As I got off the plane in Wellington I was pretty tired, but I knew I would only have time for a short nap before our practice that night. After unpacking all my stuff and throwing my clothes in the wash I laid down and fell asleep. After what felt like 5 minutes my alarm went off and I quick threw on my gear and began my walk to practice. Eoin would not be joining me today, because he wasn't feeling up for practice. We put in some good work at practice and the physical exertion was a good way to get over the tiredness I was feeling from all the travel we had done. Even though we weren't there for the Tuesday practice I felt pretty prepared for our game vs Avalon.
On Saturday, I woke up bright and early and made myself a nice breakfast and a cup of tea. I was pretty excited just to get back into some rugby and I was pretty confident we could beat this team, but from other peoples descriptions of the team I was unsure how good they were. What was cool about this game is that we were the only Poneke side playing this week, because the premier and premier reserve side had bye weeks. This allowed us to use the number 1 locker room and the warm up area that is normally reserved for the premier side. Since we were the only team playing this week all eyes were on us to perform well and represent the club, and there was a lot of energy circulating around this game.
This game was different for me since I would be starting at 5 (lock) while I normally start at 1 or 3 (prop), and I was unsure of how I would perform at this new position for me. From the first kick our line speed was impeccable and I laid a big hit on the receiver and forced him to knock the ball on. From there it was a pretty brutal game for the Avalon side and we began to score on basically every possession. The game itself was pretty exhausting since I was basically playing 80 minutes of fast paced offense, only getting a break after we scored. I had a good amount of success at lock and made quite a few nice breaks, but out of the two of us only Eoin scored a try. Overall it was a great game and the extended amount of offense allowed us to test out all the plays we had been developing. Next week we have a tough game against OBU Black, who sit at the top of the table currently and will give us a considerable challenge.
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