"OK, Honey, Last Rugby Game This Spring...Honest!"
I must admit that I was not sure if I was going to play on Saturday, or not. We had a lot of work to do at the house. The initial weather forcast for Saturday morning was going to be snow flurries and temps in the mid 30's....I really thought the only rugby that I would be involved with was having my friend Jacques over to the house to watch the Waratahs-Sharks Super 14 rugby game which I had Tivo'd last week. I make no apologies, playing rugby in just above freezing, wet conditions is not fun-for both spectators and players alike.
A funny thing happened along the way to doing a bunch of chores on Saturday: The weather was actually decent. There was sunshine, no rain and temps in the mid to high 50's. "Screw the chores!" I thought. "I'm going to get a run in today.
We did not have enough Old Boys to do a true "Old Boys Only" game, but we filled out the rosters on the two teams. Our coach, Denny Rowlands, is a native Aussie. He came up with the great idea of instead of just randomly trying to divide teams, he borrowed a page from the State of Origin Series in his native Australia. The State of Origin is from Rugby League, the 13 man a side version of the game. The players are divided out by where they first started to play rugby professionally, either in Queensland or New South Wales. It's a series that elicits a great deal of passion among Australian fans and players alike. The twist that Denny came up with was dividing the team between native born Minnesotans and players NOT born here in the Gopher State.
It's true that I have lived in a few places: Minnesota, Massachussetts, Virginia, Illinois, Iowa, Texas and France. I am Minnesota born and bred. I played prop in the second half for about 30 minutes. I got to carry the ball a couple of teams, was able to hit and be hit, and generally had a great time playing in the much welcome sunshine. The pitch was a bit muddy and boggy. We had a lot of rain the day before(Which cancelled Rodrigo's game with Plymouth against defending Minnesota state champs Hopkins), but even though the pitch was a bit boggy, the footing was actually better than I thought it would be.
I had a great time after the game chatting and sharing some beers and stories with some of the REAL Metropolis Old Boys. Chronilogically, we are the same age, but in terms of experience, these guys like JD, Horse, and Super Joe have forgotten more about the sport of rugby than I will ever hope to know.
Being able to play more rugby this spring and the thought of possibly being able to play with my brother Bill in the fall season certainly gives me plenty of motivation to tweak my training over the summer. I am hoping that my right knee can stay stable enough so that I can do more interval training in this summer. I felt fine in terms of brute strength and increase comfort in my technique in playing prop on the scrums. I feel like I need to improve my overall fitness so that I can have the legs to get to the breakdown quickly and clean things up, as well as being there for support on the offense.
I have a physical scheduled later this week. I'm 47, and I have not had a physical since when I went into the Army Reserves back in 2002. With diabetes on both sides of my family and cardiac disease on my dad's side, I am really curious where my blood sugars and cholesterol are at. Since I am going to be visiting the lab anyway, I was going to ask my family practice doctor if we can also check my testostrone levels. Men lose testosterone levels in a big way after the age of 40, but I have been reading info that has said that American men have been losing testostrone at rates earlier and faster than our parents and grandparents. If my levels are low, I will see if I can get supplementation. Contrary to what you might think, it's not because of rugby, it's just with diminished testosterone levels, that puts men at increased risk of depression, osteoporisis and gaining fat-because if you are losing muscle tissue, that is a big factor in how well you burn off fat.
I'll get to the chores tomorrow, honey....really!
