Rugby 08 super 14: my journey -*tahs win 19-17 im in doubt for opening game

[gutterman]

Super 14 or Higher Glory: My Journey
background
i've always had a knack for rugby. when i was a kid my two older brothers, my dad, my sister and i always played backyard rugby. as we got older my brothers went off to play for their school team and weekend rugby, my sister changed to netball and dad just lost interest. i never lost the passion for rugby. ever since i was a kid i dreamt of playing in the big stadiums wearing the green and gold for australia. mum was always my biggest supporter till she passed away with cancer and dad moved away leaving the four of us to fend for ourselves. my sis was the oldest, she had a job and looked after us the best she could until my brothers were old enough to move out and then it was just me and my sis. she became my biggest supporter and still is. i played rugby for my club before i went on to play for sydney uni.

the dream starts
i'd played about a season and a half with sydney uni before the biggest game of my career came along. it was against premiership favourites randwickand they had dominated the last two seasons so far. our coach had told us that there was going to be nsw waratahs selectors at the game looking for youth players. we were told this 5 mins before the game started. i was currently on a form slump and we had lost the last two games. i knew that if i was going to have a big return to form game this was it.

after a gruelling 80 minutes we won 38-35 i snapped a field goal right on full time to win it. i had the biggest game of my life scoring 3 tries and two try assists. i was pretty pleased with my self.

after we had our post game talk the selectors called our coach and me up to have a word.
" this young fellow has a lot of talent" one of the selectors said
" yeah he has, he is one of our best players although he did just recently have a bit of a form slump but i think he is back in form." coach replied.
"now brendan after todays efforts you really stood out above everyone else so we would like to offer you a contract to play for the waratahs" the selectors said
" i would be honoured to, it has been my dream ever since i was a kid" i replied
" good we'll see you tomorrow at new training ground at homebush where we'll introduce you to your new team mates and coach. we will also have a contract drawn up for you to read over and sign. shall we say 11am tomorrow. "

i just stood there gobsmacked as they walked away to talk to other players from randwick. coach looked at me and grinned you couldnt get the grin of his face. he gave me time to re gather my self before he gave the announcement to the rest of the sydney uni team and staff and supporters.

a loud roar went up as the crowd of about 200 just appluaded and cheered. my sister being my biggest supporter cheered the loudest. i couldnt believe it that my dream was coming true i was one step closer to my goal of playing for australia.

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Good start mate .

 

[freddiw]

godo start and good luck

 

[gutterman]

1st feb 2008 10:55am
i arrive at telstra stadium to be greeted by both selectors i met yesterday. we shook hands and went inside before one selector said "now brendan before we go in to meet the team and staff we'll go into the away team dressing room to sort out your contract." and so i followed them into the room where there was a table set up. my contract looked something like this

i looked up then back at the contract then managed to say "thats a lot more than i was expecting". i signed and the selectors took me into the home team dressing room where everyone was waiting patiently.

One of the selectors got their attention and announced "everyone i'd like you all to meet our newest player. now i want you all to treat him well so he can enjoy his stay with us and hopefully before too long see him in action on the field. please everyone make a warm welcome to Brendan."

there was a loud applause before each and every member came up to me and introduced themselves and i even manged to get autographs of some of them including Lote Tiquiri*. the coach was even quite nice we got talking and he told me that i may be getting a game sooner than i think. with there being only two preseason games left The coach Ewan McKenzie said that i would not be playing them as i would need to train with the boys on set plays so that i'll be ready for my first game which could be in the next month or so i'm told.

after about an hour of getting to know everyone we headed out onto the field to do some basic drills: passing, kicking, catching, running the simple stuff just to warm up them we played a game of touch where we could make up set plays of our own for a bit of fun. we were going to be getting down to business tomorrow

* not sure if its correct spelling

 

[gutterman]

2nd feb 2008 10:00am
Today was going to be a hard training session. we started off with the basics then moved on to getting the set plays right. i was even given a few chances to be part of them just so i understood what my role was in each play.

