General Rugby Discussion II

The Lost Sheep

davidfitz22 wrote: »

Hows it going lad's. I hope this is the right place to discuss this.

I joined a club's 2nd 15 at the ripe old age of 28 and have been to a few training sessions and even played in a friendly game. as it was my first game I volunteered to play at blindside flanker. I hit a few good tackles and was quick enough to the ruck when needed. The problem is that I really had no awareness at all and my number 8 had to position me constantly. It was a serious reality check.

The question is, am I too old to start as a beginner? I feel like there is some progress but I still cannot understand the complex plays and calls of my team and I feel like that I am getting in the way half the time when the first 15 train for a game. I train as often as I can and mostly with the first team as the rest of the second team do not train but I often feel very much out of my depth.

There is a junior rugby thread but here is fine.
No you are not too old to start playing. Keep training away. Especially with the clubs 1sts team. Dont worry about the plays and just work on positioning in terms of defence and your technique at tackle/ruck.
where are you playing(dont have to mention club but general area)
Is there nearby clubs with more than 2 teams or club playing at lower level than your current clubs 2nd team which could help you

Burkie1203

Interesting development

https://twitter.com/benjames1796/status/1087378194238451712?s=19

davidfitz22

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

There is a junior rugby thread but here is fine.
No you are not too old to start playing. Keep training away. Especially with the clubs 1sts team. Dont worry about the plays and just work on positioning in terms of defence and your technique at tackle/ruck.
where are you playing(dont have to mention club but general area)
Is there nearby clubs with more than 2 teams or club playing at lower level than your current clubs 2nd team which could help you

cheers pal, We are in Donegal and have just the two teams, the first time play in a league and the second are just playing friendlies right now. In Donegal there are very few teams and those close by are struggling for players.

I am absolutely happy to learn the game on the fly I guess I just need to up my own fitness and just keep at it until the fundamentals improve.

The Lost Sheep

Interesting report from schools rugby in New Zealand and effect it is having on the sport overall
http://files.allblacks.com/community-rugby/NZR-Secondary-School-Rugby-Review-Report.pdf

stephen_n

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

Interesting report from schools rugby in New Zealand and effect it is having on the sport overall
http://files.allblacks.com/community-rugby/NZR-Secondary-School-Rugby-Review-Report.pdf

One the IRFU should keep an eye, seems to be a few similarities there.

swiwi_

stephen_n wrote: »

One the IRFU should keep an eye, seems to be a few similarities there.

Scores and fixtures only please Stephen

stephen_n

swiwi_ wrote: »

Scores and fixtures only please Stephen

Assumption is the mother of all... I meant the growth of womens rugby






No I didn't

Clegg

Wesley Fofana will retire from international rugby after the World Cup. Think he cited the ever increasing toll rugby is taking on his body.

The Lost Sheep

stephen_n wrote: »

One the IRFU should keep an eye, seems to be a few similarities there.

More than a few. Will be interesting to see how it plays out

troyzer

Clegg wrote: »

Wesley Fofana will retire from international rugby after the World Cup. Think he cited the ever increasing toll rugby is taking on his body.

To be fair, there are dozens of other players doing the same thing. The only difference is that the likes of Ben Smith are moving to France and by extension, retiring from international rugby.

Fofana is already playing in France. It's a bit of a non-story, he's doing something that many 30+ year olds are doing after the world cup.

Eod100

Sad news here. https://twitter.com/JLyall93/status/1088356895604256768?s=19

troyzer

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/pat-lambie-s-retirement-a-symptom-of-rugby-s-obsession-with-bulk-1.3769335

Here we go again.

Thoughts?

Dubinusa

It's certainly concerning that quite a few players have had to retire due to head injuries.
There is no answer that makes sense imo.
Physically and genetically some nations produce bigger stronger players than others.
The game has trended toward size and brawn over the last 20 yrs. That's possibly the reason that there's so many Georgians; Saffers and Pacific islanders strewn around the leagues.
I don't think a smaller and faster team can survive today.
If the pitch was 20% larger, that would surely make a difference. But, that's never going to happen.
I've seen players these last few weeks weighing in at over 130kg. Massive men that are strong and that's about all. They are low on skill and don't last 60 minutes.
Ulster faced a lad in Europe that is 155kgs. He wasn't very good at rugby though.
It's one reason why I think Sexton is one of the all time greats. He's constantly targeted and he doesn't shirk his responsibility.
I don't think world rugby has the answers either. A big strong guy, will find a team somewhere! That's the reality.
I often think that Cian Healy is rather small when I see him play against some of the tight heads in the Champions cup. Healy is a fairly big man. The opposition are just huge!

troyzer

Dubinusa wrote: »

It's certainly concerning that quite a few players have had to retire due to head injuries.
There is no answer that makes sense imo.
Physically and genetically some nations produce bigger stronger players than others.
The game has trended toward size and brawn over the last 20 yrs. That's possibly the reason that there's so many Georgians; Saffers and Pacific islanders strewn around the leagues.
I don't think a smaller and faster team can survive today.
If the pitch was 20% larger, that would surely make a difference. But, that's never going to happen.
I've seen players these last few weeks weighing in at over 130kg. Massive men that are strong and that's about all. They are low on skill and don't last 60 minutes.
Ulster faced a lad in Europe that is 155kgs. He wasn't very good at rugby though.
It's one reason why I think Sexton is one of the all time greats. He's constantly targeted and he doesn't shirk his responsibility.
I don't think world rugby has the answers either. A big strong guy, will find a team somewhere! That's the reality.
I often think that Cian Healy is rather small when I see him play against some of the tight heads in the Champions cup. Healy is a fairly big man. The opposition are just huge!

