Day 2:
Yeah. Mansfield hasn't gotten any softer.
It was a bitch to get started at practice today. I mean, I was tired after the first practice, and the first practice was hard, but at about 7pm yesterday, my legs went from "rubber" and not wanting to work to full-on "holy shit I'm sore" status. I couldn't even touch them today because of how sore they were. Imagine my horror as I stepped out onto that concrete-like grass to play touch today.
We had 18 guys out there tonight, which is a step up from the first practice. Oddly enough, we had more new guys than veterans. As such, drilling went a little slower, but at least the new guys want to work. It pissed me off a couple of times to see a couple of the older guys saying "fuck it" to the fitness and taking a breather while the rest of us worked our asses off. Steve took a lot of flak for yelling out in frustration: "for fucks sake, if you don't want to be here, leave" - but the truth is, I really agree with him. It sends a horrible example to the new guys, and its the second practice for fucks sake.
Standardized warmup again. More fucking gorilla jumps. Fuck I hate gorilla jumps. They are the sole reason that i am sore right now.
After some passing drills, we worked on tackling. See, we've got a game (three, actually) on Saturday, and many of these guys haven't made a tackle in their life. I got through to Kalob (side - I found out its actually spelled that way) though, and he started making some hits. At one point he landed me right on my ass. Right on that old tailbone bruise. That's gonna make tomorrow suck. One of the new guys got stood up hard enough to knock the wind out of him and take him out for the night. Hell of a first night. Something tells me he won't be back this year.
We set up the forwards for Saturday. We're going to have an interesting pack this year. Out of 8 guys, 4 are new. Myself at hooker, Ed at Prop, John at Flanker, and Dieff at eightman. Hopefully the new guys pick it up pretty quick. Even Steve moved from wing to Scrum half, so I've been trying to train him to get the put-in at the correct moment. Saturday is going to be... interesting. At least we have 2 dedicated props now. I'm very happy about that. No more Dennis at prop - put him at center or flank. Somewhere the mofo can hit someone already.
We also sorted out the line-out. Only zorb knows why, but Rouff decided to have Kalob jump. Kalob is about 2 inches shorter than John. As such, my first two throws, exactly 2 inches too high for Kalob. No, nobody was impressed with this except me. I think maybe John was too, because he didn't yell at me, like usual when he can't reach my always perfect passes, but either way... I've got to get my throws down. All I know is I'm glad I'm not the one being lifted. My feet belong firmly on the ground.
Moving on to look towards Saturday though - its going to be interesting. Just counting out in my mind, I'd say about 5 of the starters will be new, 5 will be veteran. I'm gonna go ahead and venture a guess that there will be no mauling, and minimal rucking. (Do you even maul in League / 10's? Anybody? Bueller?) Most 10's players will be smaller though, I'm assuming.. so assuming I can get some good phase play, I MIGHT be able to power 1 or 2 in.
My Status:
- Rouff cleated me good. -1 tonail.
- My shoulder is beatup from hitting someone. I don't know who or when that happened.
- My thumb. Its really swollen. I got stung by something when I was doing push-ups, and now its turning funny colors.
It was a bitch to get started at practice today. I mean, I was tired after the first practice, and the first practice was hard, but at about 7pm yesterday, my legs went from "rubber" and not wanting to work to full-on "holy shit I'm sore" status. I couldn't even touch them today because of how sore they were. Imagine my horror as I stepped out onto that concrete-like grass to play touch today.
We had 18 guys out there tonight, which is a step up from the first practice. Oddly enough, we had more new guys than veterans. As such, drilling went a little slower, but at least the new guys want to work. It pissed me off a couple of times to see a couple of the older guys saying "fuck it" to the fitness and taking a breather while the rest of us worked our asses off. Steve took a lot of flak for yelling out in frustration: "for fucks sake, if you don't want to be here, leave" - but the truth is, I really agree with him. It sends a horrible example to the new guys, and its the second practice for fucks sake.
Standardized warmup again. More fucking gorilla jumps. Fuck I hate gorilla jumps. They are the sole reason that i am sore right now.
After some passing drills, we worked on tackling. See, we've got a game (three, actually) on Saturday, and many of these guys haven't made a tackle in their life. I got through to Kalob (side - I found out its actually spelled that way) though, and he started making some hits. At one point he landed me right on my ass. Right on that old tailbone bruise. That's gonna make tomorrow suck. One of the new guys got stood up hard enough to knock the wind out of him and take him out for the night. Hell of a first night. Something tells me he won't be back this year.
We set up the forwards for Saturday. We're going to have an interesting pack this year. Out of 8 guys, 4 are new. Myself at hooker, Ed at Prop, John at Flanker, and Dieff at eightman. Hopefully the new guys pick it up pretty quick. Even Steve moved from wing to Scrum half, so I've been trying to train him to get the put-in at the correct moment. Saturday is going to be... interesting. At least we have 2 dedicated props now. I'm very happy about that. No more Dennis at prop - put him at center or flank. Somewhere the mofo can hit someone already.
We also sorted out the line-out. Only zorb knows why, but Rouff decided to have Kalob jump. Kalob is about 2 inches shorter than John. As such, my first two throws, exactly 2 inches too high for Kalob. No, nobody was impressed with this except me. I think maybe John was too, because he didn't yell at me, like usual when he can't reach my always perfect passes, but either way... I've got to get my throws down. All I know is I'm glad I'm not the one being lifted. My feet belong firmly on the ground.
Moving on to look towards Saturday though - its going to be interesting. Just counting out in my mind, I'd say about 5 of the starters will be new, 5 will be veteran. I'm gonna go ahead and venture a guess that there will be no mauling, and minimal rucking. (Do you even maul in League / 10's? Anybody? Bueller?) Most 10's players will be smaller though, I'm assuming.. so assuming I can get some good phase play, I MIGHT be able to power 1 or 2 in.
My Status:
- Rouff cleated me good. -1 tonail.
- My shoulder is beatup from hitting someone. I don't know who or when that happened.
- My thumb. Its really swollen. I got stung by something when I was doing push-ups, and now its turning funny colors.