The Perlious Adventures of the Rugby Baby: What Not To Do On The Rugby Field

by Yin Mei Lenden

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I have to confess, (and thereby lose any sort street cred I otherwise might have had) that I was thrilled to have been invited to train with the National team, being only a rugby baby of only one year of age. For me, this was less an opportunity to be on the team and play against Hong Kong than a great chance to learn. What I was to learn is that it's impossible to train for a team sport and not become competitive. As the trainings went on, I realised a greater urgency to do well so as to get on to the team. My previous goal of "gaining experience" was soon revealed to me as naive and simplistic.

National training lasted a paltry three weeks where I wondered if it was enough to turn me into a lean, mean, fighting machine (it was not). The dreaded fitness sessions were presented as (more) manageable 15-minute sessions just before training ended for the night to condition us for the last 15 minutes of a game when we would be exhausted and ready to collapse. But Sam stressed that those were the most important minutes of a game for that was what could determine its ultimate outcome. And so it was that training would end with us trying to forget the exhaustion accumulated from the last 1 hour and 45 minutes of training and run as if our lives depended on it. Many things were learned during those fitness sessions. I, for one, discovered the meaning of life. Life, is not a marathon, is not a race. It is a sprint with someone running behind you trying to step on your heels.

What I constantly marveled at was the fact that we trained and played as a team. That clubs and factions were forgotten as we rushed to a line out or scrambled to form a scrum. Suddenly, the person I had hitherto glowered at across the scrum, was behind me, supporting me and giving me that extra shove against opposition scrums. And so I learned to work as a team, just as I learned to perfect my line outs and scrums and that suffering meant a developing of character. Memorising patterns of run drove me slightly up the wall and while I finally understand the mechanics of a switch, I still can't execute it successfully. I'm sticking to short shorts at the moment and hoping that 90 kilos of speeding flesh will throw off the opposition more successfully than one of my switches.

The three weeks of training culminated for me in all of 7 minutes on the field and that compounded the sheer thrill and delight of being On The Field! Playing! In National Colours! And executing a pretty good scrum!* (after all my collapsing ones. Eeeps.) and the extreme disappointment of mucking up both my line outs. But it was a start for me and something that I cherish and feel privileged to be a part of. I'll be back next year, hopefully less foolish and armed with the ability to side step. Sam Chan's Mantra this whole period has been "One command, one action." And so my command for me next year is to play well. Let's see if the action carries forth.

*Yes, my enthusiasm is embarrassing but I maintain Rugby Babyhood and cling to the novelty of My First National Game! So bite me.