Healy is absolutely massive. His body fat is only around 10-15%. He's 110kg of pure muscle.

Him and Porter are the most stacked players I've ever seen.

mfceiling

troyzer wrote: »

Healy is absolutely massive. His body fat is only around 10-15%. He's 110kg of pure muscle.

Him and Porter are the most stacked players I've ever seen.

Healy has actually slimmed down. Think it was last week's Sunday Times that had an article with him and he has lost a good bit of weight and he feels it has aided his game and resulted in less injuries.
He was saying he swims in the sea every day now and that is another big benefit to his overall health and wellness.

troyzer

mfceiling wrote: »

troyzer wrote: »

Healy is absolutely massive. His body fat is only around 10-15%. He's 110kg of pure muscle.

Him and Porter are the most stacked players I've ever seen.

Healy has actually slimmed down. Think it was last week's Sunday Times that had an article with him and he has lost a good bit of weight and he feels it has aided his game and resulted in less injuries.
He was saying he swims in the sea every day now and that is another big benefit to his overall health and wellness.

He's much leaner than he was but I don't think he's lost much muscle.

As props go, he's very trim. You can only really appreciate it when you're standing next to him how unbelievable good shape he's in.

His appearance on the Left Wing was brilliant talking about his body and rehabbing his various injuries.

stephen_n

mfceiling wrote: »

Healy has actually slimmed down. Think it was last week's Sunday Times that had an article with him and he has lost a good bit of weight and he feels it has aided his game and resulted in less injuries.
He was saying he swims in the sea every day now and that is another big benefit to his overall health and wellness.

He was 120kg before last season, he dropped 10kgs and before the beginning of the 2017-2018 season and it seemed to really help his game.

Yeah_Right

Dubinusa wrote: »

Ulster faced a lad in Europe that is 155kgs. He wasn't very good at rugby though.

I hope you're not thinking of the prop Tameifuna. Because he's actually a good player. A bit lazy but still skilful and surprisingly quick.

It's interesting reading comments about rugby players getting bigger because I think in the last 5 to 10 years it's been seen that there's still a place for the little guy. Certainly in NZ. In the NH there's been an obsession with size. Particularly in France and England but that does seem to fading.

Squidgy Black

For every Tameifuna there's a Kolbe.

I definitely think certain positions have certainly focused on bulking up (mostly the backrow, centres for a large part), but I don't think it's a massive epidemic where all 15 players are 100kg+ (although the French teams have given this a run for it's money). Props have always been fat, second rows have always been the human equivalent of oak trees.

Dubinusa

Yeah_Right wrote: »

I hope you're thinking of the prop Tameifuna. Because he's actually a good player. A bit lazy but still skilful and surprisingly quick.

It's interesting reading comments about rugby players getting bigger because I think in the last 5 to 10 years it's been seen that there's still a place for the little guy. Certainly in NZ. In the NH there's been an obsession with size. Particularly in France and England but that does seem to fading.

I'm not sure who he was. He was enormous. I never saw him before. I was scared for the wee Ulster lad up against him. Think it was EOS. The man looked bigger than an nfl lineman!

Eod100

This is interesting. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2019/01/24/rfu-halt-tackle-height-trial-rise-concussion-rate-championship/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Clegg

The Telegraph are running an exclusive on Paddy Jackson signing for London Irish. They're going up next season and will need a quality 10 in the Premiership. Still tho, it's a risk for obvious reasons. Kidney and Kiss are the coaches so obviously know him very well.

Dave_The_Sheep

.. Declan Kidney? Really?

I suppose if they only want a one shot decent season, that's perfect.

(I obviously have not been paying attention to the Premiership if I missed that DK was somehow employed at LI, really odd).

Squidgy Black

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

.. Declan Kidney? Really?

I suppose if they only want a one shot decent season, that's perfect.

(I obviously have not been paying attention to the Premiership if I missed that DK was somehow employed at LI, really odd).

Probably because they're in the championship as opposed to the premiership, there hasn't been much spoken about them. And he's a "consultant" as opposed to a coach

troyzer

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Probably because they're in the championship as opposed to the premiership, there hasn't been much spoken about them. And he's a "consultant" as opposed to a coach

Is he not director of rugby?

Squidgy Black

troyzer wrote: »

Is he not director of rugby?

He is now apparently, didn't even know he'd made the jump up.

Dave_The_Sheep

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Probably because they're in the championship as opposed to the premiership, there hasn't been much spoken about them. And he's a "consultant" as opposed to a coach

Hah! Shows how much attention I've been paying to the English league this year.

the perfect ten

Les Kiss is working with Kidney at London Irish.

It's looking pretty certain they will be promoted as they are 9 points ahead of Ealing Trailfinders and have only lost one match so far.

RobbieRuns

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

.. Declan Kidney? Really?

I suppose if they only want a one shot decent season, that's perfect.

(I obviously have not been paying attention to the Premiership if I missed that DK was somehow employed at LI, really odd).

Why would you be surprised tho? His record in rugby is pretty impressive.

Strange Club London Irish, both Kiss and Kidney had no experience of English rugby.

stephen_n

This is a bit strange, seems lowering the tackle height isn't the answer to concussions.