Saturday, was of course, a rugby day. We were on the road to Niagara Wasps RFC. I always hate playing there, as traffic is usually quite bad on the way. This time was exactly what I expected and so prepared for the worst.
I had extra water and food for myself, along with ice and beer in a container. I also had a lot of extra kit, just in case, along with referee kit as well. I had my team list saved as a photo on my phone and had a good handle on my emails from people. I also brought my roller and extra Advil, along with my usually overly prepared emergency kit in my rugby bag.
I did need some of it before the game. The ice water and ice came in handy between games. We won the second team game, winning almost every single scrum in the first half. After some key substitutions on their side, we had a bit of difficulty right off the restart, but we got better. I threw the line outs and I was pretty much solid there. I also wanted to point out that I made a left handed spin pass of at least ten meters to another prop during this game. It was zippy, too. Right into the other prop's hands who offloaded it to a back on his outside that led to a try for us. As it was, I played the entire game.
I got off the pitch at started to rehydrate. I had some applesauce and took off my cleats and got down to my shorts. I grabbed one of my icing kits - ziplock bag with a tensor bandage inside, took the tensor out, put ice in and wrapped up my knees one at a time. I took an Advil and had constant sips on my water. I kept this up for about 20 minutes and then switched to icing my feet. I let my socks dry in the sun and waited patiently. Halftime came and I put my kit back on, going for a quick stretch on the sidelines and then got a bit of a sweat going.
I got the call about the 55 minute mark. Our first XV scrums were not doing so well. I went in as hooker and stole the first ball. On the second line out, a special call was made. I listened to my part in it, as I was throwing in. I got the player to whom the ball was to be thrown and where in the lineout he'd be. The ball was perfect, the jumper came down and passed it off to a charging player ... who went and scored without being touched.
I felt like this:
After that, we let them back in the game. They were camped out on our 15m line for a while, until we got a kick out of the red zone. Off of a broken play, our three far backs were working a passing drill and one just got smoked. The other two were about to score the bonus point try, but it was not to be. Called back. It was a scrum called for an errant pass. Two attempts at resetting the scrum pissed off the ref, awarding a penalty to us. Our 9 kicked the ball into touch and we won the game without a bonus point.
Not sure but we have to win big in our next game.
Sunday I was hurting. I got up as early as I normally do and went straight into my garage gym to roll and stretch while my training partner explored the room. I was in there for about an hour, working out kinks and stuff. We all went swimming about 1pm and I stretched in the water before walking a short distance. I was straight up sore, man. But happy we won.
