CAPTAIN’S DIARY – EDITION 1
Wednesday, 6 August 2008 1:31pm
with Emirates Western Force UK Tour Captain David Pocock
It’s lucky we’re not on a cricket tour.
That’s about all I can say after our boys copped a hiding at the hands of Friday night’s opponents, the Newcastle Falcons, in a special Twenty20 cricket match to celebrate Matt Burke’s testimonial last night.
‘Burkey’, as well as being one of the greatest Wallabies and a former Falcon, showed he has plenty of tricks on the cricket pitch as well, bowling the hapless AJ Whalley with a rank full toss.
It was a fun and relaxing afternoon which gave the boys the chance to get the blood flowing after a long travel day, but we weren’t expecting it to be such a big deal!
As we drove into the ground on the bus we soon realised we were playing in a proper stadium, not just a park down the road, so you can imagine our surprise when an ITV television camera filmed us walking in to meet a crowd of over 200 people!
For the record, we chipped away for a total of 106 from our 20 overs, which the Falcons easily knocked over in the 12th over of their innings thanks to our rubbish bowling attack!
The highlight of the day was some quality sledging from our ‘captain’ Tamaiti Horua, who had plenty to say to the Newcastle batsmen from behind the stumps at wicketkeeper.
While in Newcastle we are staying at the Novotel at the airport, which is about a 10 minute train ride to the city.
There’s not too much happening around the area, but a 24-hour Tesco’s down the road has been getting a fairly good work out from the boys. Especially the bigger boys!
The flight over seemed to go pretty fast, thanks to the awesome in-flight entertainment on Emirates, despite taking about 19 hours all up.
The ‘giraffes’ (locks) and ‘fatties’ (props) in the squad were given business class upgrades as well, which made the flight a bit more comfortable.
I was one of the lucky ones to be offered an upgrade, but did the right thing and handed the privilege to our massive lock Pat ‘Beef’ O’Connor. He really appreciated the extra meal service up the front of the plane too.
I have been roomed with Scott Daruda, which is going pretty well so far. You always want to be paired with one of the backs because generally they are tidier, snore a lot less and don’t empty the mini bar everyday!
We have also had our first couple of training sessions, which have been pretty short and sharp, and everyone seems to be adjusting to the time zone.
Tomorrow we have a day off from our rugby commitments and a lot of the boys are talking about catching the train up to Edinburgh.
It’s about a one-and-a-half hour trip north of Newcastle and it will be a good chance to get out of the hotel and experience a bit of the culture here in the UK.
