke my pinky . Now it's fine but it still kind of hurts a bit. I'll be playing tomorrow anyway.

jimbopip wrote:Speaking of pre-pre-pre-season what has become of the good doctor?
Doc Grey speak to the multitudes it is now mid-April.

Hey mate - thanks for asking!  Seriously.  

Her Maj's Foreign Office decided to borrow me for a month and send me to one of the Syrian refugee camps where the support staff were going to pull out due to physical threats by some of the natives.  The governements providing the services clearly needed people in a rush.  Like a lot of people I had volunteered over there before, which is why my name came up.  But this time it was different, showing things are getting worse.  So I spent the last month in what seemed an asylum, where there were clearly some individuals who were sent there to cause trouble for the majority who had been shat upon by life.  Bloody-feckin-hell.  No other words.    

However, this provided me a great opportunity to contiue my rehab, like running up hills wearing army boots (no kidding!) in a Rocky Balboa style.  Unfortunately I came back down the hills in a Mr. Blobby style.  Shockingly all came good on Satueday!  Well not realy good, but maybe mediocre.  Got back to my family in Jersey a week ago and spent the last week de-toxing from the experience (ie. drinking).  Then Saturday, I played for for our seconds at Inside Centre and lasted almost 70 minutes.  Then went on life support.  My left knee has a contusion the size of a zeppelin, the swelling below my left eye looks like, well, the swelling below my right eye.  And the elbow I dislocated a few months ago is stuiff as a board.  I can't run, I can't tackle, I can't pass, I can't do Poopie.  I had a blast.  I also had a push-over try in the Neil Back style - hitch a ride on the back of a rolling maul and fall down over the line.   In the end we won comfortably.  Despite everything, not too bad.  But no impact I recall direct to the neck area.

Doc, great to see you back in the land of the living.
I had my last game of the season yesterday, Colts V Vets. The ref was the (Welsh) coach of the Colts. Let's say he ensured that his boys were the happier campers. I played like an old unfit walrus. As the captain was handing out jerseys/positions he started at front row, got to second row and there was Shane the best second row,rugby man and all-round decent bloke you'll ever meet,"So who else wants to play second row?" No-one put their hand up. I couldn't believe it... you don't get too many chances to play alongside someone that good. My hand shot up. Which is more than it can do this morning: my shoulder is aching. I put in one crunching tackle but it was on one of our team in the warm up game of touch: he and Bigson have had a falling out and when he ran towards me I forgot it was touch! We had a beer afterwards and made up. Actually, late on I moved to no 7 and at the first scrum their six was eyeballing me. I held his look as we pushed them back, the ball appeared at his feet and he was so busy staring me down he didn't realise until I had blasted through him kicked the ball on then fell on it and set up the ruck. Two more rucks and we scored! Had a few more tussles with their back row and enjoyed having a beer and chat with them afterwards. (You're a much better flanker than me kid, if you're wrestling on the ground with me after the ball is gone which team is disadvantaged?) It was  a terrible game: we lost 43-28. However the drinks in the clubhouse were good, as was the singing. Managed to get the Glasgow -Edinburgh game on the TV, ("Wot? Wot the fecc is Alba?) and the exiled Scots got noisy. The local microbrewery had a stall in the clubhouse and at about seven o'clock announced A pound a pint! Then Fat Sam, the extrovert prop, who emigrated to Suffolk about ten years ago walked in to tell me his band were playing the pub round the corner later. A quick phone call home and Mrs PIp laughed and said she would expect me home, "very late and Nissed as a Pewt."  God I love her!
Most of the rugby club decided to head off to hear Sam's band. When Bigson and I walked in the pub the band were between numbers and Sam looks over and shouts, "Jimbopip is in the house." All the rugby lads cheer to the rafters. Bigson grinned from ear to ear and put an arm round me. A good night was had, as they say.
Paying for it this morning though.
Mrs Pip asked if I'm considering playing again. I haven't told her that in the changing room I said I had played appallingly and was fecced if that would be my last game. Then again I may play better but I'm not sure that rugby days get much better.

p.s. bad father that I am I forgot to mention that the day began with young Pipetto scoring two very good tries for the under 11's. They are a smashing bunch of kids who all get on well and enjoy playing together and it does my cynical old heart good to see them every week.

Great story, mate. Last things first - your wife somehow already knows you want to keep at it. She probably knew before you. To that point, my olderst daughter, away at uni, sent me a text yesterday afternoon which I saw only after I played. It read: "Have we been stupid today? Are we planning to be stupid next weekend?" I replied only "yes, boss". The women in our lives know us well, no?

