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Tuesday, October 26, 2004
RPD 26 October 2004
Read Pray Delete (RPD) for 26 October 2004 is now available.
Monday, October 18, 2004
RPD 18 October 2004
Read Pray Delete (RPD) for 18 October 2004 is now available.
Monday, October 11, 2004
RPD 10 October 2004
Read Pray Delete (RPD) for 10 October 2004 is now available.
Friday, October 08, 2004
Rugby Training in Ukraine
Today was my first run in rugby (excepting the sevens appearance in Paraguay) in over a year, since our grand final last year.
After a bit of difficulty I located the ground and got there early.
First thing I notice is the grass, well lack of it, not a blade of grass on the field, just some soft dirt and sawdust.
Now you could say it was similar to a Beecroft training. Mixed abilities of players, but not quite so many creative methods. My first experience is trying to watch and copy in the warm up as I have no idea what they are saying. After a few basic exercises they break into pairs for these little shoulder charges. By the time I've figured out what we are doing, I look round for a partner, and there I see Procky with a grin on his face. Well a hard gnarly old prop (sorry Procky) with a grin that said "hello new boy, it's just you and me left". He wasn't much more than 5 foot but still weighed about 120kgs of muscle. Must say the shoulders got a good work out. I think he enjoyed it.
Here I must add that as small as I was known to be at Beecroft, for some reason I have lost 10kgs since I came here.
They tried to send me over with the backs but I convinced them that I was going to run with the forwards. Mauling work was great, then we head over for some line out practice, my speciality, looking forward to this. I can't understand their calls, makes it a little difficult. One guy tells me that a country ball is two steps back and then jump. That sounds logical, I can handle that. How was I supposed to know that Wes is a country!? I think they were trying to say Wales; I just wanted to know who Wes was.
Glad to say that I know half of the team's names. If I say Alex or Sergey then I have half the team!
Then it's practice runs and I join the opposition guys to give a bit of a practice. First up the biggest guy picks me out, well I wasn't going to be shown up, so I stopped him but I nearly broke my nose doing so. But I wasn't going to rub it (well not much).
We played til it was way too dark to see the ball and needless to say I was stuffed.
After a bit of difficulty I located the ground and got there early.
First thing I notice is the grass, well lack of it, not a blade of grass on the field, just some soft dirt and sawdust.
Now you could say it was similar to a Beecroft training. Mixed abilities of players, but not quite so many creative methods. My first experience is trying to watch and copy in the warm up as I have no idea what they are saying. After a few basic exercises they break into pairs for these little shoulder charges. By the time I've figured out what we are doing, I look round for a partner, and there I see Procky with a grin on his face. Well a hard gnarly old prop (sorry Procky) with a grin that said "hello new boy, it's just you and me left". He wasn't much more than 5 foot but still weighed about 120kgs of muscle. Must say the shoulders got a good work out. I think he enjoyed it.
Here I must add that as small as I was known to be at Beecroft, for some reason I have lost 10kgs since I came here.
They tried to send me over with the backs but I convinced them that I was going to run with the forwards. Mauling work was great, then we head over for some line out practice, my speciality, looking forward to this. I can't understand their calls, makes it a little difficult. One guy tells me that a country ball is two steps back and then jump. That sounds logical, I can handle that. How was I supposed to know that Wes is a country!? I think they were trying to say Wales; I just wanted to know who Wes was.
Glad to say that I know half of the team's names. If I say Alex or Sergey then I have half the team!
Then it's practice runs and I join the opposition guys to give a bit of a practice. First up the biggest guy picks me out, well I wasn't going to be shown up, so I stopped him but I nearly broke my nose doing so. But I wasn't going to rub it (well not much).
We played til it was way too dark to see the ball and needless to say I was stuffed.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Monthly Newsletter October 2004
October 2004 newsletter available in PDF format.
