DIY rugby

Tomorrow is our last training this year. Winter sessions at Katedralskolan haven't been well visited but enough to play some touch and get sweaty. One rookie even said training with few people was preferable, no need to disturb a big bunch of people with basic questions and consistently dropping the ball. I think in general these touch sessions have been helpful for new people to practise some easy ball handling and staying onside - but some more pedagogic than others.

A question has arisen whether our men's team actually has an outspoken game plan or if Uppsala simply favours improvisation? Considering the large number of players practising DIY rugby I'd say the latter is more probable. A fair few people seem to think there's no point in passing the ball, which is fair enough - we all love the ball. But they are also reluctant to take the contact. If their road is shut, they'll go left, stop, go backwards, go right and basically anywhere as long as they can. Do I really need to mention where the support is by this point? (Offside, confused and standing still is a good guess.)

Against an unorganised defense this still has a chance of working of course. We all know about players in different teams here that usually scores after a solo performance. However, my opinion is that no team can afford to field more than a couple of players with that kind of creativity. Not knowing where the hell your teammate is going will effectively prevent you from planning ahead your next phases. You can just hope to win the ruck, go from a stand still and play a slow ball. Again.

This sort of play during winter touch confuses all the new players. We tell them to go forward no matter what, but that isn't what they see. How will they learn if we don't follow our own instructions? Choose a running line and stick with it. Yeah right!

Not your average thursday

As a member of a club within the big, cosy community of the Swedish rugby union you might from time to time be asked to step up. (Ta en för laget så att säga.) I'm not talking about throwing yourself head first towards someone else's studs to make a try-saving tackle, nor about drawing five defenders and offloading the ball microseconds before getting smashed and breaking a few ribs in the process while your winger scores points and glory. During winter season the most heroic thing you can do for your team is to prove how wholesome and pure our club is. This you do by peeing in a cup when you get a visit from the Swedish Doping Board (a better name would maybe have been Swedish Anti-doping board, but what do I know?)


Last thursday four players were picked to participate in said event, all four evidently dried out after an hours touch rugby without water break. Let's just say it took some time. Some were more annoyed than others and complained loudly about swedish way of doing things - maybe because he only managed to squeeze out 3 of the required 90 ml? For all I know he might still be there...

This isn't him!