 Hey what's up you guys, what is going on and welcome back to another video I didn't think ahead, I don't know if you can hear me at all but I am down here, I'm down here at the Littleton Rugby Ground and it's time to finally make this video, to finally reflect on what has occurred over the last two weeks, a lot has occurred over the last two weeks especially to do with me playing the sport that I grew up with, the sport that I love, the sport that I call myself a player of and that is rugby. So guys as you saw in a previous video I am a rugby player again, officially I pulled on the strip in Division 2 Christchurch Football, Christchurch Rugby I should say, the Metro Division, there's 11 teams, Littleton is one of them and we're playing Division 2 so we played the first game of the season last week, it was my debut for the seniors, the last time I played for Littleton was in 2003 for the under 13s and the first time that I played was 1996, as a 5 year old, I still remember guys, I literally still remember, probably one of the first memories I've got to be honest because around that 4 to 5 year old range you don't really have too many memories but this one's definitely vivid and it must have been the time when I first had that feeling of grabbing a rugby ball and running with it and it was up in the grassy area near the pool which has now been demolished because we've had earthquakes here in Christchurch but anyways up there and I think we must have had a game of touch or just a few drills or something but I just remember that feeling of getting that ball in my hands and just sprinting you know because at that point I was pretty determined to be the best and I enjoyed rugby already because you know Canterbury, well basically 1996 was the first year that rugby became professional so that was the first year of the super rugby competition, first year of the Canterbury Crusaders so that's you know another reason why I got into the sport of rugby so much and all these you know all the all blacks around the mid 90s late 90s early 2000s were my absolute heroes and especially the ones that played to Canterbury so anyways guys we're here and look I just want to tell you as you probably tell I loved it I absolutely loved it it went it went as well as possible as well as expected as well as could be expected because I wasn't expecting much in fact I wasn't even expecting to start but throughout the week it became clear that I was going to start so not only was I going to get a debut cap I was going to play in the first game of the season after having trained with the team for only a week and I was going to have a start so I played right wing I played number 14 and I'm just trying to think it's actually been it's Friday today so it's been it's been six days we play at this ground again tomorrow against Belfast for the second game of the season at the same time one o'clock but I'm just holy shit man oh no I thought we were having earthquakes but I'm pretty sure it's the wind pushing my car so anyway the little some rugby ground is pretty pretty fucking unique to be fair as in where it is it's basically right near the water I don't know if you can see down there but that is the ocean so we're you know Littleton is a port it's a town but it is the port of Christchurch and so you know if anything does want to dock in the South Island they usually come to Littleton so this is where I'm you know this is where I'm born and bred I lived here till I was 19 until I moved to Australia and now that I'm back in Christchurch I'm not actually living in Littleton I'm living in Christchurch although I would love to live over here but anyways regardless of that look the game I think I touched the ball five times for all those statistics mad people out there just like me I was trying to actually you know calculate how many meters I had how many line breaks if I did have a line break and I actually didn't have a line break but I probably had I had the ball five times I look there is one thing I do need to cover and that is that is one particular moment well actually there's there's well you know I actually vividly remember every single touch I had you know that's what I would always do back in the day after playing a game of rugby I would go home and usually in the shower or in the bath I would just replay exactly every single touch I did you know play-by-play and if I did something wrong it would usually haunt me and if I did something right it would make me feel really really great and you know I didn't do anything wrong on the weekend so all of my five touches of the ball I was happy with and so that meant I had a really content and really happy and pleased feeling after the game you know if I had of yeah it was my debut game back and it was rare extremely special to me but if I had have played like shit you know I would have really put a dampener on it so you know I played alright but I will tell you about the first run I had my first touch of the ball and this is a moment that I've literally you know dreamt about and thought about for years a decade I left Littleton a decade ago I left Littleton Rugby Club 17 years ago and this is a moment I've literally fucking dreamt of so when I'm watching the game of football when I'm watching the game of rugby rugby league especially off of a kickoff usually you know that that first run they'll give it to one of their big boys who's gonna run up as fast as they can and just slam into the defense right it's the first it's the first hit up you know it's gonna it's gonna set the tone the defense are set so you do want a big guy to you know at least move them so I love that you know seeing a seeing a seeing a forward run-up seeing someone run to the line and hit it at pace I love now usually what happens guys and you'll find this like watch a game of rugby you'll find it even if they're huge you know this is common sense obviously but before they get to the line just before