The size of the task ahead has slowly moved to DEFCON 1. Warning bells are ringing everywhere and the ‘O’ word is resonating amongst us as a group as we come closer to learning our fates.
The elephant in the room is getting larger and squeezing us into a corner and along with that comes my own self-doubt. Am I ready? Am I good enough? Have I done enough?
The positives are that my fate is in my own hands and there is plenty of rugby to be played before my friends and I potentially embark on what will be one of the biggest imaginable rugby outings to date for all of us.
We have spent the year trying to avoid the thoughts of what lies beyond the World Series so that we can expend all of our energy into putting in quality performances as individuals and as a team to give all of us confidence and belief moving forward. With under 100 days left to go we sometimes find that we allow ourselves to dream and then…. BANG…. you are stood there on the training pitch on a rainy day in April showers which, for me, is reminiscent of what we had in December. I for one am happy to call myself a fair weather player!!!
As Rihanna says, on repeat, repeatedly, over and over again we just have to ‘Work, work, work’. With two tournaments to go we have players returning to full fitness in the way of ‘The Big Nosed Duo’ of Dan Bibby and Alex Davis. They are both itching to lay down their own markers for Olympic selection. The announcement of the wider Olympic Training Squad is just around the corner and everyone has their eyes on who is going to be included in Team GB 7s!
There has been a loud outcry for the inclusion of 15s stars within the GB Squad. From the offset my opinion has been that the best 12 players from the home nations should be selected whatever that may look like. With that in mind, being a rugby fan first and foremost, I am very excited to see what blend of players from England, Wales and Scotland are selected.
The only real stumbling block is injury, the thing we as players dread more than anything and is so often totally out of our control. During my years within the England set up, James Rodwell has become a very close friend of mine and it was fantastic to see him carving up in his 69th consecutive tournament which is a ridiculously impressive feat. However, seeing him go down in Singapore and having to be stretchered off with a serious leg injury hammers home the realisation that even though the Olympics are so close they are also so far away. On a positive note, the initial signs are that Rodders has a real fighting chance of being fit in time but nonetheless this serves as a reminder that our hopes and dreams can flash before our eyes and be gone within a second.
This week leading into Paris will be a chilled one. Usually we travel 10 days to our destination to acclimatise but for a ‘local’ tournament like this we won’t leave until Tuesday. The coaches have enjoyed the opportunity for a few more days to beast us.
Paris seems as though it has all the ingredients to be an amazing tournament. Not only is it easy for family and friends to come across the border, the french culture is appealing (I know boring Tom Mitchell and Charlie Hayter will be keen for that) but for me its has to be the french pastries!
Everyone is very excited to see how it unfolds,
Next stop Paris…
Nice read Dan, good luck in Paris and London.
ReplyDeleteNice read Dan, good luck in Paris and London.
ReplyDelete