Gentlemen,
We are now 3 short weeks from our MARFU show down with Harrisburg. We have worked long and hard, running up and down hills, doing leopard crawls through the mud, being chased by Murray with a cattle prod, having to deal with Skittles and his ridiculous shoes, to get to the point where we are able to represent the PRU as champions. Yet all of that work, our undefeated fall season, our 7s trophies, our spring thaw victories, mean nothing if we fail when we face Harrisburg. We have come this far not to be complacent or proud of where we are, we have come this far so that we can have the opportunity to go farther.
With three short weeks left, we are still running basic passing and tackling drills while other teams are practicing as full teams, tweaking their plays, working on their collective timing. Unfortunately we have not been able to do this, for it is difficult to practice on the scrum sled when we have 6 forwards. We cannot work our back line plays when we have a different set of backs out each practice. While other teams are preparing with team continuity and cohesiveness and perfection, we are seemingly preparing for a push up contest playoff game because we drop balls in simple passing drills. Fortunately we are not preparing for a push up contest, but for a rugby play off game because we are damn good rugby players and a damn good rugby team who has not lost a single game in almost a year.
So it is time for everyone to come to practice so that we can start working on things such as team spacing, and cohesiveness. For our forwards to learn where breakdowns naturally occur in our backline, for our backs to learn when to begin their runs out of scrums and lineouts. In order to do this, we must have everyone at practice, healthy, sick, walking wounded, Gessner or just old. If you can do no more than stand in space as opposition, our team is better off then if you weren't there because we don't have to waste a healthy body to stand there.
I'm asking everyone to come out to practice this evening, to commit yourself at practice to doing the little things correctly like catching the ball with two hands, setting solid rucks and mauling platforms, going up to catch the ball in the air, using dummies on passes, etc. so that we can move beyond the basic and start practicing and fine tuning and playing at a level that we are truly capable of. If we do that, and after we beat Harrisburg and our next opponent, and when we are on the plane flying back from nationals in Austin, then we can sit back and be proud of what we've accomplished.
MJ
We are now 3 short weeks from our MARFU show down with Harrisburg. We have worked long and hard, running up and down hills, doing leopard crawls through the mud, being chased by Murray with a cattle prod, having to deal with Skittles and his ridiculous shoes, to get to the point where we are able to represent the PRU as champions. Yet all of that work, our undefeated fall season, our 7s trophies, our spring thaw victories, mean nothing if we fail when we face Harrisburg. We have come this far not to be complacent or proud of where we are, we have come this far so that we can have the opportunity to go farther.
With three short weeks left, we are still running basic passing and tackling drills while other teams are practicing as full teams, tweaking their plays, working on their collective timing. Unfortunately we have not been able to do this, for it is difficult to practice on the scrum sled when we have 6 forwards. We cannot work our back line plays when we have a different set of backs out each practice. While other teams are preparing with team continuity and cohesiveness and perfection, we are seemingly preparing for a push up contest playoff game because we drop balls in simple passing drills. Fortunately we are not preparing for a push up contest, but for a rugby play off game because we are damn good rugby players and a damn good rugby team who has not lost a single game in almost a year.
So it is time for everyone to come to practice so that we can start working on things such as team spacing, and cohesiveness. For our forwards to learn where breakdowns naturally occur in our backline, for our backs to learn when to begin their runs out of scrums and lineouts. In order to do this, we must have everyone at practice, healthy, sick, walking wounded, Gessner or just old. If you can do no more than stand in space as opposition, our team is better off then if you weren't there because we don't have to waste a healthy body to stand there.
I'm asking everyone to come out to practice this evening, to commit yourself at practice to doing the little things correctly like catching the ball with two hands, setting solid rucks and mauling platforms, going up to catch the ball in the air, using dummies on passes, etc. so that we can move beyond the basic and start practicing and fine tuning and playing at a level that we are truly capable of. If we do that, and after we beat Harrisburg and our next opponent, and when we are on the plane flying back from nationals in Austin, then we can sit back and be proud of what we've accomplished.
MJ
1 comment:
Is that Gessner in Lionel Richie's "All Night Long" video?
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