they get to the line just before they get to the defensive line they will put a little step on or they'll swerve or they'll slow down because you know it's not your usual play for the guy to run as hard as he can sprinting a hundred percent and literally not slow down one bit before hitting that line because that's dangerous and it's scary but it's fucking awesome to watch and it's fucking impressive and guess what guys for the last fucking 10 years I've said to myself right if I get back on that little to rugby field the first time I get the ball if it's in a good position and I've got a bit of bit of space to wind up before hitting that line I'm gonna do exactly that I don't care how much I fucking way I'm gonna run you know I consider myself kind of quick right I'm gonna wind up to top speed and just fucking hit that line as hard as I can this is my first carry my first carry back in a little tin you know blue and gold jumper for 17 years and guess what guys I got a fucking I got the ball on the burst and I had about 20 meters to cover before hitting the line and yeah guess what I did exactly that and it felt amazing bro I'm never gonna I'm never gonna forget that I am never gonna forget that moment I grabbed that ball on the burst it was perfect and I just slammed myself into the line as fucking hard as I could now coming out of that I had a bleeding nose I had a corked thigh which is still sore to this day and you know I had a rush of adrenaline I'm gonna say and a roar of the crowd so overall it was well worth it and and you know oh fuck it was cool it was so cool and so you know that was the first touch back in the blue and gold and then from there we spun it you know it was shitty weather it was pretty much the same weather we've got right now which is rainy it's pretty much guaranteed to be rainy tomorrow as well so that means that you know out in the backs you don't get too much ball or too much clean ball but I did get it a couple of times I lost my footing basically both times and just offloaded it from the ground because I was isolated and in the game of rugby if you don't have people blowing over you you want to do something with the ball before the opposition steals it so I did a couple of quick offloads so I did a couple of quick offloads off the ground the second one was actually decent it came out nice and straight it spun perfectly and I thought holy shit man that looked like Sunnyvale Williams I might do that again anyways guys my last touch was probably my most exciting touch and that was on the counter attack I was the only one sprinting back I'd seen the kit coming I started sprinting back I got the ball with about 10 meters in front of me 10 meters of space and you know I I purposely did not rush I did not rush one bit you know even if I even if I lost five of those 10 meters of space I was never gonna rush that so I literally like just just watched the ball picked it up looked in front of me didn't make any stupid decisions waited for the defender to come to me and I gave him a nice wee bang off the left now as it was you know shitty weather I lost my footing again but I did beat him nice and cleanly and you know on a better day I might have boosted off but there was other but there was more defenders and they shut it down pretty quickly so that was right at the end of the game and we won we got six tries to one and we won the game 34 points to seven we got two out of our six conversions so that's five points for a try six tries that's 30 points plus two out of four plus sorry plus two out of six conversion kicks which you take after each try and that those were two points each so there you go 34 points to seven the other team got a try plus the conversion it would have been awesome to keep them to zero but it is what it is and it was the first game of the season and well here I sit on Friday the day before my second game the day before the second game of the season and we've done another four week of training and not only have I done another four week of rugby training I've done another four week of gym training so I am feeling the best physically and mentally I felt in a fucking long time and I'm so happy to report that to you guys I am so fucking stoked so you know hopefully all goes well tomorrow like I said you know it means it means a hell of a lot to play for this team but at the end of the day I want to perform and division two is not you know no slouches division two is decent division one is the step below you know professional rugby right so that's pretty fucking cool you know I'm back in the fray I'm back in the mix and I absolutely love it so guys thank you so much for watching thank you so much for investing your time in my journey and you know I'm gonna continue being an ambassador for the game of rugby from for the rest of my life and I'm also gonna be an ambassador for the game of American football in this part of the world for the rest of my life too because I absolutely love that as well but I am a rugby player at heart I'm playing rugby again and we're playing back here at one o'clock tomorrow and I can't fucking wait so before I go I did want to just show you the shorts and the logo this is it it looks a little different from back in the day when I used to play but that is the Littleton Rugby Club logo those are my shorts size large and these are the socks now I had a I had a very very surreal moment the other day when I was washing these socks after the game right they came out of the wash I put them on the line and then I grabbed them off the line when they were dry and I tucked them up like this right and to see the blue and gold socks you know tucked up like this in my in my hands when I put them in my wardrobe it was like that seems like yesterday that that happened you know oh shit 17 years guys and it seems like yesterday so don't waste any time you want to do something do it now or you regret it for the rest of your fucking life peace