A Journey .....

Of a thousand miles starts with one single step!

As a team we are getting better each week, but that "killer instinct" just not seem to be there yet. (I would say we at about step five now referring to the title ) If you take a look at our stats you will know what I mean. During all our games we tend to dominate the 2nd half, both in territory and possession, but we dont get to score tries. We get so close (literally), yet we dont get to put the ball down behind that ever elusive white line! Patience I guess, we just need to be patient and work harder at what we doing. It's gonna come right for us sooner than later i hope!

Well, without wanting to sound too philosophical today, it struck me this morning how mentally tough it actually is to be a professional sportsman. And no, it's not meant to be bragging or anything, it's just i dont think people always see what's going on behind "the game". What i mean is all the extra hard work that sportsmen put in, without anyone knowing or acknowledging, and that requires a discipline that reminds me of the earlier era of the East. (eg. China, Japan). This morning all the bench players had to do a fitness session (cause we didnt play the whole game yesterday) and 2 of us decided to do a 'tackle/jackle' session instead of the 'stairs' session. Now this tackle/jackle session is very hard and you cant just cruise through, it's really tough. At the first relay fo the session it started raining. Now imagine, it's sunday morning 8am, you a bit tired from last nite cause you played bout 20min and also had to do the warmup and stuff, you cold and longing for the warm bed and here you are running in the rain while you couldve done the stairs session which is hard, but not nearly as hard as the tackle/jackle. It really took a lot to get my mind on running hard and to push myself as hard as i could and not to think of how i dont have to run as hard everytime. At the end it wasnt that bad, once you get going you dont stop, just keep on going! What made it worthwhile was after recovery i stopped at a garage to buy milk and the attendant came up and said that we played a good game last nite and that he's supporting us from now on. Makes it all worthwhile i tell you!

okay, enough deep stuff! on a lighter note, we had about 12 ooo people at our game last nite, yeah, i know for south africans it doesnt sound like a lot, but we had a full stadium (like 90%) and it was the biggest crowd since the early 80's. There was a really good atmosphere and it's better than playing at a big stadium with no people. The Manwatu Rugby Union in the beginning of the year expected/budgeted for an average crowd of 5000 people, the smallest crowd until now was 9000 people against taranaki. Things are picking up here in palmy and everything bodes well for the future!

This week is gonna be a "shorter" week in terms of training. We play this coming Friday nite against North Harbor. Hopefully i'll play against a former squad mate, south african born all black greg rawlinson.

Have a blessed week all friends and family and remember to live life with a grateful heart!