CAPTAIN'S DIARY - EDITION 5
Tuesday, 26 August 2008 11:10am
with Emirates Western Force UK Tour Captain David Pocock
It was a big week of preparation in Northampton, with not too much happening outside of training time.
I thought we had prepared well for the game and it was very disappointing to go out and perform the way we did. For a smallish ground, Franklins Gardens was one of the best venues I’ve played in.
The Northampton side was the strongest we’ve faced on tour and unfortunately for us we didn’t come up with a good enough performance on the day.
Having said that we had plenty of the running early in the game and at 10-3 down with about 15 minutes to go, it was anyone’s game. Two quick tries to the Saints put paid to that and ended the game with a blowout score of 22-3.
Our defensive effort was great. We scrambled quite well and held them out for long periods of time but our set piece and ball security at the breakdown were very poor, which is where the game was lost.
So the boys are battered and bruised. We have had two days to recover and will be back into training tomorrow.
There have been whispers of fitness games and grappling but we'll see in the morning I guess. Whatever it is we'll get stuck in and make sure we prepare well for our last game against Leicester on Saturday, to finish the tour on a high note.
Off the field time away from home is starting to take its toll on a few guys.
No one has cracked yet, but you can see the older guys are starting to miss their wives more, in particular the hookers Holmesy and Tai… Pek’s partner, Megan, is getting close to having their first born so he'll be keen to get back to her.
On the girlfriend front - Scott Daruda CAN'T WAIT to get back to Perth to see his girlfriend...
but the last week is almost the easiest. You can put it all out of your mind and just focus on the last game and performing well in that.
This weekend a few of the boys did a day trip into London to experience the Notting Hill carnival - others to just get out of the hotel. They said it was jam packed and a good day.
It was a bank holiday today so there wasn’t too much to do and i know guys like Chris O'Young got quite a bit of study done.
The boys have discovered a Chinese restaurant in town that does a great yum cha. They have done a roaring trade over the past few days - just a note to Sophie our dietician: only the steamed dishes were ordered, no deep fried stuff we promise ;-)
One of the highlights of the week for mine was challenging big Brent Murphy on one of crazy electronic dancing machines. Check out the moves!