there were times when specialist coaches would take me away from the rest of the team and we would work on my passing, kicking, goal kicking. did i mention i was a goal kicker? well i have now. we trained intensively for about 3 hours then we hit the gym. most of the forwards hit the benches while us back spread out through the gym training hard as ever.

to be honest i'd never had a training session this tough but i knew that it was only the beginning. our fitness trainers got us exceeding our limits pushing to the edge. and at 4:00pm Ewan put the team up for the pre season game on the 5th against The Brumbies

1) M. Dunning
2) A Freier
3) A Baxter
4) W Caldwell
5) O Mumm
6) R Elsom
7) P Waugh
8) D Lyons
9) J Valentine
10) S Norton-Knight
11) L Tuqiri
12) B Jacobs
13) M Turinui
14) K Beale
15) P Hewat

Reserves
16) T Polota-Nau
17) B Rouse
18) W Palu
19) S Harris
20) P Sheehan
21) A Kanaar
22) T Carter

Finally the coach Said " Good Session boys if we play as hard as we trained today that winners trophy is as good as ours. i'll see you all tomorrow

 

[gutterman]

5th Feb 2008 7:00pm Waratahs v Brumbies preseason match
We had just come off the field from a last minute training session and i could already see the crowd starting to swarm in. as we were in the sheds coach was going around to everyone and shaking hands patting them on the back gearing them up for the match.

At 7:30 the boys went out to take the field and to a roaring crowd. the brumbies followed with mixed reception. those of us who weren't playing took to the seats allocated to us in front of the crowd to the left of our dressing room exit. the reserves headed to the bench and the game was ready to start.

alot of pressure on this man

2:42first penalty given deep in our half kick for touch and lost the lineout. brumbies on early attack

5:34P Waugh makes a good break down the right side brought down by fullback turnover

9:58penalty goal to brumbies. successful with brumbies having early lead 0-3

14:09TRYBeale scores our first try out wide. p hewats conversion attempt failed score at 5-3

21:29TRYturinui scores under the post for our 2nd try. hewat successfully converts score at 12-3

23:29TRYtuqiri cross for our 3rd try conversion attempt successful score 19-3

tuqiri's try

25:00turinui puts beale into gap. good chase by defence to bring him down turnover

29:31surprisingly first lineout of match our throw. brumbies come away with it.

33:37try saving tackle to bring freier down

36:03freier puts in bomb, ball bounces a few times before brumbies are given penalty for dangerous tackle

38:29fight breaks out ref manages to sort out but luckily no-one sent off or on report.

40:00larkham kicks out to signify half time

the half time score is 19-3 to us but i see this match far from over

half time score card Waratahs 19 - Brumbies 3
Waratahs
Tries
Beale 1
Turinui 1
Tuqiri 1

Goals
Hewat 2/3

Brumbies
Tries

Goals
Mortlock 1/1 pen goal

 

[gutterman]

if possible i would like you guys to ask some questions for me to answer in the post match press conference. keep in mind that i did not play

cheers
Gutterman


comments please would also be appreciated

 

[gutterman]

Second half and our boys headed out to make a big finish. i took up my seat in the crowd with our seven other reserves and some of us got talking about the upcoming season and whether or not i was going to have an impact on the game or not.

42:21brumbies clive rathbone is tackled 5 metres from our line. it was a great tackle by Peter Hewat to save the try

45:47Hewat makes another amzing try saving tackle on the other side of the field basically throwing the bloke over the side line

47:29TRYBrumbies eventually score between the posts and mortlock successfully converts bringing the score to 19-10

48:43TRYBrumbies cross over again same way. Mortlock conerts successfully. with the score now at 19-17 i thought to myself if our defence lets any more of those soft tries in we would certainly lose the match even though it was only a friendly

51:10TRYJacobs makes a break on crosses over for our 4th try. hewat converts score at 26-17

53:06TRYBeale crosses for his 2nd try from a brilliant pass by Valentine our scrum half

not much really happened the last 25 or so minutes were very unexciting and some of the brumbies fans were starting to leave, even some of our fans were on their way out. turinui kicked out to finish the match we had won 33-17. we celebrated the win with a beer each. i know it was five days till my 18th but they let me have one anyway. coach congratulated each and everyone of the boys for their efforts and that we need to focus on key areas if we were to beat the crusaders on the 9th for the last preseason game. the second game since ive been contracted ill be missing

