To the shock of no-one in the team, the journey to New Zealand was in all terms, epic! All the team departed Heathrow looking dangerously handsome and spirits were high. A coach, 4 planes, a mini bus and a 47 hour journey swiftly changed this as the team limped into the remote town of Invercargill in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The journey was not as smooth as some may of imagined, Huwy ‘little ears’ Jones experienced Bangkok at its finest, purchasing duty free only to have it taken off him 2 minutes later when boarding the flight…they saw him coming!
Thursday morning was a confusing one, mainly because no-one really knew what was going on, what day it was and why we were not still sleeping! This was the time for the ever heroic Mathew ’goldy locks’ Ruxton to send shivers down the spine of the team, with the words “lets go for a run”, all those who know Matt understand that what some people call a marathon, he calls a run, and he didn’t fail to disappoint, leading us on a trek across middle earth.
After a long hard day of watching TV and relaxing in the hot tubs, the first training session commenced. Initially the standard was worrying as simple basics such as stopping or passing a ball became seemingly impossible due to the jetlag, however once the journey had been run out of the legs the session proved worthy with high spirits and confidence. The evening meal was kindly organised by Naz ‘all sorted’ Mohammed, however ‘all sorted’ would be the last way to describe it! The restaurant was unique to say the least, almost faulty towers like if you will, as you could order any pasta on the menu, as long as it was fettuccine!
The boys are now looking forward to facing up against the Austrians in a warm up game which will allow us to get some vital game experience and evaluate just how far this squad has come. Check out the blog soon for an update and more stories.
Reesy
Good luck to the welsh team at the WCQ nz!
ReplyDeleteI know that you will all be missing WIS, but hopefully the hot tubs will be making up for it.
Play for each other and you can achieve great results. There may be times you may need to draw on that welsh spirit that we pride ourselves on, but it will help to get you through difficult phases of a game.
I was never lucky enough to get to play in nz, I thought KL was a long journey! I am sure the memories will last with you for a long time to come, just make them ones that you can be proud of!
All the very best
Paul Edwards