November

So as I started the last blog off by saying I hadn't blogged in a while, and that I was going to do it more frequently again, I think we can all determine that was a lie.
Apologies.

It has been around a month since my last confession ...

SO - What's New?

Like I'd said previously I'm going to try and bring something new to the table each time I blog about the internship. I'm sure you can all gather by the past editions that the training week doesn't really change very much - and that is still the same.
The only difference this last month training wise has been two things -
1 - The selected players have been away on International Duty (for us that was England & Fiji)
2 - We've had a whole bunch of Friday night games.

These changes things up in a couple of ways -
1 - the players being away means we have less numbers at training, and also means the starting 15 is a little different to normal so our attendees in certain sessions change.
2 - the Friday night games alter our entire week. So we have big days on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday off as normal, Thursday is run through, then Friday game. Unselected players will also train Friday morning along with the Academy players.
We have also been doing recovery sessions on two of the Sundays this month. These have been down at Locker 27 where the owner is kind enough to let us use the facility to train the players. It's nice to have a change of scenery for us and for them. Keeps things a little more interesting.

As I type this we're expecting the International players back tomorrow from duty, and I'm actually really interested to see what kind of shape they come back in. I think it will be cool to see how much different they feel after International duty compared to Domestic. Kind of compare their morning readiness scores, and see how beat up they are compared to when they normally rock up after playing in the Premiership.
I remember after a couple of the European games some of the boys seemed a little more sore, so I'm assuming it will be another step up from that.
We shall see.

On to other interesting things:
One thing I found out a few weeks ago is that the Academy players get given cooking lessons from our resident Chef. It's something that has been brought in by the Team Manager (I think, not 100% on that though) to help them develop not only as athletes but outside of sport too. Obviously it will have carry over to their performances if they are consistently eating better meals, but I think it is good that the club are helping to provide for them in terms of life-skills as well as athletically.
They so far have done evening learning about beef meals, chicken meals, and also fish meals.
Pretty good idea in my opinion.

I've also had the chance recently to work a couple of games.
The first being a home game to Sale. Unfortunately we lost (which happened to break my lucky streak of not losing any game I attended). In my opinion we should not have lost this game. We had a good team out, and looked strong in patches, but just couldn't do a lot. I also happen to think the Referee was absolutely terrible - not giving us a penalty in open play until the 78th minute tells you something! But it's easy to point the finger at the man in the middle when you lose.
I also went along to the game away to Bath. I was helping out Dennis the kit man as none of his minions were available.
This was a pretty cool experience as I got to see what goes on behind the scenes from his perspective - setting up the hotel room, setting up the changing rooms, setting up basically everything! He is one busy man and I'm not really sure the players quite understand how much he really does. He gets through a lot of work that I think people just assume happens magically. Fair play to him.
This happened to be the game that Bath's Superstar signing got his first run out - a certain Sam Burgess. The only way I can explain what it was like when he ran out is comparing it a concert. You get a bit of noise when the support acts come out to play, but then when the headline act come out everybody gets fucking insane and loses their shit screaming the place down. Yeah it was like that. The whole stadium went absolutely nuts! I think it's the only reason the game was sold-out!
To be fair to him, he is a large human! I stood next to him and felt small. Well I say that, he's not like a man-mountain or anything, I'd say we're pretty similar. He's maybe an inch taller, but the fact is that he is pretty damn lean! This makes him look huge! I mean he weighs a little more than me, but he looks so much bigger because of the fact he's a muscular monster!
I reckon he's going to have a pretty good run in Union. I think he a natural athlete, a bit like Sonny-Bill in that he will transfer his own skill set and adapt it union, rather than try to become a completely different player.
Just my opinion.

Ok - so this time I really am going to try my best to keep this updated a little bit more and give some insight.

Hope you are still enjoying reading.

If you have any feedback, please please please send me and email because I'd love to get some opinions.

Thanks

Rob
nitmanperformance@gmail.com