I thought I’d give you a little insight into the experiences of an international rugby player. Other than advertising, Rugby is one of Pollie’s biggest interests and I’m lucky enough to have represented my country, Cyprus. I keep a diary when I go away to tournaments, mainly because we have so much free time and nervous energy, but also because it’s nice to look back on the memories.
Excuse the expletives, international rugby is an emotional roller-coaster and sometimes no word is as honest and sincere as “fuck”!
Athens Day 1
Felt so shit after the flight, horrible turbulence and my stomach was churning over. Good news was that my luggage arrived safely (it’s ridiculous that the expectation is the airline will lose it). It was good to see the boys again and the banter started flying around straight away. I thought to myself ‘we’ve got a decent side here!’ Arrived at Hotel Mati – nothing special, but I’ve stayed in a lot worse; at least we’ve got air-con! I’m rooming with Dan Thrasivoulou and Marko Mladanovic (he’s actually Serbian but has Cyprus Citizenship), happy I’m not with Colm again although Marko snores like an earthquake. We had lunch and chilled before our afternoon training session. The training pitch was closed for the afternoon so Coach made us train on a basketball pitch – now this is international rugby! I felt I trained well and it was good to run a few patterns and get the flight out of our legs. We had dinner at the tavern opposite the hotel (mmm Greek food). It was then time for bed, I started to think about the matches we were going to play and got quite nervous – really need to speak to coach about my confidence issues.
Athens Day 2
Slept well despite Marko’s best efforts. Had training in the morning, thought I did well, was composed and talked a lot. Starting to get nervous that the lads (bar Chris) aren’t picking up the patterns. Wanted to go into Athens and explore this afternoon, as we had the afternoon off, but most of the guys wanted to chill. I put my compression tights on (long story) – they’ve been a godsend so far! Wanted to speak to coach about my weaknesses but he said to wait until Sunday once the job was done. Bedtime.
Athens Day 3
Game day! As usual, no breakfast for me, forced down a few peach slices but felt sick! We were up against Spain first. The stadium was 30mins inland so there was no breeze, making it fucking hot! I started on the bench, fair play; Dan’s a good little player and deserves to start. I came on for Andreas in the second half. Spain were exceptional and we lost 26 – 7 but we performed much better than we had against them last year! Anyway, back to the important games, Bosnia and Greece. We were to play Bosnia next and again I started on the bench although after just 2mins I was on for Dan to boss the defence about more. Turns out I should have worried about myself more! A chip came over and I was well placed but then came the rush of blood! 99/100 I’d pounce on the ball but this time I tried to kick it and failed (bloody odd shaped balls) – 5 points to Bosnia…fuck! We ended up winning 14 – 10 but we still have so much more to offer, I certainly do! After that we came back to the hotel for food and some downtime. As I learn't from previous tournaments, no sleep for me, makes me feel really groggy. Next game was vs Greece and nerves began to circle in my mind, we’ve been hurt by them before. Coach gave an awesome talk about forgetting the emotion of the occasion, which helped a lot. Kick off loomed and before I knew it the game has kicked off and we’ve already scored! Emotions were flying but we smashed them 31 – 0, with a hat trick from Andreas thanks to my assists’ haha! The game was marred by an incident in which their captain got sent off for stamping on George’s back – what a wanker. I was so happy, I felt like crying. The Greeks were bad losers but we were gracious in victory and could sleep well.
Athens Day 4
A day to remember for the rest of my life! We were in the semi-finals of the European Rugby 7’s against France and we were massive underdogs (obviously). My calf and knee were in serious pain but from previous experience I know that mind over matter makes you feel so much better in the end. We played with tremendous heart and were unfortunate to go into half time 5 – 0 down. The game ended 24 – 0 and according to Coach and the captain, we gave them too much respect…. or, as I suspect, it was because they were bloody full-time professional rugby players for one of the best rugby nations in the world! Anyway, we did ok not to get smashed! Spain were favourites in the other semi-final but were beaten by a doggedly determined Romanian side. That meant we had to play Spain again for 3rd place. We lost, but we gave them a real good go! I came on and made the “tackle of the tournament” which was very satisfying. So overall we came 4th and people were starting to take notice of us. Even better than that, the French coach came over to us and said he thought we were the best team they’d played all tournament.
If you’ve read this far – congratulations! Hope it was in some way entertaining and/or intriguing. Highlights video is available here. (Bet you wish I'd shown you this at the beginning).
