I THINK it’s pretty safe to say I’ll be in the Super Rugby competition next season.
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After Tuesday night’s training session with the visiting Wallabies I’ve been waiting by my phone, focused on not missing the inevitable call from the ARU.
After all, Wallabies’ flanker Scott Fardy seemed very impressed with my distinct lack of ability - why wouldn’t they want an unfit, fill-in first grade front rower with terrible hands?
On a more serious note, as amateur rugby players in the country, it is rare to be afforded the chance to be coached by the best and Tuesday night’s session was a pretty unique experience for both Orange Emus and Orange City.
Despite the rivalry, with rugby being so strong in Orange at the moment, any chance to bring the two clubs together should be taken.
The four Wallabies on hand, and an abundance of support staff, were spread reasonably thinly between four groups but still provided invaluable feedback.
Obviously, being a natural playmaker myself, I gravitated toward inside back Matt Toomua’s group immediately.
Unfortunately I was eventually forced to train with the rest of the Emus forwards, which I was less than impressed with - to quote Mark Wahlberg in ‘The Other Guys’, “I’m a peacock, you’ve got to let me fly.”
Having Fardy and Charles on hand to critique our lineouts was both interesting and enlightening though.
It’s incredible to see how much difference tiny technical changes, the things commonly known as one-percenters, can make.
For instance watching Fardy tweak Nick Hughes-Clapp’s - our, for lack of a better term, lineout captain and undoubtedly one of the Blowes Clothing Cup’s best jumpers - technique and approach to jumping pretty significantly was particularly illuminating.
Watching Nick then attempt, I emphasise attempt, to put the Wallabies flanker’s tips into practice also gave us all a good laugh.
Having the chance to be somewhat involved in the entire day as a journalist was also an experience I won’t forget, and in terms of rugby, watching the Wallabies’ open training session at Kinross was as educational as anything I’ve seen.
