The weather on Friday was lovely, the weather on Sunday, for the kiddies, beautiful, the weather on Saturday? A 10C drop from the days either side, pouring rain and high winds. So instead of having my first exposure to scrums in good conditions, for just 20 minutes at the end of a won game, it was scrum after scrum, as the blooming backs couldn’t keep hold of it, and every time I felt near folded in two!
The issue was my setup (and my opposite number cheerfully admitting after that he was boring in like crazy). I wasn’t setting up square, which meant trying to hold an extremely strong opposition scrum on just one leg, clearly it wasn’t working. After going back a bit, I’d manage to catch myself, get in a better position, and stop the momentum, but not always before being bent and twisted a bit!
**My setup now is improved, issue seems to have been I wasn’t getting my shoulder through far enough.**
The game itself couldn’t have been much different to the scrums though! Although we were getting beasted there, our backs were like lightning (at least when they weren’t dropping the ball), and our defence in open play was solid. We ended up winning very comfortably.
As the game went on, I really started to enjoy being part of the front row union, even with the pain. In the 1st half, we stood up from a scrum (their put in, they went forward a good 3-5m), and somehow we were 40 yards up the pitch with possession (swiftly knocked on). Our second row asked the question we were all thinking “How the hell did that happen?” The opposition hooker replied that he had no idea, the rest of us just shrugged and headed over to the next scrum.
Later in the 1st half, once again we came up from a scrum in our 22 (our ball this time, which we just about secured), and our backs had gone 60 yards up the pitch and were still going, “Bollocks to chasing that.” said I, “I was just thinking the same thing.” replied their loosehead.
I came off at half time, coach said it was nothing to do with my performance (was it bollocks!), but I must admit, I took a small amount of ego soothing, when I saw the replacement tighthead do about as well as I had managed! After a while, we swapped our hooker (that club stalwart, fullback to front row conversion) to tighthead, and suddenly we had a stable scrum! Didn’t last long though, as he bundled over for a try and quickly signalled that it was time for him to be subbed!
I’d actually just told the coach I’d rather stay off at that point, but if he needed me, I’d go back on. I was getting well beaten, knew it wasn’t getting fixed quickly, and was freezing cold! So back on I trudged.
At this point the opposition had 3 of our players playing for them (merit leagues, we’re all just there to play and have fun), and they were soon to have another. Another scrum, as we lined up we realised that their hooker had gone down, supposedly cramp in both legs. As he was there, getting both his legs stretched out, the jeering started:
“He’s not got cramp! He’s just not had KFC in an hour!”
“It’s a boy!”
“Stop having a lie down, you lazy ****!”
And that was just his own side!
The sharper members of the tight 5 from both sides had a sudden realisation. It was about 40-0, cold, wet, and the hooker had been down for a good 5 minutes already! The question was asked to the ref:
“Sir, have you stopped the clock???.... Please tell us you haven’t!”
“It’s alright lads, the clocks still running…”
“Thanks sir! Good one!”
Relief, no one wanted to have another 5 minutes added on if it wasn’t needed!
Unfortunately their hooker was unable to recover, so on came our 1st choice hooker, only working for them! Unsurprisingly, I was bent in two again. Our hooker later pointed out (and this was confirmed by their loosehead in the bar), that their 2nd row were awesome in the scrum.
Sadly (well, not really), around the next scrum (so probably 30 seconds later), it started to just get too wet, and too slippery for me to keep my feet. With no more replacements, no more shuffling etc available, the ref declared uncontested scrums for the last bit of the game, in the interest of safety.
Shortly after that, he blew the whistle to finish the game (2nd half definitely seemed rather short, but everyone appreciated the ref for it!).
Into the changing rooms, into the showers, into the bar. Found my opposite number (tricky at first, since they were all making a weekend of it, and were in mexican fancy dress!), and had a good old natter.
A definite baptism of fire, and one that got repeated again and again due to conditions, but I came away wanting to get better, rather than wanting to give up.
Got a message the next day from our hooker, suggesting that it may be better for me to try hooker, to help with the mental side of not getting blasted as much, and that he’d talked to the team manager about it too. Told them both that I’m a rather self deprecating kind of guy (I’d said, truthfully, that I’d got mullered in the scrum!), and I actually felt I’d done fairly well for a first try, and planned on getting a lot better, and getting beaten hadn’t really effected my mindset for the rest of the game (except for discomfort!). Asked for more advice on twitter (thanks guys!), read up even more online, watched more videos etc, and talked to my coach/manager about my setup. There’s so much information out there, and I’m sure it’s mostly good stuff, but I’m trying to keep it in little steps, so I can focus on just a few bits, and get them right/better, before moving on to other less vital improvements.
Injuries (still no photos I’m afraid, but not much worth photographing)
A very sore back/neck.
Sore knees.
Sore calf (still).
Sore quad (still, other leg to the calf thankfully).
Sore temple (presumably from the guy boring in and my head getting squeezed).
*Tiny feet - What joy! My DBS check is back, meaning this poor broken man could run around with the youngsters…
We had a good time, even a little bit of playing actual tag games (I wasn’t there for that). Apparently it was chaos, running backwards and throwing the ball forwards, still good fun though.
At the end of it, as usual the coaches got together to talk about player of the week. I swear, I had nothing to do with it, but my son got a few recommendations. When asked if he was my son, and told I couldn’t vote, I said I’d vote against him anyway. Regardless, my boy went home with the player of the week award, and took it into school to show off. Unsurprisingly, it came back broken (not the first time that’s happened to it though), so a bit of superglue and it was all ready to go for the next week.
*********** As always, any advice on propping is more than welcome! Please comment here or contact me on twitter. Or if you know someone that could help, please link them in. **********
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