mate!!!!



You have made my day!

Well, actually, sleeping on my front deck in 20 degree heat with the cat at my feet after lunch would take some beating, but still, great post!

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kiwipat

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you kiwis know how to live!

gee, if this island wasn't that far....I may live there!

well, it may sound glam but I am meant to be healing a great big f*** off cut on my leg.

Still, the sunny front deck is good compensation for not being able to train.

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kiwipat

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You know what would make Gridiron interesting?

If they got rid of all those helmets and padding.

yeah, i actually think in rugby the only padding you should be allowed is those small head guards...I reckon it should be bodies on bodies.

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kiwipat

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And football could sure use some rugby plays, not that I give a toss about football, but it just seems so obvious to me.

How's the leg, kiwipat, hole closing up? Duct tape's the answer, eh?!

Cheers

Barry

Finally...a post I can feel at home in, rugby and triathlon.

Man, you gotta allow the front row their small shoulder pads (not like the gladiator-type pads is US footballs, more like neoprene pads).

FYI...a hint to those tri-geeks who feel like coming out of rugby retirement to play "a quick friendly" for their old club.

Don't.

Stupidly decided to do that last month (6 weeks ago). Maybe I just have less "natural padding" on my body than I did when i was playing, but it f***ing hurt. My ribs still kill from the booting I caught while going to ground with the ball.

Did the same thing in April - played a "friendly" against my old university (15 years since I played college ball, I might add). Old hookers should not do that. No one in the pack - and certainly no one in the front row - should do it. Plus, us American players put so much emphasis on hard tackles (vs. smart tackles) it makes it even worse. Took my physical therapist wife two weeks to get me back to normal.

It doesn't help that I'm 30 pounds lighter than when I played. Now if I were some weeny back, maybe I could still do it. ;) By the way, a mouthpiece and some Vaseline should be the only thing you wear other than the kit and boots.

Jay

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"If you're gonna be stupid, you better be tought." - Jerry Price

Well, I have had absolutely no desire to come out of 'retirement' ever since the cause of that 'retirement' - broke my nose and finger in the same tackle, played out the season and then left it to the young fit keen bastards (in Toronto). I'm not normally a good spectator, but I am at rugby :-) No desire to thrash myself about like that again. Of course, didn't help being a skinny fast back, eventually you'd get some bloody prop land on you when you couldn't find anyone to get rid of the ball to. So for anyone about to suggest a tri-geek rugby 'friendly', count me out. My motto was always 'only here for the beer' anyway. Still holds.

Cheers

Barry

so someone would get killed/paralyzed/compound shoulder fracture in every game?

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f/k/a mclamb6

Hey Barry, who'd you play for in Toronto? My club was/is the Scottish.

And don't knock fat props...I used to be one. We like landing on you backs as little as you like being landed on...you're all skin and bones, with funny angles that poke into us as we fall. Not squishy soft at all.

In my last match, about five years ago, the tighthead was whining to the ref about me during the game and busy explaining to me after the game how he was really a loosehead, not a tighthead. The guys on my side included a loses forward that made a NZ provincial side in the early '70s when he went there to play ball for a couple years and one of the best backs that ever played in the midwest. I didn't lose the ball once when I handled it, hit every ruck I could well and was running hard when the whistle blew to end the game. I could not top that now even if I had not lost more than 40 pounds since then and so have no regrets and absolutely no desire to play again.

But, my boots are still in the trunk of my car . . . . just in case.

How's the leg, kiwipat, hole closing up? Duct tape's the answer, eh?!

yes, the duct tape was a great idea, but I went for the nylon 3mm stitches upgrade, for all 15 of them. Just a personal preference...

It is healing well, thanks, and I will be able to swim next week, and maybe bike the week after. Slowtwitch has been a mjor help, the Hottie thread, Maylene, the whole shebang, it has all got me through.

Still been a pretty boring week though...

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kiwipat

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glad to help you out, kiwipat ;)

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maylene jackson, cscs
http://www.kidsintraining.org

Honestly, you have a gift, and I am humble in the presence of your talents.

kia kaha.

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kiwipat

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My dad played tighthead prop from 1948-1992. He's paying for it now. His knees are gone and his whole body is permanently angled to fit in that side of the scrum. I played #8 for a couple of seasons and quit when I got knocked out. As my dad always tells me, "in the Andes, only the forwards lived".

Yurtie I'm thinking these people need to see real football -AFL. No padding, helmets etc. the need to be able to run 15k in a game, jump, sprint, change direction and you will get smashed when you least expect it.

That's what I posted above but it didn't come out somehow.

I was saying that Aussie rules has no more injuries than any other football code but there's no padding.

Last roll of the dice for The Dons this week..

Our sons who play high school level rugby asked us last night if football and rugby were in the Olympics. We sort of chuckled and said no. Today Hunny Bunny discovers rugby was at one time actually an Olympic sport! I say bring it back along with the team tug of war!

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______________________________
Have you hugged Your Mom today?

great to know your kids are playing rugby! it's a fun sport!

Thanks - I actually cringe less watching them play rugby then american football. I had never watched a rugby match before and the first game I watchen them play I couldn't stop laughing! No wonder they love it so much...it's everything we've yelled at them to stop doing to each other every night for 15+ years....with a ball! As we're going through the college search, rugby has been on the list of requirements before any school is considered.

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______________________________
Have you hugged Your Mom today?

ok enough of all these out of shape stone hand forwards bagging on us skillfull backs who by the way also got all the girls at the post match celebrations ;-).

I played rugby for a couple of college squads, for the Dan River Rugby Club and for Union, NJ in the NYC league. I am not going to brag about all my injuries and battle scares, like all these mind numbing forwards.

I loved the rush of playing rugby, and the allure of going back is always there, when I do my evening runs the local club team practices at a field I run by and just once I want to crash the practice and see if i could make the squad. But heck one match and I am sure that IM training would be set back about a month. The deal I made with myself is that if I ever qualify for kona I will lace up the cotton oxfords in an old boys game. If the wife evers try to sell those boots in a garage sale, that would be grounds for divorce.

Peace & Ruck On

Rockfish

Guess who is the current Olympic rugby champion?

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kiwipat

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