Sore Body Sore Mind
Ouch.
I woke up this morning and I was sore all over. Yesterdays Rugby game was brutal. The ensuing after party was equally brutal and my head is still pounding from all of the after match alcho abuse.
It was pouring down rain the night before and I thought for sure I would get a call in the morning saying the game was canceled. It wasn't and with the ground over 80 minutes from my house I woke at 6 AM to get out to meet the guys. I didn't bring Eric cause it was raining still, but not quite as hard.
When I got to the TobuDobutsu Kohen Station, 4 at a time we hopped into cabs and took a 3000 yen cab ride to the rugby field. I have a love hate relationship with this place. It has a great facility's for amateur rugby field in Japan..... showers a place to eat that servers rammen, curry and other tasty traditional food, and of course beer, and lots of it cheaply.
But the thing I hate about it .... is it is really in the middle of no where. It is a 80-90 minute train ride to get there. I have to change trains at least 3 times, and then we have to take a taxi that costs 3000 yen for 20 minutes to get to the field. This sucks so if your late, or in my case want to leave early, you usually have to foot the cab alone which can suck.
Anyways we got to the field dressed, had dress check and warmed up. It was still raining lightly and overcast so of course later I wound up with sunburn on my face. The warm up went well and I got re-acquainted with my line out jumping. I think if I had to do it a little more frequently I could be really good at it especially when it comes to contesting for the ball.
The game started and while we have not beat the Donkeys in as many years, and we really botched up our first game against Fuji club so this brought us to a MUST WIN situation. Not only must win, but must win with 4 extra tries.
Games are always the same for me .... I really do not remember all the details that I should cause I am concentrating on what I need to do when I get on the field. Joffa scored in the first half and Matt converted that kick and another kick and while we dominated play most of the half it was still only 10 to 0 as I recall.
Things got going pretty quickly in the second half and with allot of fast play in not very fast play conditions. The team was bound and determined to win but so where the Donkeys. They lost quite a few players in the second 1/2 due to injuries, ever though it seemed they were a pretty cheap team in terms of the rules especially when it can to giving a extra kick in here and there.
We scored again in the opening minutes of the second half, it was Batti I think and that pretty much broke the Donkeys team spirit. But the did not give up they pounded away for a good 10 minutes at our try line before finally getting in for the try. But they failed to convert on the kick.
We continued to hammer them scoring another 3 or 4 tries. I heard Jesse yelling for me to get ready .... I had been ready since the first kick off, I was really amped up and ready to play.
Joe came out and I was in for him. We shifted things around again and I was at 4 next to Will. Crap things move so fast and I cant always remember what happened when I played.
Even though we had the Donkeys beat they were not going to go away quietly.
I am not sure of the order of things but I remember 3 things that happened.
I caught a kick off ball and ran it up field a few meters and went down and released it and it did not get turned over. YEAH!
My buddy Al finally pulled off the dummy run that we have been working on. Really I try very hard to stay out of Al's way, and one of the ways I found that seems to work is by me doing a dummy run up the outside. I run up yelling and screaming and most times half the people on the pitch stop and look .... "whats that crazy fat guy doing" Al never throws me the ball and it can at times catch some not so skilled sides off guard.
I saw the look in his eye and knew the ball was coming to me this time. The pass was perfect in to my hands and I took it up another 2 or 3 meters where I crashed into 2 Donkey players I turned to present the ball and kept pumping my legs but I do not think I was going anywhere. Dave ran up on me and yelled for me to go to ground, I did and he rucked over. AWESOME! Al and Dave, pretty soon I will be a real rugby player. Thanks.
Finally the nut kick was not the highlight of the game but I think I am going to buy a jock strap cause of it.
I was running cross the field and saw a guy with the ball. I was first to punch and he almost slipped by me, I am not a great tackler. But if I get a hand on you, I am not letting go. This guy was no exception I dragged him to the ground with a hand around the leg and a handful of jersey. As he went down he kicked me pretty intentionally on the inside of my right thigh .... didn't hurt. Then while on the ground he took another shot and got me on the right nut with one of his cleats. About 1/2 a second later..... I was on top of him with my fist cocked back. He was on his back with his hands up protecting his face. I was coming out of my totally enraged state and could see people running towards us and heard people screaming to not hit him. Too late. I thumped him one time in the chest and was pulled off him. He seemed keen to throw down now that he was up. But I was dragged away and as soon as who ever was holding me I collapsed into a fetal position and tried not to puke. I did my best to for get words like throbbing or pounding........ a couple minutes later I bounced my little guy out of my abdomen where it had retreated to.
Miraculously I escaped with out a Yellow card or worse. Thanks to all the guys who rushed on the field to stop it from escalating further.
A few minutes later the game ended with a final score of 55 to 5.
Not only did we win, we won decisively and to a team we had not beat in recent memory.
It felt really good and while the guys with cars who had to drive took off early, the rest of us stayed for a long period of time. Man we drank allot at the field, then outside the station, then on the train, and finally at the Club House. I woke up the next morning with a aching body and a head that is still feeling a little slow from the events of the night.
Now we have made it into the semi finals that start on May 25th. It will start getting really hot here about that time. I am excited to get to play more, and win!
