The last week of the adventure

The bittersweet week has arrived. The excitement of going back home mixed with the sadness of leaving what has been your home for the past six weeks. As this week has progressed toward our last game of the season, I've been more porous when it comes to learning new things at training. I've been privileged to be working Peter deVilliers every week doing scrumming technique, skills on explosiveness and downright "man tests" where your will is the only thing that is left after the exercise. Tonight is the last training session and I'm excited to see what will transpire. Yesterday I did something I've always wanted to learn how to do: went surfing. The boss at Cubana is a hug surf fan and every so often likes to treat his employees to a day out in the sun and surf. As we neared the beach, I asked how high the chance of a shark attack would be. My boss replied "There hasn't been an attack in over 60 years in this area. Now you can look at it two ways: that it's overdue, or that it's a pretty safe spot." Always the optimist, I decided to go with the latter perspective. With my wetsuit on and my 10 ft longboard in hand, I hit the waves....more like the waves hit me. I took a couple straight to the face and came out of the water spitting salt. After a brief instruction lesson from the boss, I soon figured out what worked and what didn't. Not only was the activity physically draining by wrestling with mother nature, but it was also mentally exhausting. Fall, get up, fall, get up, crouch, ride for a second then fall. I eventually worked up to where I could stand a couple of times before the day ended. All in all, it was an awesome experience and I look forward to going again. The rest of the final week looks to be filled with work, games, and leaving celebrations.

Cheers,

Josh

Throwing stones

Dealing with dirty players is a part of playing this elegantly violent sport. Sometimes dealing with rowdy fans also plays a role. The combination of both rude fans and dirty players only makes playing the game that much harder. While the intensity can come to a boil at times, we all play rugby for the passion and the joy we get from giving everything we have physically for 80 minutes. That joy and passion turned to frustration and anger this past weekend as we played the SK Walmers. From the opening kickoff we all could tell that this would be a more "physical" team than we've played the past few weeks. Fists, fingernails, cleats assaulted us as we continued to try and play our style of rugby. Aside from the usual trash talk of the team, some jeering is usually expected from the opposition's fans. Jeering came in the form of rude hand gestures, racial slurs, and throwing stones. Regardless of race, religion, or color, the attitudes displayed by the team and their supporters were shocking and embarrassing to the sport of rugby. We ended up tying 9-9 at the end of the day and sometimes tying is worse than losing because the end result says that you were no better than your opposition. We know we played better than they did but the score didn't show and that's what hurts the most.

Cheers,

Josh

Sometimes your best just can't cut it.

Losing sucks. But losing when you know you didn't give everything you had sucks even more. Thank goodness that didn't happen yesterday. While the score may not reflect the actual closeness of the game, we know gave everything we had. Did we make mistakes? Sure, who doesn't in a game? But we came together and kept on fighting.

This past week at training I had another opportunity to have a technique session with Peter DeVilliers. I find it amusing how I've flown thousands of miles to learn about the importance of two inches. In the scrum, quickness is everything. We may look blocky and clumsy (I'm not saying we aren't) but get us in a scrum, and we'll be just as quick as any makeup wearing back. The scrum basically works in three basic stages: 1) On "engage", be the first prop across the mark (the invisible "line of scrimmage" which is about two inches away from your face) 2) Have all 8 forwards push as one against the opposition's 8 forwards. 3) Push the other team back and laugh while you do it. You only get to laugh at the other team when you first beat them to those two inches. Once that is done, give everything you have until the ball goes out to the backs where they will almost always knock it forward and the whole process repeats itself. (NOTE: If you ever tell a back that, they will lie through their shiny teeth and tell you I was wrong but backs are never to be trusted. Especially with important things like chainsaws, your beautiful daughter, anything shiny, etc etc.)

As the week progressed, it seemed Aaron(miss you boet) took the good weather with him back to the states. Rain, rain, wind, and more rain were all that we saw through the week. So much so that Thursday's training was cancelled due to the crazy weather. Things weren't looking so bright for the weekend. But we were shown that rugby truly is the game played in Heaven because yesterday was absolutely gorgeous. The Sun came out to watch but was respectful enough to leave some clouds around so that we would be able to stay warm without overheating. Mountain breezes came by to say hello at all the right times. We couldn't have asked for better weather (we should've asked for a win instead). I started for the second team and played the whole match. I was looking forward to showering and sitting down for a bit but I soon found out my shower would have to wait. I was called up to sub for the first side. With fifteen minutes left in the game, they put me in. The pace of the game was exponentially quicker than the one I just finished and I was forced to play catch up for a minute or two. Once I settled, it was business as usual: Scrum, ruck, tackle, run, punch (shhh). The first side ended up losing as well but they gave everything they had as well. All in all, a hard fought day with a bitter taste left in our mouths.

I'm hoping to try and see a bit more of the Cape before I leave in two weeks but we'll see how that goes.

