Saturday was a day of mixed blessings. It was nice to have a lot of my club mates surprised that I was playing seconds. Almost to a person they expressed that they thought I would be playing first team rugby, but were happy to have me playing with them. Some even mentioned that I was fun to watch play. I got almost a full game in on Saturday.
I say almost because just as I was getting into the 65th minute of the game ... I was yellow carded. Yup, the Discipline Director of the Niagara Rugby Union, member of an Ontario Discipline Panel was carded for .... unprofessional play. Seems you can't tackle someone from behind if they have tapped and gone on a penalty. Well, I'm pretty sure I knew, I just wanted to prevent him form scoring. As I sat near the dead ball line, my team scored twice from cross kicks. Really really pretty plays. I can't help but make the observation that I saw these tries scored first hand in League Rugby this spring. A pretty play is a pretty play, regardless of Code.
In any case, I got a nice ten minute break and came back on as a flanker. Another part of the mixed blessing I spoke of earlier.
After that, I was on the bench for the firsts. Got on in the last ten minutes of that game, too - at tight head. I managed to stomp on my hooker's toes and forget how to bind on the right hand side of the scrum at least once.
On the positive side, in a nice display of fitness, I supported a kick back to a ruck. I managed to steal the ball from the opposing 9, and feed my charging winger who exploded down the field to a try. In hockey parlance, "I got a sweet assist, man."
I didn't do much stretching after the games, but did a lot between them. I was pretty de-hydrated at the end and collapsed in my nicely cooled basement.
Sunday was a family day - I had to host a few relatives and watch two of my children swim in a show. That was awesome. At the end, I was in the basement again, making sure to stretch and recover.
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