I played my first game of rugby for 4 years today. I had agreed to be a sub and play for ten to fifteen minutes as I had no idea if I'd still be able to play after such a long time as I'm very unfit compared to what I used to be and haven't scrummaged or done a line-out for so long.
It was pouring with rain this morning, absolute cats and dogs and I arrived at the Club to find it packed with mini's and parents to the extent that you couldn't even get in the door as people were sheltering from the rain in there. So the ladies were directed to the Pitch and Putt which had hired out the changing room for us for the day. I'd never even been in this building before so that was a voyage of discovery. It was very strange to be getting changed and setup for a game of rugby, I'd forgotten what to do and what I needed. Then we went out to get warmed up in the pouring rain.
The first bit of contact during warm-up and I sat on the floor and my whole bottom was soaked. And so it began. A few minutes later Kelly said to me 'how do you feel about playing second row?' I didn't mind but I just hadn't scrummed for so long I really didn't know if i'd be able to do it again.
As we went back to the changing rooms to put our match shirts on, Becca and Kelly called me over and Kels said 'how do you feel about starting the game?' I had to laugh really. So after putting on our shirts (which had been dried in the same air as a tasty haddock dinner and so had rather a strange smell..) there I stood on the pitch in the biting wind and pouring rain, on a partly water-logged boggy pitch, starting a game of rugby for the first time in 4 years.
Crikey those first scrums were ropey. I couldn't get my feet into the right position to begin with and so when the hit came I was on the back-foot and just couldn't seem to get my legs back. It's a knack which I'd forgotten but thankfully it came back and later on I was managing to get my bum down and push properly.
It was fun though and I really enjoyed it. The close play and lineouts were brilliant. Obviously I was unfit and so anything involving the backs was beyond me but I put in a few hits and did some rucks and my highlight was when I was passed the ball at one point and did the forward thing in running forward between two opposition forwards and it opened up in front of me!! No one was more surprised than me to find myself through the defence with only the full-back in front of me - aarrrggh! She tackled me really well though but I managed to get the ball back and present it - yay!
I came off for a breather in the second half as it was rolling subs but then went back on so played most of the game. It was SO cold by the end, I couldn't feel my fingers and every part of my body was covered in sandy mud which just rubbed and was cold. When we finally got in the showers they were red hot and it hurt so much having hot water on icy cold skin...
I'd forgotten about the banter in the showers and the wonderful, amazing conversations in the changing room. The ridiculousness of being covered in mud, soaking wet, shaking with cold and unable to untie your shoelaces and peel your clothes off. The relief of getting into dry clothes, eating some food in the club-house and of course meeting up with girls and people at the Club that I'd not seen for a long long time.
Thank God for rugby. It was a really good day.
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