Cheers,

Josh

Three games down, three to go

With my stay halfway over, this is what I have learned so far:

• Look the opposite way when crossing the street
• Lions do not just walk about randomly
• Nor do giraffes
• Nor do hyenas

We lost a hard game yesterday and the proof is showing up on my body via purple and blue splotches. Yet with each game that ends, another week of preparation for the next one begins. My first official night at work was quite kif(cool). During the week, Cubanas is a nice lounge where you can relax and unwind. It changes into a different venue come the weekend. DJs, flashing lights, beautiful people all seem to come out of the woodwork and party late into the night. I was given a two table section just so that I could show management that I know how to ask what people want to drink and/or eat. As the night progressed, I found myself wanting to stop working and start dancing. I'm excited for tonight's shift although I'm pretty sure it should be a bit more chilled than Friday. I'll try and put together a more detailed post about the game but until then, I'm all out of words to...

Gearing up for the weekend

Wake up, go the gym, work or go to practice, sleep, repeat. That is how the past few days have been and that's the way it looks like it will be for the remainder of my stay. The past few days have been pretty quiet with nothing too crazy going on. I will be starting my first official night on the floor at work tonight and I am pretty excited. What I am not excited about is the closing time which, on the weekends, is at 4 a.m. Given that I have a rugby game tomorrow, I am petitioning to get out first so that I can have a bit of rest before I go play my hardest game so far. Looking at the date, I realize I'm about halfway through with my adventure here in Cape Town. It truly seems like yesterday when I was asking where the bus to the City Bowl District was. I am looking forward to what I will be doing in the next three weeks but, at times, more excited about coming home. Seeing my family again, walking into the apartment and having it smell like Mom's amazing cooking, the super-tight hugs my sister always gives before I leave for anywhere, being able to "slam" my little brother into the bed for no reason other than because I can, the little things in life that make you appreciate what you really have. Take today and thank those closest to you for being by your side. That's all for today.

Cheers,

Josh

Update

Sorry for the long delay between posts, I finally moved into the player accommodations and there is no internet there. So posts will be much more sparse and probably more concise as well. Since the last post, I've been to the most Southwestern point of the world, gone hiking on a mountain, made amazing brownies and got a job. Today consisted of some reading, working out, starting my first day at work, and a technique session with Peter DeVilliers. Peter has played professionally overseas in France and even played on the World Cup squad that beat the All Blacks. Work seems like it will be quite fun. The place is called Cubanas and they pride themselves on being the only authentic Latin cuisine in South Africa. The atmosphere is relaxed, fun, and seems pretty upscale. This weekend we will be playing away in the town of Stellenbosch. The team we will be playing basically breeds rugby players from the harsh mountains they live in so this will be a tough one to win. It seems that I have been moved up to the second team which is quite exciting. That's pretty much it and I'll try and keep this as updated as often as possible.

Cheers,

Josh

Blood tastes sweeter with a win

Apologies on the delay of posts, it's been a fun but busy week. Saturday was a cold and rainy day that made for a very tough match. A light drizzle started as the game began against UCT. From what I have heard, the Villagers forward pack is one of the smallest this season and it is apparent upon our first scrum. Where these giant men come from I have no idea, but nevertheless, we fear no one and gave everything we have. With the rain and the mud that is now forming, it was apparent that this game will be won by inches and tons of contact. On a nice, sunny, warm day, most rugby games tend to be played out in the backs with lots of plays, speed and an overall better quality of rugby. When it rains, the game slows, becomes more tiring and in general, is sloppier than usual. Scrum after scrum, ruck after ruck, tackle after tackle the game never seemed to end. Thankfully our flyhalf was able to capitalize on their mistakes as he slotted each of the 5 penalties. One penalty was given 55 meters away and our inside center decided to go for it. Everyone was preparing for him to miss, but it was though everyone willed the ball over the posts as he made the sixth penalty. UCT's offense did prove tough to beat. They scored twice and made their conversions giving them a total of 14 points. Towards the end of the game, UCT was making a strong surge to try and score at the last second. It was our hero of the game, the flyhalf who made the literal last second tackle which made the UCT ball carrier knock it on and the ref to blow his whistle. Game over, Villagers-18, UCT-14. A hard fought match between both sides, we showed just how much heart and effort (and mayyybe a bit of fitness) can really do. With the game over, I was called over the second side bench where I thought I would stay for the whole game. However, with 25 minutes left to play, the coach put me in and I played the rest of the match. The second side game was even more physical but they were bested by UCT and it resulted in a loss. After I was done playing my second match of the day, I finally got a chance to shower and go celebrate the win with the thirds. Saturday night was a fun night filled with friends, dancing, the works. Sunday was a nice recovery day where we all took it easy recovering from the tough game. More about this week in later posts.

Cheers,

Josh