Four Years since I gave up playing Rugby

So it's four years ago today that I got crunched in a tackle at Muswellbrook and completely ruptured the kneecap tendon in both knees. This was a painful and horrific injury which the surgeon had never done a double of... basketballers on prednisone for injuries, 80 year old blokes who fell down the stairs at the RSL but never both knees!! Thats another chapter in my book of quotes from mechanics, carpenters, odd job labourers, tax inspectors, teachers and friends...

Its summarised as "I have never seen........ before!!"

That aside I mention it here because I still miss it every Saturday!! I wish I had the choice to throw my stuff in a bag and head down to No2 for a run... although I have also taken a break from Coaching at the moment with the girls keeping us so busy and life generally hectic enough!!

I suppose I could run/train/prepare and trial things BUT the knees aren't quite right and the risks outweigh the potential fun!!

Not the point really... I still feel sorry for myself, its still different to go to the Test matched when its now not the game you played that afternoon yourself and I miss the camraderie, the sense of achievement, belting people, and winning premierships!!

Anyhow %$%^^#*&!!

I don't know that I've written much here about the RUGBY so far....
Mark it on your calendars!! The Wallabies can and will win the World Cup in France later this year!! I believe that especially if Kurtley Beale is selected in the squad [because that will mean reinvention and a willingness to chance our arm].

Beyond that we must learn to play the offload game we saw glimpses of against Wales last week.

I believ all the leading candidates for the squad were in heavy base conditioning during the Super 14... that and injuries led to our poor showing!! We ran dead like an untapered swimmer!!

Likwise the last two weeks and I think the timing is to peak towards the end of the Tri Nations and then hit the base fitness stuff again and taper for the Cup!!

I suppose we'll see the trip to the Somme and an obligatory rev up from someone of significance, we'll hear of accomodation antics and poor transport systems BUT overall I beleieve the best thing will be to get the squad away OS and do some really hard work on their aerobic fitness.

The offload rugby is where players run in support of the ball carrier giving options and rather than rely on set piece perfection you slip a short pass that becomes a series of short passes to keep the ball alive!! Eventually someone will hit a line, straighten or make a half break and suddenly scoring is possible!!

Our scrum will need to be rock solid and isn't far off, our backs will need to chance their arm and will need to loose framework to base their experimentation on.... Larkham will still be a key player assuming he gets thru the Tri nations unharmed...

On the last 12 months rugby The All Blacks deserve strong favouritism BUT how do you back a choker?

Wouldn't it be great for us to have won 3 Cups to NZ 1 ?

The photos in this post are [I think] from 1984 when we won the Grand Final against a pretty good Waratahs side!! It might have been 9-6 where we were running with a howling gale in the first half and scored not enough points. I was lucky enough to receive a ball with just the 4 foot tall 5/8 infront of me and I dived over him to score near the posts!!

In the second half we were called on to defend and only made it out of our own half twice in 30 mins of football against the wind!! We held on to win and simply collapsed to the ground on the final whistle. It was the definition of being more relieved than excited at having achieved the goal!!

Its a special memory because 1/3 into the season our coach quit and the stand in coach Cooky took us to 11 wins from 11 to sqeek into 4th spot and then win thru to the GF and take it out!!

This was my first season with Wanderers!!