Senior First Rugby / South Island Trip

Well, I must say that this past weekend was a whole lot of fun. A whole lot of fun.

First off, I got a call Friday night from the senior first coach. He called me to play for the senior firsts on Saturday. Apparently he talked to my coach, Tomahou, and he was looking for someone else. Tomahou talked me up instead and got me the shot to play up. So we played Marist St. Pats on Saturday.

I think I'm cursed. I am doomed to not win a match at Petone. They jumped on top of us with a 13-0 lead in the very first 15 minutes. Then we got our wits about us and came back. We held the lead 22-16 up to the last play of the match. It was our scrum within our 10 meter mark and he stole the ball from our scrum and ended up running it in the a score. They had to score a try AND the conversion to win, but they ran it through the posts so it was an easy kick. We lost 23-22. What a bummer. I actually got to play for about 65 minutes. So I was not disappointed in my play time. The team played pretty crappy together. We just had a bad game. Errant passes and knock ons killed us.

On a personal note I thought I did well. I caught every ball I was able to in the air before it bounced and didn't "mess up" at all. My one great play was when they kicked it up high. I caught it running full speed and flew by the defense. The fullback tripped me up in the end, but I got the pass off to my teamate. We didn't score off the play, but it did lead to a score b/c we scored on the very next one. It ended up being about a 50 meter run.

One GREAT thing was the jersey I played in. It was the fitted jersey and fit quite snug. The defender could not possibly grab this jersey and get a hand tackle. It was sweet.

So we lost the match but I think I made a case that I can play with the senior firsts, and hopefully I'll get another shot. Maybe not this weekend but another.

On a very sad note, the senior 2nds are struggling with numbers real bad and they began their game this weekend with 9, and ended with something like 14 b/c more showed up later. It's one thing to lose with a full squad, but to not even have the numbers is a real stink.

After the match Tom and I went to my work to watch the All Blacks vrs England match. I got on the piss real good. So good that we were singing Kaoroki by the time we were leaving. Very Very fun night.

On sunday we went to Picton! We had some drinks at the Fireman's Arms before heading into Wellington for the ferry. My bosses gave us $150 to do with what we wish for the trip. That was awesome of them. very nice people. So we got the piss again on the ferry, which takes about 3 hours to reach the south island. We couldn't see anything b/c it was dark by then. Once upon arriving we dropped our gear off at the hostel and made it for the bar. This Irish bar had gin apricots which we all had. After that we went back to the hostel and drank till about 5 in the morning. That the time I turned in. A couple of the others didn't even sleep. Ridiculous!

In the morning we had breakfast and a few of us dove into the frezzing cold water in the harbor. It was awesome. Then, catching the ferry back we got to see the beaufitul sounds. Even some dolphins.

I'll have many pictures to post, possibly tomorrow. Out of time now. Cheers