E./
I woke up this morning and I was sore all over. Yesterdays Rugby game was brutal. The ensuing after party was equally brutal and my head is still pounding from all of the after match alcho abuse.
It was pouring down rain the night before and I thought for sure I would get a call in the morning saying the game was canceled. It wasn't and with the ground over 80 minutes from my house I woke at 6 AM to get out to meet the guys. I didn't bring Eric cause it was raining still, but not quite as hard.
When I got to the TobuDobutsu Kohen Station, 4 at a time we hopped into cabs and took a 3000 yen cab ride to the rugby field. I have a love hate relationship with this place. It has a great facility's for amateur rugby field in Japan..... showers a place to eat that servers rammen, curry and other tasty traditional food, and of course beer, and lots of it cheaply.
But the thing I hate about it .... is it is really in the middle of no where. It is a 80-90 minute train ride to get there. I have to change trains at least 3 times, and then we have to take a taxi that costs 3000 yen for 20 minutes to get to the field. This sucks so if your late, or in my case want to leave early, you usually have to foot the cab alone which can suck.
Anyways we got to the field dressed, had dress check and warmed up. It was still raining lightly and overcast so of course later I wound up with sunburn on my face. The warm up went well and I got re-acquainted with my line out jumping. I think if I had to do it a little more frequently I could be really good at it especially when it comes to contesting for the ball.
The game started and while we have not beat the Donkeys in as many years, and we really botched up our first game against Fuji club so this brought us to a MUST WIN situation. Not only must win, but must win with 4 extra tries.
Games are always the same for me .... I really do not remember all the details that I should cause I am concentrating on what I need to do when I get on the field. Joffa scored in the first half and Matt converted that kick and another kick and while we dominated play most of the half it was still only 10 to 0 as I recall.
Things got going pretty quickly in the second half and with allot of fast play in not very fast play conditions. The team was bound and determined to win but so where the Donkeys. They lost quite a few players in the second 1/2 due to injuries, ever though it seemed they were a pretty cheap team in terms of the rules especially when it can to giving a extra kick in here and there.
We scored again in the opening minutes of the second half, it was Batti I think and that pretty much broke the Donkeys team spirit. But the did not give up they pounded away for a good 10 minutes at our try line before finally getting in for the try. But they failed to convert on the kick.
We continued to hammer them scoring another 3 or 4 tries. I heard Jesse yelling for me to get ready .... I had been ready since the first kick off, I was really amped up and ready to play.
Joe came out and I was in for him. We shifted things around again and I was at 4 next to Will. Crap things move so fast and I cant always remember what happened when I played.
Even though we had the Donkeys beat they were not going to go away quietly.
I am not sure of the order of things but I remember 3 things that happened.
I caught a kick off ball and ran it up field a few meters and went down and released it and it did not get turned over. YEAH!
My buddy Al finally pulled off the dummy run that we have been working on. Really I try very hard to stay out of Al's way, and one of the ways I found that seems to work is by me doing a dummy run up the outside. I run up yelling and screaming and most times half the people on the pitch stop and look .... "whats that crazy fat guy doing" Al never throws me the ball and it can at times catch some not so skilled sides off guard.
I saw the look in his eye and knew the ball was coming to me this time. The pass was perfect in to my hands and I took it up another 2 or 3 meters where I crashed into 2 Donkey players I turned to present the ball and kept pumping my legs but I do not think I was going anywhere. Dave ran up on me and yelled for me to go to ground, I did and he rucked over. AWESOME! Al and Dave, pretty soon I will be a real rugby player. Thanks.
Finally the nut kick was not the highlight of the game but I think I am going to buy a jock strap cause of it.
I was running cross the field and saw a guy with the ball. I was first to punch and he almost slipped by me, I am not a great tackler. But if I get a hand on you, I am not letting go. This guy was no exception I dragged him to the ground with a hand around the leg and a handful of jersey. As he went down he kicked me pretty intentionally on the inside of my right thigh .... didn't hurt. Then while on the ground he took another shot and got me on the right nut with one of his cleats. About 1/2 a second later..... I was on top of him with my fist cocked back. He was on his back with his hands up protecting his face. I was coming out of my totally enraged state and could see people running towards us and heard people screaming to not hit him. Too late. I thumped him one time in the chest and was pulled off him. He seemed keen to throw down now that he was up. But I was dragged away and as soon as who ever was holding me I collapsed into a fetal position and tried not to puke. I did my best to for get words like throbbing or pounding........ a couple minutes later I bounced my little guy out of my abdomen where it had retreated to.
Miraculously I escaped with out a Yellow card or worse. Thanks to all the guys who rushed on the field to stop it from escalating further.
A few minutes later the game ended with a final score of 55 to 5.
Not only did we win, we won decisively and to a team we had not beat in recent memory.
It felt really good and while the guys with cars who had to drive took off early, the rest of us stayed for a long period of time. Man we drank allot at the field, then outside the station, then on the train, and finally at the Club House. I woke up the next morning with a aching body and a head that is still feeling a little slow from the events of the night.
Now we have made it into the semi finals that start on May 25th. It will start getting really hot here about that time. I am excited to get to play more, and win!
E./