It's always nice to return home with all the creature comforts that come with that, but also to see my plump little son just 10 weeks old.
After a long two and a half weeks away from home stopping off at Sin City and, a new inclusion, in the way of Vancouver. I have had plenty of time and conversations to take stock of what was a tough two tournaments for us as a group.
In my previous BLOG I spoke about how excited we were to build on our 4th place finish in Wellington and 8th in Sydney. We went into Las Vegas in a buoyant mood wanting to build some momentum into the close of the season. As well as welcoming back the ‘house wives favourite’ Phil burgess and ‘tour captain’ Charlie Hayter both returning from injury.
Unfortunately, things didn't go our way and we massively underperformed. We got ourselves into good positions and strung together some good phases of play but lacked the accuracy and intensity needed to capitalise on these fortunes. As we have learnt, you only have to make one small mistake and you can end up a score down!
I remember finishing the last game vs France feeling battered bruised and very embarrassed. The changing room was a very somber place and we all felt very frustrated, angry and all around deflated.
We didn't show the attitude we pride ourselves on, something we have worked on over the last 18 months. It's the basis of everything we do day to day and what we are measured on in games.
The joy of sevens is that, there is normally a weekend not long after another so we had an immediate opportunity to perform better the following weekend.
Second week training is more about recovering and getting over the travel. The intensity slowly builds over the 2-3 training days and we finished our training week with a scrag game vs Scotland to help get the new boys joining us up to speed.
There was a vast improvement in Vancouver which turned out to be a better weekend for us but still below par by our standards. We were a lot more competitive through the weekend and showed a better attitude towards the game. There was an improved mental buy in from all the squad and a desire to top the previous weekend's performances.
For a first tournament Vancouver was a massive hit and one I'm much looking forward to next year. Vancouver is the only indoor tournament on the calendar, has an immaculate and wide surface to play on and was packed with 30,000 fans everyday!
A few personal highlights of the last two weeks were:
- Watching my first NHL Game (“Gooooo Canucks!”)
- ’Baptising' the freshers and their initiation drinks in Vancouver
- After waiting 2.5 hours to check in, Tommy Bowen being informed his flight had been cancelled triggering mayhem from the management flocking around him to get on the closing flight, and to all of our enjoyment at the potential chance of leaving him behind.
- Tommy Bowen, figuratively known as the cartoon character Butt Head, after finally making it onto the plane and in his excitement of being sat in between the south african pair of Seabelo Senatla and the legend Bryan Habana spilling his water all over Bryan’s laptop. Thankfully Butt Head lived to tell the tale.
Next stop Hong Kong…
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