I am a bossy chopsy bugger.
I know this. I try not to be but that, my chooky chickens, is how God made me, I’m afraid.
Well, this little Gobshoite is feeling a little down today.
You see, today was the last training session for me with my touch rugby team. For quite a while.
The Cavaliers are a mixed team playing the Cardiff leagues on Thursdays. I have been playing in the summers for what must be 15 years now and I truly love the sport. Since my pretty shocking shoulder wrecking I have had to concentrate more on coaching. I muddled along and then had the pleasure of working with a very good technical coach, Clive Thomas. Good man – helped the team a lot. He moved on and since then I have enjoyed working with individuals and the team to try and get us to play with structure, accuracy and skill. The players who have come in have not all been rugby types, far from it, but all have really worked incredibly hard and with humbling commitment and patience. We train twice a week in most weathers and play, as I mentioned above, on Thursdays.
Although this isn’t coaching at a high level, I try and make the sessions as much fun as can be and genuinely (and probably quite obsessively) spend a deal of time trying to analyse any problems and think of ways of rectifying them. I am sure that the team will be very grateful for the break from my constant yabbering.
I go in for surgery on said battered joint this Tuesday. I drove home from training tonight and realised, with genuine sadness, that I will really miss all the players and their dedication. I really will. They are a lovely bunch, lads and lasses, and I will try and make it to as many games as I can if I can skav lifts.
But, really, I will feel the loss of involvement most keenly. They won last week with a really precise, disciplined and energetic performance. It was lovely and most gratifying to watch.
Thank you, team. Lots.