Today, I am suffering mild headaches. not from any concussion, but from muscle aches from my neck. Affter the damn Toulon-Munster match I will go in search of a nice massage. All we need to do is keep at it until the wheels fall off............

My season finished last week and i'm quite glad it did if i'm honest. 

It's been the worst rugby season of my life by a country mile , lack of orginisation and in house bickering has cost us big style this season and tore not just the team but the club in two.

Anyone onto next season and our 1st team captain has resigned from the role which should bring us together a bit more. Moving into the 2nd team we're pushing people out the way who have the 2nds stuck in the turn up and see if we get 15 mould and i'm being pushed into the 2nd team coach role by the players at the tender age of 22 lol!

Wish me luck!

Driver, I take it you'll be captain/coach. If so see it as a three season project.
Year one; work out who wants to play for you and who you want. Also, find the style of rugby that works for you and your mates (if you do it right these guys will become very special mates even if you only ever see them on Saturday afternoons).
Year Two; try to put it into practice. There will be lots of failures and a few successes but keep your vision alive, that's what makes the team grow and improve.
Year Three; should be the best year, they know what they're doing, you know what they can do, you all should have bonded and be willing to put your bodies on the line for each other. If all that is in place there should be more highs than lows.
Good luck, Driver.

Finished with a loss in our quarter final. Started like a train, an enormous ancient steam train which took ages to get going but once up to speed did everything well. Unfortunately while we were waiting for the boilers to get up to temperature the opposition ran in three tries.
To be fair it was like a Colts v Vets game. they just never stopped moving. No rucks, the ball was kept in perpetual motion for the first 25 minutes and they ran round us. Once we got in to it and smashed a few of the little gits it evened up somewhat and our superior power brought tries in response.
Much like Rocky in the last movie (7?) the old bodies couldn't live with the young lads in the final few minutes and we lost by 7. Really enjoyable few weeks and think I might be able to give it another crack next season
Have also had a go at RDW's workout suggestion and I am absolutely loving it. Have been messing about in the gym since February with no real focus and have found this program excellent so far. Lifting more weight each session and the squatting 3 times a week has helped with my usually very poor flexibility. Cheers man.

Great to hear from everyone, and thought i'd chip in on my end of season.

Was up in Edinburgh on tour over Easter weekend, great trip with absolutely beautiful weather. We had games on the saturday and sunday, which turned out to be very different games.

The first was at Boroughmuir who had done a great job of scrabbling a 3rds team together, although it did mean they only had about 2 backs. Still, I think a few of the big boys had their dreams come true getting to play out in the backline! This game was such a good laugh, played in great spirits with both teams throwing the ball around and a serious amount of banter from the ref. Despite a very hungover/drunk team we managed a good win and I scored 2 tries from 9    , although since the ref also scored a try and took 2 drop goals we wont read too much into that! Great atmosphere in the clubhouse afterwards too.

Our second game was taken a lot more seriously by the opposition, and was a pretty physical affair although we still got a couple of our 60 year olds some gametime which was great. We won the game (unbeaten tour!) though it was close, and I'm not sure how amused the opposition were by our tour attitude to the match, but to be fair to them there was a few beautiful 30 man mauls once the Might Ducks quack quack call went up!

Anyway great tour and it showed how good the spirit in the club can be. I missed our final league match of the season last weekend which was a crunch match against our local rivals who had beaten us at home in our first league game. We ran out a close but seemingly well deserved victory to end the season on a high.

My first season at a new club, its been a good one. More gametime out of position than I would've liked, but we do have a lot of competition at 9 and I'm too lazy to make it to training much so I can't complain.

Well done to everyone whos been positing on this thread about their experiences this season, enjoy the off-season!   

Aye Boroughmuir 3s were the main rivals for my 2s team - great bunch of lads and we had two tough games against them this season.

The best being our 32-31 victory at home - we were 9 points behind with 10 minutes to go having been down to 13 men at one point, and scored to late tries to win!   

They won the return leg though 26-14 or something like that.

They won the league (we just missed out on 2nd place) but turned down promotion, so we'll do it all again next year!

Playing here in New Jersey our season is extended into May because there is no serious Rugby played in the heart of winter.  Played again for our seconds yesterday and, once again, went most of the match.  Rather quiet match, as we played just a bit better than our opponents pretty much across the pitch.  My match was fine, scored once but the gap was created by others and anyone could have scooted through.  Inside centre but positioned at stand-off a lot.  A lot of distribution, not a lot of tackles as the other team never ran at me much, not even many rucks.  My left knee is sore this morning, indicating to me the possibility of something there, but the rest is fine.  No disfiguring injuries.  No dumb mistakes.  And the weather was great, about 20 degrees.  Only other problem is a slight sunburn.  In the end, a quiet but comfortable win.