Full time Scorecard 33-17 tahs win
Waratahs
Tries
Beale 2
Tuqiri 1
Turinui 1
Jacobs 1

Goals
Hewat 4/5

Brumbies
Tries
Larkham 2

Goals
Mortlock 3/3

Man Of the Match - K Beale: 2 two tries, 6 tackles, 5 runs

it was a gutsy win in the end we go into recovery session tomorrow and then back into business with intensive training till the final pre season game




"could people post questions for:
me
the coach - ewan mckenzie
the captain - phil waugh

 

[Ayub 95]

Q. Brendon how do you feel about your chances of making it to the Waratahs team
Q. Phil was you pleased about todays performance.
Q. Ewan will Brendon play in the coming matches and are you pleased that Brendon has done well since he has joined the Tahs

 

[gutterman]

thanks mate

i think ill have some other people ask questions then ill do pres conference

 

[JD10]

good updates these

 

[gutterman]

ill post the press conference tomorrow hopefully ill get more questions from you guys if not ill make some up.

 

[shefellover93]

KUTGW mate an an excellent start! :happy

Q1. Brendan, who well do you feel you have come into the Warathas setup?
Q2. Ewan, anything to improve on?
Q3. So Phil how confident are you of doing well this season?

 

[gutterman]

Post match Press Conference

It was time for me to face my first press conference. at first i didnt understand why as i'd only been with the club for almost a week but Ewan insisted on me being there

Q. Brendon how do you feel about your chances of making it to the Waratahs team

At the moment i'm just trying to improve my skill and fitness for this level of rugby. im confident i'll be able to play in the not distant future

Q. Ewan will Brendon play in the coming matches and are you pleased that Brendon has done well since he has joined the Tahs

I am confident that he will play soon. i am preparing him for when he make shis debut but that may not be for a few weeks yet. His talent is phenomenal and i am impressed with the progress he has made in the week he has been with us

Q. Phil was you pleased about todays performance.

yeah the boys performed really well there were times when it was touch and go but the boys pulled through.

Q1. Brendan, how well do you feel you have come into the Warathas setup?

i feel i am fitting in well with the boys. they are all a great bunch of blokes.

Q2. Ewan, anything to improve on?

i think that our defence was poor at times. we will have go back and rethink our strategy for the game against the crusaders

Q3. So Phil how confident are you of doing well this season?

i'm pretty confident that we will do well. i think our main problem is defence and once we deal with that i think we can have a good chance of winning the cup.

Coach ended it there and we headed to the dressing room where coach told us to be at the pools tomorrow at 10:00am we then left the ground and headed home.

 

[gutterman]

6th Feb 9:30am

I woke up to the constant nagging of my sister

Brendan if you don't get up ill have to drag you out myself.

i got up and turned the TV on. it was the sports section on the news and they had shown the press conference from last nights game and the reporter was saying that i didnt have a chance of making the starting 15 until mid season. i was very annoyed. i thought to myself, ill show them. i finished breakfast and drove to the pools.

i arrived at the pools to see ewan waiting out front. i met up with him and he was worried that no-one had turned up yet. we still had five minutes till 11. the boys finally started to arrive with the skipper turing up half an hour late. his excuse was flat tyre and we all laughed except for ewan who wasnt impressed.

Eight at a time we had to do 5 100m laps each. then we were told to hit the gym. i was one of first in so i had to be in the gym longer. which was fine as i knew i had to be 100%prepared for my first match. we then headed to our training ground for some intense training drills. Sam norton-knight injured his arm and was unable to play on the 8th due to a dislocated elbow. i was tired by the end of the day but i felt good and Ewan posted up the team for Sunday's Match against the dominating crusaders. much to my surprise next to the number 10 was my name. so much for being told it may be a while before i get my first game in. but now was my time to shine the biggest game of my career and the season hadnt even started yet.